The Door in the Sky [Illustrated] [Paperback]

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

Book Description

Series: Door in the Sky | Publication Date: December 15, 1997

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

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 Back Cover

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

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (December 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691017476
• ISBN-13: 978-0691017471
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,208,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ANANDA K. COOMARASWAMY was born in 1877, of Anglo-Ceylonese parents. After completing studies in Geology he soon became interested in the arts and crafts of his native Ceylon and India. In 1917 he relocated to the USA where he became Keeper of Indian and Islamic Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, establishing a large collection of Oriental artifacts and presenting lectures on their symbolic and metaphysical meaning. An encounter with the seminal writings of perennialist author René Guénon served to confirm and strengthen his view of the Perennial Philosophy. From this period onwards Dr. Coomaraswamy began to compose his mature--and undoubtedly most profound--works, adeptly expounding the philosophia perennis by drawing on his unparalleled knowledge of the arts, crafts, mythologies, cultures, folklores, symbolisms, and religions of the Orient and the Occident. In 1947 his plans to retire to India and take on sannyasa (renunciation of the world) were cut short by his sudden and untimely death. A representative collection of his extensive writings, entitled The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, was edited by his son Rama P. Coomaraswamy and published by World Wisdom.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sky is Not the Limit, April 8, 2010

By 

Tony Butcher "Tony Butcher, Author of “... (Surbiton, Surrey, UK) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Door in the Sky (Paperback)

This is a fantastic book. Coomaraswamy is brilliant and a master at unveiling the true meaning of a symbol both in myths and Fairy Stories. I particularly liked his essay on the Symbolism of the Dome. This shows how the architecture of great cathedrals of the middle ages as well as the temples in India are based upon the human physiology or should I say its transformation. The round rose window at the front of such building is synonomous with the sixth chakra or third eye, which is said to open when Cosmic Consciousness is gained. Similarly the opening or glass dome in the roof corresponds to the aperture open at birth and when leaving the body, and also when one has completed their spiritual evolution and has gained Unity Consciousness. The cave or building used for initiating one into Cosmic Consciousness has a round opening and takes place at noon in the summer solstice. Whereas the dome or cave with a hole in the roof is linkec to the pole star and corresponds to the opening of the seventh chakra. This final initiation takes place at midnight of the winter solstice.