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Swastika

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For the town in Ontario, see Swastika, Ontario.

The swastika (from Sanskrit स्वस्तिक svastika, from su "well", and asti "being", thus "good fortune" or "well-being") is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles in either left-facing (卍) or right-facing (卐) direction.

The swastika is a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Odinism.<ref>http://www.geocities.com/odinistlibrary/OLArticles/TruthSwastikaFylfot.htm</ref> The Hindu version is often decorated with a dot in each quadrant. In the Western world, it is most widely known and used as a symbol of Nazism (the Hakenkreuz, "hook-cross") and this political association has eclipsed its historical status as the fylfot.

It is traditionally oriented so that a main line is horizontal, though it is occasionally rotated at forty-five degrees.

Image:HinduSwastika.svg

Contents

[edit] Overview

The Swastika has an extensive history. The motif seems to have first been used in Neolithic Eurasia. The swastika is used in religious and civil ceremonies in India. Most Indian temples, entrance of houses, weddings, festivals and celebrations are decorated with swastikas. The symbol was introduced to Southeast Asia by Hindu kings and remains an integral part of Balinese Hinduism to this day, and it is a common sight in Indonesia. The symbol has an ancient history in Europe, appearing on artifacts from pre-Christian European cultures. It was also adopted independently by several Native American cultures.

Image:GreekHelmetSwastika.jpg 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 and Indo-Iranian cultures.<ref>Schliemann, H, Troy and its remains, London: Murray, 1875, pp. 102, 119-20</ref><ref>Sarah Boxer. "One of the world's great symbols strives for a comeback". The New York Times, July 29, 2000.</ref> By the early 20th century it was widely used worldwide and was regarded as a symbol of good luck and auspiciousness.

The work of Schliemann soon became intertwined with the völkisch movements, for which the swastika was a symbol of "Aryan" identity, a concept that came to be equated by theorists like Alfred Rosenberg with a Nordic master race originating in northern Europe. Since its adoption by the Nazi Party of Adolf Hitler, the swastika has been associated with fascism, racism (white supremacy), World War II, and the Holocaust in much of the West. The swastika remains a core symbol of Neo-Nazi groups, and is also regularly used by activist groups to signify the supposed Nazi-like behavior of organizations and individuals they oppose.

[edit] Etymology and alternative names

The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit svastika (in Devanagari, स्वस्तिक), meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck. It is composed of su- (cognate with Greek ευ-, "eu-"), meaning "good, well" and asti a verbal abstract to the root as "to be"; svasti thus means "well-being". The suffix -ka forms a diminutive, and svastika might thus (andre) be translated literally as "little thing associated with well-being", corresponding roughly to "lucky charm", or "thing that is auspicious".<ref>"The Swastika". Northvegr Foundation. Notes on the etymology and meaning of Swastika</ref> The suffix -tika also literally means mark; therefore a sometimes alternate name for swastika in India is shubhtika (literally good mark). The word first appears in the Classical Sanskrit (in the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics).

Alternative historical English spellings of the Sanskrit word include suastika and svastica. Alternative names for the shape are:

  • Black Spider, to various peoples in middle and western Europe
  • crooked cross
  • cross cramponned, ~nnée, or ~nny (in heraldry), as each arm resembles a crampon or angle-iron. (Compare Winkelmaßkreuz in German)
  • cross gammadion, tetragammadion or just gammadion, as each arm resembles the Greek letter Γ (gamma). (Compare crux gammata in Latin, croiz gammée in Old French and croix gammée in French; cruz gamada or esvástica in Spanish)
  • double cross, by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, on the April 6, 1941 edition of his radio program The Catholic Hour, not only comparing the Cross of Christ with the swastika, but also implying that siding with fascism was a "double-crossing" of Christianity.
  • fylfot (possibly meaning "four feet", chiefly in heraldry and architecture). (See Fylfot for a discussion of the etymology)
  • hooked cross (Dutch: hakenkruis; Serbian: kukasti krst; Icelandic: hakakross; German: Hakenkreuz; Finnish: hakaristi; Estonian: haakrist; Greek: αγκυλωτός σταυρός, agkylotos stavros; Norwegian: hakekors; Italian: croce uncinata; Romanian: Cruce încârligată; Swedish: hakkors; Danish: hagekors; Hungarian: horogkereszt; Czech: hákový kříž); Slovak: hákový kríž; Turkish: gamalı haç)
  • sun wheel (German Sonnenrad), (Greek ηλιοτροχός, iliotrochos), a name also used as a synonym for the sun cross
  • tetraskelion, Greek "four legged", especially when composed of four conjoined legs (compare triskelion)
  • Thor's hammer, from its supposed association with Thor, the Norse god of the weather, but this may be a misappropriation of a name that properly belongs to a Y-shaped or T-shaped symbol. (See Thomas Wilson, below.) The Swastika shape appears in Icelandic grimoires wherein it is named Þórshamar.
  • thunder cross (Latvian: perkonkrusts)
  • twisted cross
  • unexpected cross (Polish krzyżyk niespodziany) or highlander cross (Polish góralski krzyż), swarge, swarzyca

