Background

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was born on August 22, 1877 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Son of the Ceylonese lawyer and philosopher Sir Muthu Coomaraswamy and his English wife Elizabeth Beeby. His father died when Ananda was two years old, and Ananda spent much of his childhood and education abroad.

Education

Coomaraswamy moved to England in 1879 and attended Wycliffe College in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire. In 1900 he graduated from the University College, London, with a degree in geology and botany. Coomaraswamy's field work between 1902 and 1906 earned him a doctor of science for his study of Ceylonese mineralogy from the University of London.

Career

In c. 1908 Coomaraswamy headed Mineralogical Survey of Ceylon. Thereafter he was a fellow for research in Indian, Persian and Muhammadan at Art Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in c. 1917-1947.

Achievements

• Coomaraswamy made important contributions to the philosophy of art, literature, and religion. In the 1920s, he made pioneering discoveries in the history of Indian art, particularly some distinctions between Rajput and Moghul painting, and published his book Rajput Painting.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Teaching Of Drawing In Ceylon (1906)
  • Hinduism and Buddhism
  • Am I My Brother's Keeper?
  • The village community and modern progress eBook: Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy: Kindle Store
  • The transformation of nature in art
  • The arts & crafts of India & Ceylon,
  • Dance of Shiva
  • Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists
  • Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art
  • The Living Thoughts of Gotama the Buddha
  • Examples of Indian Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Handicraft (Classic Reprint)
  • Essays in national idealism
  • Spiritual Authority And Temporal Power In The Indian Theory Of Government
  • History of Indian and Indonesian Art (paperback) 1965
  • The Indian craftsman

Politics

When Coomaraswamy moved to the United States in 1917, his political views were not popular at the time because he believed that Indian and Ceylonese men should not participate in World War I.

Views

Quotations: "I actually think in both Eastern and Christian terms - Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Pali, and to some extent Persian and Chinese".

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Heinrich Zimmer: "That noble scholar upon whose shoulders we are still standing".

Connections

Ananda Coomaraswamy married four times. On 19 June 1902, Coomaraswamy married Ethel Mary Partridge, an English photographer. But they divorced in 1913, and that year Coomaraswamy married a singer and musician Alice Ethel Richardson who worked under the stage name of Ratna Devī. Their marriage lasted 9 years. They had two children, a son, Narada, and daughter, Rohini. Coomaraswamy divorced his second wife after they arrived in America. He married the American artist Stella Bloch, 29 years his junior, in November 1922. After the couple divorced in 1930, they remained friends. Shortly thereafter, on 18 November 1930, Coomaraswamy married Argentine Luisa Runstein, 28 years younger, who was working as a society photographer under the professional name Xlata Llamas. They had a son, Coomaraswamy's third child, Rama Ponnambalam (1929-2006), who became a physician and convert at age 22 to the Roman Catholic Church.

Father:

Muthu Coomaraswamy

Mother:

Elizabeth Beeby

First wife:

Ethel Mary Partridge

Second wife:

Ratna Devī

Third wife:

Stella Bloch

fourth wife:

Luisa Runstein

Son:

Narada Coomaraswamy

Daughter:

Rohini Coomaraswamy

Son:

Rama Ponnambalam

Rama Ponnambalam (1929-2006) was Coomaraswamy's third child. He became a physician and convert at age 22 to the Roman Catholic Church. Following Vatican II, Rama became a critic of the reforms and author of Catholic Traditionalist works. He was also ordained a Traditionalist Roman Catholic priest, despite the fact that he was married and had a living wife.

References

• Ananda K.Coomaraswamy (World Leaders)