The Swastika, the Earliest Known Symbol, and Its...

A remark of yours [Schliemann] (Troy, p. 38.) that the Svastika resembles a wheel in motion, the direction of the motion being indicated by the crampons, contains a useful hint, which has been confirmed by some important observations of Mr. Thomas, the distinguished Oriental numismatist, who has called attention to the fact that in the long list of the recognized devices of the twenty-four Jaina Tirthankaras the sun is absent, but that while the eighth Tirthankara has the sign of the half-moon, the seventh Tirthankara is marked with the Svastika, i. e., the sun. Here, then, we have clear indications that the Svastika, with the hands pointing in the right direction, was originally a symbol of the sun, perhaps of the vernal sun as opposed to the autumnal sun, the Suavastika, and, therefore, a natural symbol of light, life, health, and wealth.

But, while from these indications we are justified in supposing that among the Aryan nations the Svastika may have been an old emblem of the sun, there are other indications to show that in other parts of the world the same or a similar emblem was used to indicate the earth. Mr. Beal * * * has shown * * * that the simple cross () occurs as a sign for earth in certain ideographic groups. It was probably intended to indicate the four quarters—north, south, east, west—or, it may be, more generally, extension in length and breadth.

That the cross is used as a sign for “four” in the Bactro-Pali inscriptions (Max Müller, “Chips from a German Workshop,” Vol. II, p. 298) is well known; but the fact that the same sign has the same power elsewhere, as, for instance, in the Hieratic numerals, does not prove by any means that the one figure was derived from the other. We forget too easily that what was possible in one place was possible also in other places; and the more we extend our researches, the more we shall learn that the chapter of accidents is larger than we imagine.

The “Suavastika” which Max Müller names and believes was applied to the Swastika sign, with the ends bent to the left (fig. 10), seems not to be reported with that meaning by any other author except Burnouf.[17] Therefore the normal Swastika would seem to be that with the ends bent to the right. Burnouf says the word Suavastika may be a derivative or development of the Svastikaya, and ought to signify “he who, or, that which, bears or carries the Swastika or a species of Swastika.” Greg,[18] under the title Sôvastikaya, gives it as his opinion that there is no difference between it and the Swastika. Colonel Low[19] mentions the word Sawattheko, which, according to Burnouf[20] is only a variation of the Pali word Sotthika or Suvatthika, the Pali translation of the Sanskrit Swastika. Burnouf translates it as Svastikaya.

M. Eugene Burnouf[21] speaks of a third sign of the footprint of Çakya, called Nandâvartaya, a good augury, the meaning being the “circle of fortune,” which is the Swastika inclosed within a square with avenues radiating from the corners (fig. 14). Burnouf says the above sign has many significations. It is a sacred temple or edifice, a species of labyrinth, a garden of diamonds, a chain, a golden waist or shoulder belt, and a conique with spires turning to the right.

Colonel Sykes[22] concludes that, according to the Chinese authorities Fa-hian, Soung Young, Hiuan thsang, the “Doctors of reason,” Tao-sse, or followers of the mystic cross were diffused in China and India before the advent of Sakya in the sixth century B. C. (according to Chinese, Japanese, and Buddhist authorities, the eleventh century B. C.), continuing until Fa-hian’s time; and that they were professors of a qualified Buddhism, which, it is stated, was the universal religion of Tibet before Sakya’s advent,[23] and continued until the introduction of orthodox Buddhism in the ninth century A. D.[24]

Klaproth[25] calls attention to the frequent mention by Fa-hian, of the Tao-sse, sectaries of the mystic cross (Sanskrit Swastika), and to their existence in Central Asia and India; while he says they were diffused over the countries to the west and southwest of China, and came annually from all kingdoms and countries to adore Kassapo, Buddha’s predecessor.[26] Mr. James Burgess[27] mentions the Tirthankaras or Jainas as being sectarians of the Mystic Cross, the Swastika.

The Swastika symbol is not to be confounded with the Swastika sect in Tibet which took the symbol for its name as typical of the belief of its members. They render the Sanskrit Swastika as composed of su “well” and asti “it is,” meaning, as Professor Wilson expresses it, “so be it,” and implying complete resignation under all circumstances. They claimed the Swastika of Sanskrit as the suti of Pali, and that the Swastika cross was a combination of the two symbols sutti-suti. They are rationalists, holding that contentment and peace of mind should be the only objects of life. The sect has preserved its existence in different localities and under different names, Thirthankara, Tor, Musteg, Pon, the last name meaning purity, under which a remnant are still in the farthest parts of the most eastern province of Tibet.

Waring[29] proceeds to demolish these statements of a sect named Swastika as pure inventions, and “consulting Professor Wilson’s invaluable work on the Hindoo religious sects in the ‘Asiatic Researches,’ we find no account of any sect named Swastika.”

Mr. V. R. Gandhi, a learned legal gentleman of Bombay, a representative of the Jain sect of Buddhists to the World’s Parliament of Religions at Chicago, 1893, denies that there is in either India or Tibet a sect of Buddhists named “Swastika.” He suggests that these gentlemen probably mean the sects of Jains (of which Mr. Gandhi is a member), because this sect uses the Swastika as a sign of benediction and blessing. This will be treated further on. (See p. 804.)