[edit] History

Image:KunaFlagMola.jpg

In antiquity, the swastika was used extensively by the Indo-Aryans, Hittites, Celts and Greeks, among others. In particular, the swastika is a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. It occurs in other Asian, European, African and Native American cultures – sometimes as a geometrical motif, sometimes as a religious symbol.

[edit] Origin hypotheses

part of the Han Dynasty silk comet atlas

The ubiquity of the swastika symbol is easily explained by it being a very simple symbol that will arise independently in any basket- weaving society. The swastika is a repeating design, created by the edges of the reeds in a square basket-weave. Other theories attempt to establish a connection via cultural diffusion or an explanation along the lines of Carl Jung's collective unconscious.

While the existence of the swastika symbol in the Americas may be explained by the basket-weave theory, its American presence weakens the cultural diffusion theory. While some have proposed that the swastika was secretly transferred to North America by an early seafaring civilization on Eurasia, a separate but parallel development is considered the most likely explanation.

Yet another explanation is suggested by Carl Sagan in his book Comet. Sagan reproduces an ancient Chinese manuscript that shows comet tail varieties: most are variations on simple comet tails, but the last shows the comet nucleus with four bent arms extending from it, recalling a swastika. Sagan suggests that in antiquity a comet could have approached so close to Earth that the jets of gas streaming from it, bent by the comet's rotation, became visible, leading to the adoption of the swastika as a symbol across the world.

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Bob Kobres in Comets and the Bronze Age Collapse (1992) contends that the swastika-like comet on the Han Dynasty silk comet atlas was labeled a "long tailed pheasant star" due to its resemblance to a bird's foot., and further suggests that many swastika and swastika-like motifs may have been representations of bird tracks, including many of those found by Schliemann.

Barbara G. Walker, author of The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, claims that the crux dissimulata, an early swastika, represented the four winds. Concerning the short-armed version of this symbol, known as the gammadion because it is made up of four Greek gammas, Walker says this symbol was an emblem of the ancient goddess and probably represented "the solstices and equinoxes, or the four directions, four elements, and four divine guardians of the world."

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[edit] Archaeological record

The earliest swastika symbols of the archaeological record date to the Neolithic. The symbol was found on a number of shards in the Khuzestan province of Iran and as part of the "Vinca script" of Neolithic Europe of the 5th millennium BC. In the Early Bronze Age, it appears as part of the Indus script and on pottery found in Sintashta.[1]

Swastika-like symbols also appear in Bronze and Iron Age designs of the northern Caucasus (Koban culture), and Azerbaijan, as well as of Scythians and Sarmatians [2]. In all these cultures the swastika symbol does not appear to occupy any marked position or significance, but appears as just one form of a series of similar symbols of varying complexity.

This Iranian necklace was excavated from Kaluraz, Guilan, first millennium BC, National Museum of Iran.

[edit] Historical use

In Zoroastrian Persia, the swastika symbolized the revolving sun (Garduneh-e Khorshid), Mithra's Wheel (Garduneh-e Mehr), fire, infinity, or continuing recreation. There is no reference to the swastika in the Vedas, the term svastika first appearing in Epic Sanskrit, but the symbol rose to importance in Hinduism and Buddhism in Maurya and Gupta India.

The use of the swastika by the indigenous Bön faith of Tibet, as well as syncretic religions, such as Cao Dai of Vietnam and Falun Gong of China, is thought to be borrowed from Buddhism as well. Similarly, the existence of the swastika as a solar symbol among the Akan civilization of southwest Africa may have been the result of cultural transfer along the African slave routes around AD 1500[citation needed].

