The
Door in the Sky: Coomaraswamy on Myth and Meaning
By Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
Pub Date: 11/1/97
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Format: Paper, 256pp.
ISBN: 0691017476
Our Price $19.95
Related Books: Comparative
Religion
Reader's
Catalog
Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) was a pioneering figure in Indian art history
and social thought whose work is reminiscent of William Morris's. This
volume gathers together the author's writings on myth drawn from his
Metaphysics and Traditional Art and Symbolism. "There are many who
consider Coomaraswamy as one of the great seminal minds of this
century...This selection of papers should go into every
library"--Times of London
Publisher
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) was a pioneer in Indian art history
and in the cultural confrontation of East and West. A scholar in the
tradition of the great Indian grammarians and philosophers, an art
historian convinced that the ultimate value of art transcends history,
and a social thinker influenced by William Morris, Coomaraswamy was a
unique figure whose works provide virtually a complete education in
themselves. Finding a universal tradition in past cultures ranging from
the Hellenic and Christian to the Indian, Islamic, and Chinese, he
collated his ideas and symbols of ancient wisdom into the sometimes
complex, always rewarding pattern of essays. The Door in the Sky is a
collection of the author's writings on myth drawn from his Metaphysics
and Traditional Art and Symbolism, both originally published in
Bollingen Series. These essays were written while Coomaraswamy was
curator in the department of Asiatic Art of the Boston Museum of Fine
Arts, where he built the first large collection of Indian art in the
United States."Coomaraswamy's essays [give] us a view of his
scholarship and brilliant insight."--Joseph Campbell"There are
many who consider Coomaraswamy as one of the great seminal minds of this
century.... This selection of his papers should go into every
library."--Kathleen Raine, The [London] Times
Table of Contents
|
List of Illustrations |
|
|
Preface |
|
|
List of Abbreviations and Short
Titles |
|
|
List of Works by A.K. Coomaraswamy
Cited in this Volume |
|
| 1 |
Mind and Myth |
3 |
| 2 |
Svayamatrrna: Janua Coeli |
6 |
| 3 |
Imitation, Expression, and
Participation |
62 |
| 4 |
Atmayajna: Self-Sacrifice |
72 |
| 5 |
A Figure of Speech or a Figure of
Thought? |
113 |
| 6 |
The Nature of Buddhist Art |
143 |
| 7 |
An Indian Temple: The Kandarya
Mahadeo |
175 |
| 8 |
Literary Symbolism |
184 |
| 9 |
The Symbolism of the Dome |
192 |
|
Index |
243 |