Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (22 August, 1877 Colombo - 9 September, 1947 Needham, Massachusetts) was the son of the famous Sri Lankan legislator and philosopher Sir Mutu Coomaraswamy and his English wife Elizabeth Beeby. He became a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, and a great interpreter of Indian culture to the West. He was also a tireless campaigner for the regeneration of Hinduism. In 1917, he became the first Keeper of Indian art in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He stressed the spiritual element in Indian art.

Amongst his books are The Dance of Siva (1918), History of Indian and Indonesian Art (1927), and The Transformation of Nature in Art (1934).

Along with René Guénon and Frithjof Schuon, Coomaraswamy is regarded as one of the three founders of the Traditionalist School.

External links

• A Bibliography
• An essay on his philosophy of art
• The 1999 Coomaraswamy lecture by Sandrasagra