ANANDA KENTISH COOMARASWAMY

SANJIVA DEV

To be critical is not to be non-creative; to be intellectual is not to be unaesthetic. Critical acumen enhances the creative ability while intellectual analysis increases the aesthetic sensibility. The scientific observation does in no way diminish the artistic introspection. Dr Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a living harmony of these apparently-opposite pairs.

The conventionally-conceived antitheses had found in Dr Coomaraswamy a lovely as well as lively synthesis. He was a scientist, a literary artist, a remarkable linguist, a celebrated art-critic, a philosopher, a scholar and what not? He was, in short, a living embodiment of all that was culture., Nothing was beyond the horizons of his reach. Whatever he touched had turned into light; whatever he felt was transformed into delight. He was a supergenius! He is acclaimed as modern Plato!

In him the nationalism and internationalism co-existed; in him patriotism and pan-humanism did blend into each other. Dr. Coomaraswamy was, a traditionalist in art-theories, yet he was antagonist of modern art. The very source of his birth was a unity amidst diversity. His father was a Ceylonese Indian by name Sir Muttu Coomaraswamy and his mother an English woman, Lady E. C. Coomaraswamy. Later, Ananda Coomaraswamy married an American woman by name Dona Luisa (later Mrs. Shilamani Dona Luisa Coomaraswamy). Thus his birth and life were full of international significance. Literally he was an internationalist, for he knew many of the world’s languages–English, French, German, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Pali, Italian, Spanish, Leelandic, Duetch, Persian, Tamil, Sinhalese, etc.

Dr. Coomaraswamy was born in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) on the 22nd of August 1877. He was educated in England where he took English the degree of Doctor of Science in Geology. Later he served in Ceylon in the Minerological Department as its first Director. After some years he eliminated the post and dedicated himself to cultural pursuits especially Indian art, including Ceylon’s art. His true unfoldment of genius as well as name and fame made its advent after he had joined the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in U. S. A., as the Keeper of Indian and Oriental Art. He was a veritable bridge between the Orient and the Occident.

On his retirement he was planning to come to India and settle in the Himalayas along with his family. But the inevitable death had annihilated all his future dreams. He breathed his last on the 9th of September 1947. No physical death could cause any harm to such immortal celebrities like Dr Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy who lives in the light of his innumerable luminous achievements.

His distinguished services in the sphere of Asiatic art, in general, and the study of Indian art, in particular, have been unique and stand as an immortal monument in the history of Indian art criticism. His profound exposition of Indian classical art has not merely enabled the Western connoisseurs to appreciate Indian art but also opened the otherwise-closed petals of the Indian hearts so that they could vibrate to the vivant rhythm of Indian sculpture and the enchanting tune of Indian painting.

Dr Coomaraswamy was once amazed at the utter ignorance of the Indian educated persons towards the existence of their cultural treasures. He observes in his “Art and Swadeshi,” “A well-educated Indian professional man once asked me, ‘what is a Sufi?’ On another occasion a well-known nationalist enquired ‘What is a Gopi?’ Little use to think of an ‘Indian people’ when such are the fruits of Indian education!”

No doubt, Indian culture alone is not the only unique culture and yet, if an Indian of higher education happens to be ignorant of his own culture and knows more about the cultures of other countries, that too superficially, is not tolerable. It resembles the utterance of Jesus the Christ “What shall profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Such ignorance of the Indian educated elite had annoyed Coomaraswamy’s sensitive heart.

In fact, Coomaraswamy was not a victim of narrow national and racial bigotry and yet he was not a hypocrite belittling the cultural glory of his own country. Awareness of one’s national cultural treasures would enhance one’s awareness of the cultural treasures of other lands too. Nationalism is the stepping-stone to internationalism, Knowledge of the greatness of one’s own individuality would enable one to know the greatness of other individuals.

He was a marvellous interpreter of the mysteries of the Indian Shilpa Shastras or the cannons of Indian art; these scholarly interpretations have indeed created a new place of honour as well as admiration in the minds of the Western intelligentsia. More than a half a century back Indian art was a mere curio in the Western eyes. The abnormal anatomy, the peculiar mannerisms and the absence of perspective of Indian art were seen with ludicrous eyes in the Western countries. This improper understanding of Indian art was, no doubt, not due to any sort of national or racial prejudices, but due to lack of study of Indian cultural environment amidst which those works of art were produced.

Ananda Coomaraswamy’s erudition in diverse fields of knowledge was unique. He knew not merely the physics but also the metaphysics, not only the logical reasoning but also the psychological stimulus and response, not only the facts of geology but also the fiction of mythology. This vast and profound knowledge had helped him in the deep and proper study of Indian art. His literary style is vivid and impressive. He was not confined to the use of either exclusively short sentences or exclusively long sentences. He used both of them with equal dexterity according to the content and the degree of emotional fervour. Whatever sentences he wrote, wrote with scientific precision and yet with aesthetic appeal. At times his prose creates the illusion of poetry. In the realm of art criticism, literary craftsmanship is a sine qua non. Ananda Coomaraswamy was a master literary craftsman.