The aviator Matilde Moisant (1878-1964) wearing a swastika medalion in 1912

[edit] Adoption of the swastika in the West

The discovery of the Indo-European language group in the 1790s led to a great effort by archaeologists to link the pre-history of European peoples to the ancient "Aryans" (variously referring to the Indo-Iranians or the Proto-Indo-Europeans). Following his discovery of objects bearing the swastika in the ruins of Troy, Heinrich Schliemann consulted two leading Sanskrit scholars of the day, Emile Burnouf and Max Müller. Schliemann concluded that the Swastika was a specifically Indo-European symbol. Later discoveries of the motif among the remains of the Hittites and of ancient Iran seemed to confirm this theory. This idea was taken up by many other writers, and the swastika quickly became popular in the West, appearing in many designs from the 1880s to the 1920s.

These discoveries, and the new popularity of the swastika symbol, led to a widespread desire to ascribe symbolic significance to every example of the motif. In Germanic countries examples of similar shapes in ancient European artifacts and in folk art were interpreted as emblems of good-luck linked to the Indo-Iranian meaning.

Western use of the motif, along with the religious and cultural meanings attached to it, was subverted in the early twentieth century after it was adopted as the emblem of the Nazi Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei). This association occurred because 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.

[edit] Geometry and symbolism

Image:Cw right-facing swastika.ant.png
Image:Ccw right-facing swastika.ant.png
Image:17-square swastika.svg
Image:Sauwastika.gif

Geometrically, the swastika can be regarded as an irregular icosagon or 20-sided polygon. The arms are of varying width and are often rectilinear (but need not be). However, the proportions of the Nazi swastika were fixed: they were based on a 5x5 grid.<ref>"Swastika Flag Specifications and Construction Sheet (Germany)". Flags of the World.</ref>

Characteristic is the 90° rotational symmetry (that is, the symmetry of the cyclic group C4h) and chirality, hence the absence of reflectional symmetry, and the existence of two versions which are each other's mirror image.

The mirror-image forms are often described as:

"Left-facing" and "right-facing" are used mostly consistently. Looking at an upright swastika, the upper arm clearly faces towards the viewer's left (卍) or right (卐). The other two descriptions are ambiguous as it is unclear if they refer to the direction of the bend in each arm or to the implied rotation of the symbol. If the latter, whether the arms lead or trail remains unclear. The terms are used inconsistently (sometimes even by the same writer) which is confusing and may obfuscate an important point, that the rotation of the swastika may have symbolic relevance.

The interpretation of rotational direction may be influenced by the viewer's own bias. Critics of the swastika may see a right-facing design as an active, even aggressive symbol, slicing like a circular saw in a clockwise manner. A viewer with a more positive bias may consider the right-facing arms to be a passive design, rotating like a waterwheel in the opposite direction.

Nazi ensigns had a through and through image, so each version was present on one side, but the Nazi flag on land was right-facing on both sides ([3], at the bottom).

The swastika is, after the simple equilateral cross (the "Greek cross"), the next most commonly found version of the cross.

Seen as a cross, the four lines emanating from the center point to the four cardinal directions. The most common association is with the Sun. Other proposed correspondences are to the visible rotation of the night sky in the Northern Hemisphere around Polaris.

[edit] Sauwastika

Main article: Sauwastika

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. This is because the much more common form in India is the right-facing swastika. Indians of all faiths sometimes use the symbol in both orientations - mostly for symmetry. Buddhists, outside of India, generally use the left-facing swastika over the right-facing swastika although, again, both can be used. Despite this, the misconception that the left-facing swastika is evil is widespread, even among some contemporary Indian communities.

Some contemporary writers — Servando González, for example — confuse matters even further by asserting that the right-facing swastika, used by the Nazis is in fact the "evil" sauwastika.<ref>Servando González. "The Krohn Connection". The Swastika and the Nazis. 1998.</ref> (González "proves" that the left-facing swastika is the sunwise one with reference to a 1930s box of Standard fireworks from Sivakasi, India.) This inversion – whether intentional or not – might derive from a desire to prove that the Nazis' use of the right-handed swastika was expressive of their "evil" intent. (See also Taboo in Western countries.) But the notion that Adolf Hitler deliberately inverted the "good left-facing" swastika is wholly unsupported by any historical evidence.<ref>J. R. "Debunking the Nazi 'Backwards Swastika' Myth". JR's Rare Books and Commentary. August 2001.</ref>

[edit] Art and architecture

Image:Romanswastika.JPG

Interlocking swastika design in pavement of Amiens Cathedral.
Interlocking swastika design in pavement of Amiens Cathedral.

