Introduction to Indian Art

‘Today, if India takes her due rank as first-class artistic power, it is in large measure owing to Coomaraswamy’-so said the distinguished British artist Sir William Rothenstein of Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, the celebrated author of this work. To know the magnitude and quality of the work done by this great savant is to know the truth and value of this tribute. His pioneering work put the long neglected Art of India before the world of art where it holds its well merited proper place. Coomaraswamy was more than an ‘art-critic’, he interpreted the philosophia perennis through the medium of the arts. In his autobiography Eric Gill writes, ‘He (Coomaraswamy) has written truth…with such wisdom and understanding…’ Coomaraswamy’s bibliography consists of over 500 books and articles, in each of these he illuminates the soul (bija) of the subject he treats, and shares with his reader the treasures before him. Coomaraswamy’s Introduction to Indian Art is an ocean condensed into a luminous pearl. A basic work, it traverses the historic panorama of Indian art, from its Indo-Sumerian and Vedic-Mound beginnings to the various peaks reached during the Maurya, Sunga, Andhra, Kusana and Gupta periods and beyond the seas to further India and Indonesia. It is a handbook of immense value both to the beginner and scholar alike. This present reprint, appearing after more than half a century, has been ably edited by Mrs. Coomaraswamy and incorporates new material earmarked for the book by Coomaraswamy himself.