“In India we could not escape the conviction that sexual love has a deep and spiritual significance. There is nothing with which we can better compare the ‘mystic union’ of the finite with its infinite ambient–the one experience which proves itself and is the only ground of faith–than the self-oblivion of the earthly lovers locked in each other’s arms, where ‘each is both’.”

His is indeed a very powerful yet sensitive style. His writings concerning art criticism are rather prosaic in style while his general writings on human interests are literary in style and akin to poetic expression. His literary talents are best displayed in his writings on mystic subjects. They are poetry expressed in the disguise of prose! He is again a fine blending of materialism and mysticism. He was not credulous, for his life’s background was of scientific realism and at the same time he was a mystic, for his intimate contacts with the mysteries of fine arts, his studies of esoteric subjects and eventually his aesthetic fervour had enabled him to cherish an affinity with things mystic. He wrote, “It is not till the ear ceases to hear the outside world, that it is open to the music in the heart, the flute of Krishna.”

However, it was not his mystic propensities, nor his literary talents, nor his linguistic achievements which had made him known to the world but it was his art criticism, especially the interpretation of Indian sculpture and painting to the West that made him a celebrity. None can claim of appreciating an alien work of art unless he is acquainted with the cultural traditions of that nation which has produced it. Sometimes it would be possible, to some extent, to appreciate the formal beauties of a work of art even without any familiarity with its cultural history. But formal beauty alone is not all that is to be appreciated in a work of art. Even if we assume that form is everything in a work of visual art, we are not, at times, able to fully appreciate even the form without having a rudimentary knowledge of the mannerisms as well as its cultural background.

In fact, the form has got no independent existence apart from idea. Every visual form is, in one way or another, associated with some idea as every idea is associated with some visual form. Hence form and idea are interdependent like seed and plant. The sight of every known form would immediately create in the beholder some idea. It is in order to avoid this idea from the pure form that the creators of abstract art have tried and continue to try to create forms that neither resemble nor represent any familiar object of the phenomenal world. Thus representation has turned into distortion and distortion into abstraction. Indian traditional sculpture and painting are not genuine representations nor pure abstractions; they are distortions to some extent.

It was the versatile genius of Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy which had interpreted to the puzzled West the mysteries underlying the apparently distorted form of Indian art, both painting and sculpture in addition to the decorative motifs. His activities in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in U. S. A. are world-reputed. In America it is the Boston Museum that could really be acclaimed as the foremost Museum in that continent which possesses the richest collections of Asiatic arts. The Indian section was opened in this Museum in 1917. Dr. Coomaraswamy presented his magnificent collection of Indian art to this Indian section in addition to the still more magnificent collection of Dr Ross. The Indian section of the Boston Museum has been a highly representative one of all the phases of Indian art–painting, sculpture, industrial arts, crafts, folk arts, etc. All schools of Indian classical art have found their place in this Museum under the scholarly-cum-aesthetic guidance of Dr. Coomaraswamy.

In Indian painting Ajanta frescoes are epical while the Rajput paintings are lyrical. In those days Ajanta frescoes were well-known throughout the world, whereas the Rajput paintings with their resplendent lineal-cum-chromatic charm were little-known. The credit of popularising the Rajput painting goes to Ananda Coomaraswamy who had first made the classification of Rajput painting into Rajasthani and Pahari including Kangra, Chamba, Basohli, etc.

There are many volumes from the pen of Dr. Coomaraswamy. Some of them are. “Mediaeval Sinhalese Art”, “Indian Craftsman”, “Rajput Painting”, “The Dance of Shiva”, “Elements of Buddhist Iconography”, “Catalogue of the Indian Collection”, “History of Indian and Indonesian Art”, “Introduction to Indian Art”, “Transformation of Nature in Art”, “A New Approach to the Vedas”, etc. In addition to these he had translated into English the “Abhinayadarpana” from the original Sanskrit, in collaboration with the late Duggirala Gopalakrishnaiah who was a patriot, poet and scholar of Andhra; the translation was entitled “The Mirror of Gesture.” Apart from these magnificent volumes, he contributed numerous articles on art and allied subjects to a number of journals published from all parts of the world.

He was urbane and sophisticated and yet rustic and simple. He loved country life and sought delight in moving among the folk. Although he worked in the Boston Museum, his residence was not in Boston; he resided in country about thirty miles from Boston. This indicates his love of nature. He was immensely fond of trees and flowers. Gardening was one of his hobbies. Despite his preoccupation with figures both in Indian sculpture and painting since the inception of his career with art, his love and admiration for landscape painting, especially the Sung landscapes of China were ardent. He would appreciate landscape both in nature and art alike.

In spite of his transcendental learnings he was a humanist par excellence. He was not merely human but also humane. Compassion reigned supreme in his life. There were many instances which tell of his many an act of help to the helpless. As a man Ananda Coomaraswamy was by no means less interesting than Ananda Coomaraswamy as a versatile genius.

Human thought is as lofty as the Himalayan summits and human feeling is as deep as the Pacific Ocean and thus man is simultaneous\y capable of ascending the unattainable heights and descending to the unfathomable depths. Man is a vertical bridge between depth and height. Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was such a vertical bridge!

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