Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1987-1947) was one of the best minds that India has produced in the 20th Century. Son of a Tamil father and an English mother, his life was a living example on how to build bridges between Eastern and Western cultures. By profession an art critic and a museum curator, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy was also a masterful exponent of metaphysics. As much at home with Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas as with Shankara and the other Vedic commentators, familiar with the Scriptures of all the main religions and proficient in many languages, he used to teach metaphysical principles by explaining the symbolism of traditional works. In his writings Coomaraswamy never displays his vast knowledge for the sake of mere erudition, but rather uses his amazing scholarship for a well crafted plan: to show that below the endless variety of art forms and traditional beliefs a common thread runs deep - the acceptance of the sacred as the ultimate means to validate the multiplicity of everyday experience. Indica Books has published (2001) The Wisdom of Ananda Coomaraswamy: Great Thoughts Selected from his Writings, Letters and Speaches presented by S. Durai Raja Singam, with an Introduction by Whitall N. Perry.
