Customer Reviews

The Dance of Siva: Essays on Indian Art and Culture (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)

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Surely, this book addresses an audience with serious and genuine interest in the ancient Indian art, architecture and culture. Coomaraswamy boldly puts forward his thoughts, understandings and conclusions in a systematic form. Some of his observations may border on being provocative. He discusses at length about the Hindu view of Art -- its history and aesthetics, and then, presents his theory of beauty.

But, why I liked this book? -- because it gives a satisfying explanation of the image of Nataraja, the Dancing Shiva ( that stimulated Fritjof Capra to write his masterpiece "The Tao of Physics"). It also explains the philosophy behind the Indian images with multiple arms.

I recommend this book to serious readers as it provides a rare insight. It leaves you with fewer questions, but more answers. Equally worth reading is the foreward by Romain Rolland.

Perhaps it is that my scholarly bent towards facts rather than opinions is a bit too severe, but I found this book to be largely opinion whereas I was looking for more factual substance. The essays are certianly well-written and present a very well-thought out view of each topic they discuss. But they are one person views. I would not recommend this book to the person looking for an introduction to Indian art and culture, for I find them very one sided and sometimes greatly disagreed with their take on history and historical cultural perspective (my particular focus on interest). Certianly something good to give you a strong, specific viewpoint and challenge one's own opinions on the topic. If one already has opinions, reading this book can be an enlightening exercise.