Tapas is not a penance, because not expiatory, but rather an anguish and a
passion: a dark heat of the consciousness, a kindling not yet a flame, or to take
an analogy from Physics, a raising of potential to the sparking point.
In the lanes of memory if there is one
writer who has left an indelible impression and whose works continue
to hold a significance, it is Ananda Coomaraswamy—the
remarkable scholar to whom the world owes its understanding of Indian art.
Ananda Coomaraswamy is familiar to scholars of art as well as to all those
interested in exploring the interconnections between art, theology, literature,
religion, culture and so on. The greatest among the Indian art historians, a pioneer
and authority in the field of Indian art, he has published numerous works in
the field of visual art, aesthetics, literature, religion, metaphysics, and
sociology. Only an unlimited thirst for knowledge, an indefatigable spirit and untiring
devotion to work (evident in all his scholarly papers) could have created
that vast literature on cultures and arts covering the humblest to the highest
aspirations of all mankind.
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