“Symbolism and imagery (pratīka, pratibima, etc.), the purest form of art, is the proper language of metaphysics.” Says A. K. Coomaraswamy in ‘A New Approach to the Vedas.’ Sacred art of any kind is art attached to and dependent on a metaphysical doctrine, from which it receives not only its subject-matter, but also rules for the composition of images and the treatment of form. Such art does not exist for the sake of its own achievements, but for the sake of realization of transcendent Truth.
"The Symbolic Aspect of Form."Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art XVII, no. 1: A.K. Coomaraswamy Commemoration Volume. Part III (1949): 42-50.