ESSAYS IN ARCHITECTURAL
Edited and with an introduction by
1995 xxiii+122 pp. figs,
notes, appen., indexes, ISBN: 0-19-563805-0: Rs 650 (HB)
This volume presents
the essays that best represent Coomaraswamy's rapidly developing
thinking on the hermeneutics of architecture-its "why" not 'how".
These can best be understood in the order in which they were written.
From a discussion of the "Pāli Kaṇṇikā: Circular Roof-plate" of
ancient wooden construction in 1930, Coomaraswamy moved on to a much
more widely ranging metaphysical exploration of 'The Symbolism of the
Dome" (1938). He made a conceptual leap to connect the physiognomy of
costume with architectural meaning in his essay on "Uṣṇīśa and Chatra:
Turban and Umbrella" (1938); profoundly connected "Decoration" to
essential meaning in "Ornament" (1939); and extended the "significant
form" of architecture to that which transforms men in "Svayamātṛṇṇā:
Janua Coeli" (1939). A summing-up essay on "An Indian Temple: The
Kandarīya Mahādeo" (1947), published in the year of his death, placed
the form of the temple at the still centre of Coomaraswamy's thought.