Swastika
The
swastika (
Sanskrit "
good luck" or "well-being", literally "it is good") is a symbol which commonly appears throughout history. The name and first use of the swastika was first mentioned in the
Vedas, the holy texts of
Hinduism. However, while its name is Vedic, it appears in
art and design throughout
human history,
symbolising many different things; such as
luck,
Brahma, the Hindu concept of
samsara, or
Surya (the
sun).
The swastika is used primarily as a symbol by
Hindus, but transferred to followers of other Indic religions like
Buddhists and
Jains.
In the West, the Swastika is most easily identified as the symbol of the
Nazis, who believed that the early Aryans of India, from whose Vedic tradition the swastika sprang, were the prototypical white invaders, and thus saw fit to co-opt the sign as a symbol of white unity. Outside of
India and
East Asia, it has come to signify Nazism due to its history in
World War II.
Design
The swastika is common as a design motif in current Hindu architecture and Indian artwork, as well as in ancient architecture, frequently appearing in mosaics, friezes, and other works across the ancient world. Related symbols in classical Western architecture include the cross, the gammadion, the three-legged triskele or triskelion and the rounded lauburu. The swastika symbol is also known in these contexts by a number of names including fylfot (in English) and gammadion (in Greece). The name usually given to the swastika in classical contexts of the West is the Greek key.
In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese art, the swastika is often found as part of a repeating pattern. One common pattern, called sayagata in Japanese, comprises left and right facing swastikas joined by lines [1]. As the negative space between the lines has a distinctive shape, the pattern is sometimes called the "key fret" motif in English.
In Roman art, and in Romanesque and Gothic art in the West, isolated swastikas are relatively rare, and the swastika is more commonly found as a repeated element in a border or tesselation. A design of interlocking swastikas is one of several tesselations on the floor of the cathedral of Amiens, France [1]. A border of linked swastikas was a common Roman architectural motif [1], and can be seen in more recent buildings as a neoclassical element.
Geometrically, the swastika is an irregular icosagon, a 20-sided polygon.
History
Traditionally, when the swastika is drawn facing right handed or clockwise as above, it is a good luck symbol. It is sometimes claimed when it is drawn left facing or counterclockwise, it is a bad omen and it is labelled a "sauwastika". However, there is little evidence of this distinction in Hindu history from which it is derived.
Hindus all over India and Nepal still use the symbol in both representations for the sake of balance, although the standard form is the left-facing swastika; Buddhists almost always use the left facing swastika.
In the early twentieth century, a right facing swastika which is rotated through 45 degrees, was used as the symbol of German Will by the German Nazi Party (see below), and it is still closely associated, in the West, with this use.
In modern times, the symbolism of the Nazi swastika has been used by neo-Nazis and other hate groups. Because of this, its use outside historical contexts has become a taboo in much of the world. However, it is important to bear in mind that for many hundreds of millions of people worldwide, the swastika has associations which have nothing to do with Nazism and hence is still in common use in primarily non-Western countries.
Ancient and Current Religious Uses of the Swastika
Religions
\n
Typical Hindu Swastika
Swastika on a Buddhist Temple in Korea
In
Jainism, the swastika symbol is combined with that of a hand.
Although some Christian churches built in the Romanesque and Gothic eras are decorated with swastikas, carrying over earlier Roman designs, the swastika does not appear to have been given any special symbolism or significance. The floor of the synagogue at Ein Gedi, built during the Roman occupation of Judea, was decorated with a swastika
mosaic [1].
Areas
\nThe Swastika is found all over Hindu temples, signs, altars, pictures and iconography in
India and
Nepal, both from the past and today.
The swastika symbol was found extensively in the ruins of the ancient city of
Troy.
In
Ireland, a variant of the swastika known as
Brigit's cross is used to ward off evil.
The
British author
Rudyard Kipling, who was strongly influenced by
Indian culture, had a swastika on the dust jackets of all his books until the rise of Nazism made this inappropriate.
emblem was designed by Eric Wasström in
1921. It includes the swastika and heraldic roses.]]
In
Finland the swastika was used as the official national marking of the
Finnish Air Force and
Army between
1918 and
1944. The swastika was also used by the
Lotta Svärd organisation. The blue swastika was the good luck symbol used by the
Swedish Count Erich von Rosen, who donated the first plane to the Finnish
White Army during the
Civil War in Finland. It has no connection to the Nazi use of the swastika. It also still appears in many Finnish medals and decorations, in a visually understated manner.
In
Latvia too swastika (known as Thunder Cross and Fire Cross) was used as the marking of the Latvian Air Force between
1918 and
1934. It was also symbol of Latvian
fascist movement
Perkonkrusts (Thunder Cross in Latvian), as well as by other (non-political) organizations.
In
Japan, the swastika, called
manji, is an ancient religious symbol. A manji appeared on a certain
Pokémon playing card sold in Japan. Because of its resemblance to the Nazi swastika (see below), the card was altered for Western translations. On Japanese town plans, a swastika (left-facing and horizontal) is commonly used to mark the location of a Buddhist temple.
There is a small village in northern Ontario, Canada, approximately 580 kilometres north of
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada, and 5 kilometres west of
Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada, named Swastika. The town was founded in 1906. Gold was discovered nearby and the Swastika Mining Company was formed in 1908.
In
Windsor,
Nova Scotia, there was an
ice hockey team from 1905-1916 named the Swastikas, and their uniforms featured swastika symbols. There were also hockey teams named the Swastikas in
Edmonton,
Alberta (circa 1916), and
Fernie,
British Columbia (circa 1922).
Heraldry
In heraldry, a figure identical to the swastika is called the fylfot. It predates and has nothing to do with Nazism or anti-Semitism.
The Swastika and Nazism
Nazi Swastika movement.
Prior to the creation of the Nazi movement, the swastika was already in use as a symbol of German
volkisch nationalist movements. \nThe Nazi Party took the black swastika in a white circle on a red background as its insignia in
1920, black, white, and red being the colors of the old
Imperial flag. The swastika is known in this context as the
Hakenkreuz ("hooked cross"), the German word for swastika. The Nazis also used the swastika without the circle and background.
Adolf Hitler stated in
Mein Kampf that he chose the final design of the Nazi flag based on a large number of submissions from Nazi supporters.
The Nazi swastika is usually depicted at 45° to the horizontal.\nTwo versions of the Nazi swastika commonly occur, one with outer bars pointed counter-clockwise, and the mirror image with outer bars pointed clockwise. Although the Nazis do not appear to have made a symbological distinction between the two, the latter is more common in their usage.
The use of the swastika was associated by Nazi theorists with their theories of
Aryan cultural descent of the German people.
Nowadays, German law makes the public showing of the
Hakenkreuz and other Nazi symbols illegal and punishable.
Related topics
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External links
\nCategory:Hinduism\nCategory:Buddhism\nCategory:Nazi Germany\nCategory:Symbols
