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WHAT IS CIVILISATION
AND OTHER ESSAYS
ANANDA K. COOMARASWAMY
Foreword by SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR
2000, 449pp., index, ISBN:
81-7304-254-3, Rs. 800 (HB)
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The twenty essays constituting this volume raise
fundamental questions, which are both piercing and incisive in Coomaraswamy's inimitable
style. The first essay delves into Greek and Sanskrit roots of the word, civilization, its
meaning and context. In one unbroken sweep a vast spectrum of the Western and Eastern
civilization is covered. Coomaraswamy's quest for philosophia perennis, is in unceasing
commitment. The essay on the 'Pertinence of Philosophy' unfolds the diverse meanings of
Philosophy with the symbol of another preoccupation. Four essays, in this
volume, "Mind and Myth", "Symbols", "Interpretation of
Symbols" and "Symbolism of Archery", reflect the autumnal ripeness of
Coomaraswamy's mind. The seminal essays in the book epitomise the major concept of
Coomaraswamy and his interpretation of civilization.
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| ANANDA K.COOMARASWAMY, a reputed
scholar on Indian art and culture was a man of prodigious learning, equally at home in
vedic, classical, mediaeval, European and Islamic literature. With a D.Sc., degree from
the University of London, he came to the field of Art by way of science. Conversant with
about a dozen languages, he was an art critic, a historian, a philosopher and
metaphysician whose mind encompassed the sum total of Eastern and Western traditions of
learning and thought. |
Copublishers : Oxford University
Press New Delhi - 110 001. |
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