Three of  Coomaraswamy's essays which were published in a journal Eastern Art, published by the Fledgling College Art Association and the fourth essay on "Huts and Related Temple Types" survived only in the manuscript have made access to Coomaraswamy's accomplishment in the area difficult for most students and scholars. This volume for the first time brings together four major essays along with Coomaraswmay's analysis of "Indian Architectural Terms". An introductory essay by Michael W.Meister on "The Language and Process of Early Indian Architecture" connects Coomaraswamy's foundational essays with more recent scholarship on the origination of India's vast tradition of temples architecture.

 

MICHAEL W.MEISTER, is a Professor of History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He has edited the American Institute of Indian Studies 'Encylopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture series (1983-92), Discourses on Siva (1984), and Making Things in South Asia : the Role of Artist and Craftsmen (1988). He is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of California, San Diego.