Ananda Coomaraswamy Quotes
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a Sri Lankan-born philosopher of art and metaphysics and one of the principal exponents of the Traditionalist school of thought in the twentieth century. After early studies in mineralogy and a long period of work on the history of South Asian art, he became curator of Indian art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where he produced an extraordinary series of essays on the philosophical foundations of traditional art and religion. The quotes below are attributed to Ananda Coomaraswamy, organized by topic.
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Ananda Coomaraswamy on God
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Attributed to Ananda Coomaraswamy:
“Art is a proper means of religious knowledge.”
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“The image of Shiva as Nataraj is indelibly stitched into the Indian imagination. How many various dances of Shiva are known to His worshippers. I cannot say. No doubt the root idea behind all of these dances is more or less one and the same, the manifestation of primal rhythmic energy. Whatever the origins of Shiva's dance, it became in time the clearest image of the activity of God which any art or religion can boast of.”
By Ananda Coomaraswamy in Nataraja . SSCNET, UCLA. Retrieved on 11 January 2014. -
“O my Lord, Thy hand holding the sacred drum has made and ordered the heavens and earth and other worlds and innumerable souls. Thy lifted hand protects both the conscious and unconscious order of thy creation. All these worlds are transformed by Thy hand bearing fire. Thy sacred foot, planted on the ground, gives an abode to the tired soul struggling in the toils of causality. It is Thy lifted foot that grants eternal bliss to those that approach Thee. These Five-Actions are indeed Thy Handiwork.”
By Ananda Coomaraswamy in "Nataraja".
Ananda Coomaraswamy on Knowledge
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“Ananda Coomaraswamy, Hinduism and Buddhism”
The more superficially one studies Buddhism, the more it seems to differ from the Brahmanism in which it originated; the more profound our study, the more difficult it becomes to distinguish Buddhism from Brahmanism , or to say in what respects, if any, Buddhism is really unorthodox. The outstanding distinction lies in the fact that Buddhist doctrine is propounded by an apparently historical found -
“By Ananda Coomaraswamy in Nataraja . SSCNET, UCLA. Retrieved on 11 January 2014.”
The image of Shiva as Nataraj is indelibly stitched into the Indian imagination. How many various dances of Shiva are known to His worshippers. I cannot say. No doubt the root idea behind all of these dances is more or less one and the same, the manifestation of primal rhythmic energy. Whatever the origins of Shiva's dance, it became in time the clearest image of the activity of God which any art -
“By Ananda Coomaraswamy in "Nataraja".”
O my Lord, Thy hand holding the sacred drum has made and ordered the heavens and earth and other worlds and innumerable souls. Thy lifted hand protects both the conscious and unconscious order of thy creation. All these worlds are transformed by Thy hand bearing fire. Thy sacred foot, planted on the ground, gives an abode to the tired soul struggling in the toils of causality. It is Thy lifted foo -
“The more profound our study, the more difficult it becomes to distinguish Buddhism from Brahmanism, or to say in what respects, if any, Buddhism is really unorthodox. The outstanding distinction lies in the fact that an apparently historical founder propounds Buddhist doctrine. Beyond this there are only broad distinctions of emphasis.”
Coomaraswamy, Ananda KentIsh, in lain, Meenakshi Non-saffron history unnerves reads December 4, 1999 The Weekend Observer .. -
“in : Saunders, Kenneth 1. (Kenneth James), The heritage of Asia New York: Macmillan Co., 1932 p. 45 -46”
Almost all that belongs to the common spiritual consciousness of Asia, the ambient in which its diversities are reconcilable, is of Indian origin in the Gupta period.
Ananda Coomaraswamy on Mind
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“Almost all that belongs to the common spiritual consciousness of Asia, the ambient in which its diversities are reconcilable, is of Indian origin in the Gupta period.”
in : Saunders, Kenneth 1. (Kenneth James), The heritage of Asia New York: Macmillan Co., 1932 p. 45 -46
Ananda Coomaraswamy on Time
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Attributed to Ananda Coomaraswamy:
“Time is reckoned by the mind in motion; eternity is the mind at rest.”
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“Coomaraswamy, Ananda KentIsh, in lain, Meenakshi Non-saffron history unnerves reads December 4, 1999 The Weekend Observer ..”
The more profound our study, the more difficult it becomes to distinguish Buddhism from Brahmanism, or to say in what respects, if any, Buddhism is really unorthodox. The outstanding distinction lies in the fact that an apparently historical founder propounds Buddhist doctrine. Beyond this there are only broad distinctions of emphasis.
Ananda Coomaraswamy on Truth
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Attributed to Ananda Coomaraswamy:
“The traditional artist is not an individual but a vehicle of tradition.”
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Attributed to Ananda Coomaraswamy:
“Beauty is the radiance of order.”
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Attributed to Ananda Coomaraswamy:
“All philosophies are at last one philosophy.”