The Door in the Sky: Coomaraswamy on Myth and Meaning

by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Rama P. Coomaraswamy (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691017471
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	01/04/1998
Series:	Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology , #148
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Rama P. Coomaraswamy, the son of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, is a medical doctor.

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

What People are Saying About This

Joseph Campbell

Coomaraswamy's essays [give] us a view of his scholarship and brilliant insight.

From the Publisher

"Coomaraswamy's essays [give] us a view of his scholarship and brilliant insight."—Joseph Campbell

Editorial Reviews

"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

From the Publisher

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.

The [London] Times - Kathleen Raine

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