Ninety-one years ago almost to the day was born Ananda Coomaraswamy who synthesised faith and reason to become one of the greatest exponents and interpreters of the spirit of Asia. "There are finer parts great souls may play", he said, and lived up to it. His 'History of Indian and Indonesian Art' published in 1926 brought about a more balanced appreciation of the legacy and aesthetic merits of Indian art and sculpture. Coomaraswamy was a complete man and came very close to the Renaissance ideal of a Universal Man. "Seldom has one man done so much, in so many different ways, for his own people and for mankind."
"Ananda Coomaraswamy: The Universal Man."Economic and Political Weekly 3 (1968): 1305-1306.↧