The Door in the Sky

Coomaraswamy on Myth and Meaning

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Rama P. Coomaraswamy

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9780691017471
  9780691277578
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691219332
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Asian Art

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.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• List of Abbreviations and Short Titles
• List of Worlds
• 1. Mind and Myth
• 2. Svayamdtrnna: Janua Coeli
• 3. Imitation, Expression, and Participation
• 4. Atmayajna: Self-Sacrifice
• 5. A Figure of Speech or a Figure of Thought?
• 6. The Nature of Buddhist Art
• 7. An Indian Temple: The Kandarya Mahadeo
• 8. Literary Symbolism
• 9. The Symbolism of the Dome
• Index