Essays in Early Indian Architecture [Hardcover]

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (Author), Michael W. Meister (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 20, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0195630947 | ISBN-13: 978-0195630947

Coomaraswamy's contribution to the history of architecture in India was limited but profound. In particular, his probing analysis of texts and sculpted reliefs in order to reconstruct the extraordinary architecture of early India was an act of great scholarship. This volume for the first time brings together four major essays along with Coomaraswamy's analysis of "Indian Architectural Terms." An introductory essay by Michael W. Meister on "The Language and Process of Early Indian Architecture" connects Coomaraswamy's foundational essays with more recent scholarship on the origination of India's vast tradition of temple architecture. An afterword by Joseph Rykwert on "Adam's House and Hermit Huts" presents the view of a major Western architectural historian.

Editorial Reviews

Review

`his major contribution is to bring the actual musical annotations to life ... For the first time we are offered extensive examples and analyses in staff notation, painstakingly reconstructed from the early sources. Widdess thoroughly reviews the problems and limitations of his source material, and the inevitable provisional and speculative conclusions to be drawn from it. His achievements are therefore all the more impressive.' Royal Asiatic Society, Vol 7, Part 1 - Apr '97

About the Author

Michael W. Meister, Professor of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 180 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 20, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195630947
• ISBN-13: 978-0195630947
• Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,039,080 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.