Memoirs of the Colombo Museum

Abstract

THIS is the first issue of a series of monographs intended to describe the art treasures of the Colombo Museum, among which the bronzes are of special importance. Some of the finest examples have been published in Mr. Vincent Smith's “History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon,” but a more complete description of these beautiful objects is welcome. Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy has contributed a useful introduction. It is not easy to fix the exact date of the bronzes, but they seem to cover the period beween the ninth and fourteenth centuries, A.D. They fall into two groups: Buddhist and Saiva Hindu. The discovery in Ceylon of many images of Bodhasattvas and female Mahayana deities is important because it proves that the latter cult existed in the island, and that it is now more than ever inaccurate to speak of Northern and Southern Buddhism as if these geographical terms connoted a distinction between the Hinayana and Mahayana schools. In this connection the images of Brahmanical deities absorbed into Buddhism are of special value.

Memoirs of the Colombo Museum.

Series A., No. 1. Bronzes from Ceylon, Chiefly in the Colombo Museum. By Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy. Pp. 31 + xxviii plates. (Ceylon: Colombo Museum, 1914.) n.p.