MAKING A CANON: ANANDA K. COOMARASWAMY, SRI LANKA, AND THE PLACE OF BUDDHIST ART. By JaniceLeoshko. Buddhism and Modernity. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2024. Pp. xiii +281; figures. Cloth, $45.00.

Leoshko's book is an in-depth examination of select historical and intellectual processes during the first two decades of the twentieth century and their impact on knowledge construction of South Asia.Her inquiry focuses on the early career of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, who remains a pivotal figure in South Asian art history, whether we challenge or embrace his ideas about art, its origins, classifications, and meanings.Importantly, Leoshko moves beyond a traditional biographical treatment of Coomaraswamy to investigate events, people, and places that shaped him during his time as director of a mineralogical survey in Sri Lanka and through his initial years as a curator in the US.Leoshko is the first scholar to thoroughly examine this period in Coomaraswamy's life and the impact of his early writings on the discipline.With much sensitivity, Leoshko unpacks the troubling place where Coomaraswamy found himself as an agent of empire (locating and identifying minerals to be exploited) and as a budding nationalist.In chapters highlighting