Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947)

Ananda Coomaraswamy has been described as a prophet of a new age, a kala-yogi (fine arts yoga exemplar), philosopher and theologian. He was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1877 and was the son of the famous Sri Lankan legislator and philosopher Mutu Coomaraswamy and English woman Elizabeth Beeby. It is thought that Ananda embodied an enormous amount of both his mother and father's traditions, and it is for this reason that he was able to be one of the greatest commentators on western and eastern cultural comparison and, in the international sphere, one of the most well-known Sri Lankan scholars that has ever lived.

Ananda was taken to live in England by his mother in 1879 when he was two years old as at this time her health was poor. His father also had hopes of entering British politics. However, Ananda's father died within two years of his birth and Ananda was brought up by his mother, sister and grandmother in Kent. Ananda was educated at University College London and received a doctorate of science.

Ananda's first work endeavours took him to Sri Lanka where he did much work on the geology of the country as Director of the Mineralogical Survey (1903-1906). But, like his father, Ananda's interests took him far beyond his initial scientific training. Ananda showed an interest in a wide range of aspects of life in Sri Lanka, and used the opportunities arising in his scientific fieldwork to learn widely about the country's social and cultural situation.

Ananda founded the highly influential Ceylon Social Reform Society in 1905 with the help of Sinhalese and Tamil leaders of the day. The organisation's aims were to attack denationalisation, protect national traditions and customs, and promote the use of national languages. Linking the Sri Lankan struggles with those of India were of utmost importance to Ananda, as was his concern at the loss of eastern traditions to those of the west, both themes which were to continue to be vitally important to his work throughout his life. Ananda was a prolific writer and one of the greatest of his works was written at this time (1905), 'Burrowed Plumes'. In this work he argues powerfully for the Sri Lankans developing a sense of their own traditions and national culture, promoting a complete nationalism in dress and manners.

Ananda left Sri Lanka in 1908 and included a 3 month tour of India on his return journey to England. He was attracted back to England because of the wider fields of study available there. Here he became part of an artistic community in the Cotswolds, owning and running his own printing press known as Kelmscott Press and continuing to write extensively across many areas. As well as studying widely, Ananda also wrote in many different languages. Ananda became renowned for being one of the world's greatest exponents of oriental art, comparative religion and aesthetics.

Ananda moved to Boston in 1917 and became the curator-creator of the Indian collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, a position he continued in until his death in 1947. He produced a prodigious amount of scholarly research during this period and in so doing had a deep influence in particular on American thinking in aesthetics, metaphysics and religion.

Although he only spent a few years of his life in Sri Lanka, Ananda has continued to be revered long after his death for the contribution he made to the country and the Asian region generally. He is seen as being a vital exponent of traditional values, reawakening the east to its own traditions, and challenging the intrusion on eastern values by the expansion of western society.

Thanks to Subramaniyam Visahan at The National Archives.