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.