Zmigrodzki, commenting on the frequency of the Swastika on the objects found by Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik, gives it as his opinion[30] that these representations of the Swastika have relation to a human cult indicating a supreme being filled with goodness toward man. The sun, stars, etc., indicate him as a god of light. This, in connection with the idol of Venus, with its triangular shield engraved with a Swastika (fig. 125), and the growing trees and palms, with their increasing and multiplying branches and leaves, represent to him the idea of fecundity, multiplication, increase, and hence the god of life as well as of light. The Swastika sign on funeral vases indicates to him a belief in a divine spirit in man which lives after death, and hence he concludes that the people of Hissarlik, in the “Burnt City” (the third of Schliemann), adored a supreme being, the god of light and of life, and believed in the immortality of the soul.

Originally it [the Swastika] would appear to have been an early Aryan atmospheric device or symbol indicative of both rain and lightning, phenomena appertaining to the god Indra, subsequently or collaterally developing, possibly, into the Suastika, or sacred fire churn in India, and at a still later period in Greece, adopted rather as a solar symbol, or converted about B. C. 650 into the meander or key pattern.

But neither in the hideous jumble of Pantheism—the wild speculative thought, mystic fables, and perverted philosophy of life among the Buddhists—nor in the equally wild and false theosophy of the Brahmins, to whom this symbol, as distinctive of the Vishnavas, sectarian devotees of Vishnu, is ascribed by Moor in his “Indian Pantheon,” nor yet in the tenets of the Jains,[33] do we find any decisive explanation of the meaning attached to this symbol, although its allegorical intention is indubitable.

The Cyprian vase figured in Di Cesnola’s “Cyprus,” pl. XLV, fig. 36 [see fig. 156], which associates the Swastika with the figure of an animal, is a striking analogue of the Trojan whorls on which it is associated with the figures of stags. The fact that it is drawn within the vulva of the leaden image of the Asiatic goddess [see fig. 125] seems to show that it was a symbol of generation. I believe that it is identical with the Cyprian character or (ne), which has the form in the inscription of Golgi, and also with the Hittite or which Dr. Hyde Clarke once suggested to me was intended to represent the organs of generation.

Mr. Waller, in his work entitled “Monumental Crosses,” describes the Swastika as having been known in India as a sacred symbol many centuries before our Lord, and used as the distinguishing badge of a religious sect calling themselves “Followers of the Mystic Cross.” Subsequently, he says, it was adopted by the followers of Buddha and was still later used by Christians at a very early period, being first introduced on Christian monuments in the sixth century. But Mr. Waring says that in this he is not correct, as it was found in some of the early paintings in the Roman catacombs, particularly on the habit of a Fossor, or gravedigger, given by D’Agincourt.

From these accounts it would appear that the fylfot is a mystical ornament, not only adopted among Christians from primitive times, but used, as if prophetically, for centuries before the coming of our Lord. To descend to later times, we find it constantly introduced in ecclesiastical vestments, * * * till the end of the fifteenth century, a period marked by great departure from traditional symbolism.

The young queen, the mother of Fire, carried the royal infant mysteriously concealed in her bosom. She was a woman of the people, whose common name was “Arani”—that is, the instrument of wood (the Swastika) from which fire was made or brought by rubbing. * * * The origin of the sign [Swastika] is now easy to recognize. It represents the two pieces of wood which compose l’arani, of which the extremities were bent to be retained by the four nails. At the junction of the two pieces of wood was a fossette or cup-like hole, and there they placed a piece of wood upright, in form of a lance (the Pramantha), violent rotation of which, by whipping (after the fashion of top-whipping), produced fire, as did Prometheus, the porteur du feu, in Greece.

And this myth was made, as have been others, probably by the priests and poets of succeeding times, to do duty for different philosophies. The Swastika was made to represent Arani (the female principle); the Pramantha or upright fire stake representing Agni, the fire god (the male); and so the myth served its part to account for the birth of fire. Burnouf hints that the myth grew out of the production of holy fire for the sacred altars by the use of the Pramantha and Swastika, after the manner of savages in all times. Zmigrodzki accepts this myth, and claims all specimens with dots or points—supposed nail holes—as Swastikas.

The Count Goblet d’Alviella[39] argues in opposition to the theory announced by Burnouf and by Zmigrodzki, that the Swastika or croix swasticale, when presenting dots or points, had relation to fire making. He denies that the points represent nails, or that nails were made or necessary either for the Swastika or the Arani, and concludes that there is no evidence to support the theory, and nothing to show the Swastika to have been used as a fire-making apparatus, whether with or without the dots or points.

The difficulty about the Swastika and its supposed connection with fire appears to me to be in not knowing precisely what the old fire drill and chark were like. * * * I much doubt whether the Swastika had originally any connection either with the fire-chark or with the sun. * * * The best authorities consider Burnouf is in error as to the earlier use of the two lower cross pieces of wood and the four nails said to have been used to fix or steady the framework.

He quotes from Tylor’s description[41] of the old fire drill used in India for kindling the sacrificial fire by the process called “churning,” as it resembles that in India by which butter is separated from milk. It consists in drilling one piece of Arani wood by pulling a cord with one hand while the other is slackened, and so, alternately (the strap drill), till the wood takes fire. Mr. Greg states that the Eskimos use similar means, and the ancient Greeks used the drill and cord, and he adds his conclusions: “There is nothing of the Swastika and four nails in connection with the fire-churn.”

According to Hymnes, the discoverer of fire was Atharan, whoso name signifies fire, but Bhrigon it was who made the sacred fire, producing resplendent flames on the earthen altar. In theory of physics, Agni, who was the fire residing within the “onction,” (?) came from the milk of the cow, which, in its turn, came from the plants that had nourished her; and these plants in their turn grew by receiving and appropriating the heat or fire of the sun. Therefore, the virtue of the “onction” came from the god.