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The Oldest known Symbol. • The swastika is an ancient symbol that has been used for over 3,000 years. (That even predates the ancient Egyptian symbol, the Ankh!) The symbol was believed to be introduced to Southeast Asia by the Hindu kings and remains an integral part of Balinese Hinduism to this day, and it is a common sight in Indonesia. • In antiquity, the swastika was used extensively by the Indo-Aryans, Hittites, Celts and Greeks among others.
Who were the Aryans ? • One of the most interesting puzzles in archaeology, and one that hasn't been completely solved yet, concerns the story of the supposed Aryan invasion of the Indian subcontinent. The story goes like this: The Aryans were a tribe of Indo-European-speaking, horse-riding nomads living in the arid steppes of Eurasia. Sometime around 1700 BC, the Aryans invaded the ancient urban civilizations of the Indus Valley, and destroyed that culture. The Indus Valley civilizations were far more civilized than any horse-back nomad, having had a written language, farming capabilities, and led a truly urban existence. Some 1,200 years after the supposed invasion, the descendants of the Aryans, so they say, wrote the classic Indian literature called the Vedic manuscripts. • http://archaeology.about.com/od/indusrivercivilizations/a/aryans.htm
The Original Meaning The word swastika comes from the Sanskrit word svastik - • “su” means “good” • “asti” means “to exist” • “ik” means “what is in existence, and will continue to exist” • “a” denotes feminine gender. Swastika means a ‘good existence’ that is not to be destroyed and that remains in a good condition. The deeper meaning is permanent victory. In Vedic-Hindu religion, this victory represents the victory of “DHARMA” which is the core of Humanity.
Swastika in Hinduism • The right turning Indian Swastika symbolizes the sun and positive energy, and is most commonly associated with the deity Ganesh, god of prosperity and Good Luck • The name sauwastika is sometimes given for the supposedly "evil", left-facing, form of the swastika (卍). A common belief is that the left-facing swastika is generally regarded as evil in Hindu tradition.
Swastika in Buddhism • Buddhists, outside of India, generally use the left-facing swastika over the right-facing swastika although both can be used. • Commonly found on the chest and with the foot prints of Buddha .
Swastika around the World • During the following thousand years, the image of the swastika was used by many cultures around the world, including in China, Japan, India, and southern Europe. By the Middle Ages, the swastika was a well known, if not commonly used, symbol but was called by many different names: • China - wan • England - fylfot • Germany - Hakenkreuz • Greece - tetraskelion and gammadion • India - swastika
Though it is not known for exactly how long, Native Americans also have long used the symbol of the swastika. • It has been found in excavations of Mississippian-era sites in the Ohio valley. It was widely used by many southwestern tribes, most notably the Navajo. Among different tribes the swastika carried various meanings. To the Hopi it represented the wandering Hopi clan; to the Navajo it was one symbol for a whirling winds (tsil no'oli'), a sacred image representing a legend that was used in healing rituals (after learning of the Nazi mimic "whirling winds" the Navajo rejected the symbol)
Swastika in Art and Architecture • In Greco-Roman art and architecture, 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 tessellation. A swastika border is one form of meander, and the individual swastikas in such border are sometimes called Greek Keys.
Interlocking swastika design in pavement of Amiens Cathedral.
Greek helmet with swastika marks on the top part (details), 350-325 BCE from Taranto, found at Herculanum.
Piece of a series of terracotta architectural ornaments of the roof of the temple of Hera in Paestum.
The elephant is one of four pillars at the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen. This one carries a swastika on its side. vikings used the swastika which represented the sunrise.
Swastika from a Minoan piece of pottery,Crete Iranian necklace excavated from Kaluraz, Guilan, first millennium BC Swastika Stone on Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire, England Wooden Hand Cross from Ukraine
Low-fired pottery bowl from the Banshan Culture Majiawan Village, China Neolithic Period (2165-1965 BCE) medieval cross, Lalibela stone hewn church
Swastika In the West • In the Western world, the symbol experienced a resurgence following the archaeological work in the late nineteenth century of Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the symbol in the site of ancient Troy and associated it with the ancient migrations of Proto-Indo-Europeans. He connected it with similar shapes found on ancient pots in Germany, and theorized that the swastika was a "significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors," linking Germanic, Greek, Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian cultures . By the early 20th century it was widely used worldwide and was regarded as a symbol of good luck and auspiciousness.
Change in Meaning • Nazism stated that the historical Aryans were the forefathers of modern Germans and then proposed that, because of this, the subjugation of the world by Germany was desirable, and even predestined. The swastika was used as a conveniently geometrical and eye-catching symbol to emphasize the so-called Aryan-German correspondence and instill racial pride. Since World War II, most Westerners know the swastika as solely a Nazi symbol, leading to incorrect assumptions about its pre-Nazi use in the West and confusion about its sacred religious and historical status in other cultures. • (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika)
Hitler and swastika • In 1920,Adolf Hitler decided that Nazi party needed its own insignia and flag. For Hitler, the new flag had to be “ a symbol of our own struggle” as well as “highly effective as a poster.”(Mein Kamph,pg 495) • In Mein Kamph.Hitler described the Nazis’ flag." In red we see the social idea of movement, in white the nationalistic idea, in the Swastika the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man,and,by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work, which as such always has been and always will be anti-semitic.(pg 496-497)
A Chinese Art Piece A Tomb from Indonesia Entrance of Met Museum, New York A Buddhist Temple in Korea
Swastika on Flags Flag of the President of Finland. Nepal Communist flag
Swastika in Canada Edmonton’s Women’s Hockey Team Swastika Mine,Ontario,Canada
An interesting article • http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/18/hitler_san_diego • http://maps.google.com/maps?q=san+diego&ll=32.676505,-117.157559&spn=0.004739,0.009917&t=k&hl=en Check this out.
References • http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i1.treklens.com/photos/6703/_dsc0302.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.treklens.com/gallery/Africa/Ethiopia/photo100071.htm&h=532&w=800&sz=145&hl=en&start=74&tbnid=vUtRFGKWOia37M:&tbnh=95&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dswastika%26start%3D72%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN • http://history1900s.about.com/cs/swastika/a/swastikahistory.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika • http://www.luckymojo.com/swastika.html • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika,_Ontario