The swastika is common as a design motif in current Hindu architecture and Indian artwork as well as in ancient Western architecture, frequently appearing in mosaics, friezes, and other works across the ancient world. Ancient Greek architectural designs are replete with interlinking swastika motifs. Related symbols in classical Western architecture include the cross, the three-legged triskele or triskelion and the rounded lauburu. The swastika symbol is also known in these contexts by a number of names, especially gammadion.

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.<ref>"Sayagata　紗綾形". Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System.</ref> As the negative space between the lines has a distinctive shape, the sayagata pattern is sometimes called the "key fret" motif in English.

The swastika symbol was found extensively in the ruins of the ancient city of Troy and can also be found in some of the mosaics in the ruins of Pompeii.

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. The swastika often represented perpetual motion, reflecting the design of a rotating windmill or watermill. A design of interlocking swastikas is one of several tessellations on the floor of the cathedral of Amiens, France.<ref>Robert Ferré. "Amiens Cathedral". Labyrinth Enterprises. Constructed from 1220 to 1402, Amiens Cathedral is the largest Gothic cathedral in France, a popular tourist attraction and since 1981 a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During World War I, Amiens was targeted by German forces but remained in Allied territory following the Battle of Amiens.</ref> A border of linked swastikas was a common Roman architectural motif,<ref>Gary Malkin. "Tockington Park Roman Villa". The Area of Bristol in Roman Times. December 9, 2002.</ref> and can be seen in more recent buildings as a neoclassical element. A swastika border is one form of meander, and the individual swastikas in such border are sometimes called Greek keys<ref>Lara Nagy, Jane Vadnal, "Glossary Medieval Art and Architecture", "Greek key or meander", University of Pittsburgh 1997-98.</ref>.

The Laguna Bridge in Yuma, Arizona was built in 1905 by the U.S. Reclamation Department and is decorated with a row of swastikas<ref>Darin Fenger, "Symbol of luck, swastika adorn Yuma dam", Yuma Sun newspaper, Yuma, Arizona, Sep. 25, 2005.</ref><ref>Walter Smoter Frank, "Swastika on the Colorado", 2004</ref>.

Metal typeface Swastika borders were used by U.S. printers in the early 1900's.<ref>Steven Heller, Jeff Roth, The Swastika, Symbol Beyond Redemption?, Allworth Press, 2000, page 87.</ref> Controversy arose in 1937 when they appeared on Passaic, New Jersey sample election ballots. The printer responded "I've used the swastika emblems for ballot borders long before the world ever knew Hitler".<ref>The New York Times, September 16, 1937, quoted in Heller, page 80</ref>

The Canadian artist ManWoman has attempted to rehabilitate the "gentle swastika".

[edit] Swastika Tiles

Ceramic tiles with a swastika design have appeared in many parts of the world including the United States in the early part of the 20th century. When originally installed, the tiles are typically a minor decorative element. The durable tiles have been a source of controversy when they are assumed to be Nazi symbols.

Swastika tiles adorn the New Jersey Statehouse in Trenton, built in the 1930's. A newspaper article<ref>John Brand, "Swastika tiles in Statehouse symbolize luck, not genocide", Press of Atlantic City website pressofatlancitcity.com, October 2, 2005.</ref> in The Press of Atlantic City notes that the statehouse tiles were created by the local Mueller Tile Mosaic Company, using an innovative technique that combined glazing and deep carving to create a photographic-like sense of depth. The tiles were installed throughout the US and Canada.

Reprints of tile catalogs, including the 1930 Mueller Tile Faience Inserts catalogue are available from the non-profit California based Tile Heritage Foundation's website. At least two other US tile manufacturers also produced swastika tiles among their many designs. The Tile Heritage Foundation website features sample pages from more than 90 tile catalogs, including two that include swastika designs. The 1920 Wheatley Pottery Company of Cincinnati Ohio, and the 1928 catalog from the Cambridge-Wheatley Company of Covington, Kentucky, which marketed Wheatley tiles.

Copyright 2005, CityLife Downtown Charter School and the Los Angeles Conservancy.</ref>

  • In May of 2006, five terra cotta tiles were removed from St. Mary's Cathedral in St. Cloud Minnesota, the oldest parish in the community.<ref>Dave Schwarz photograph, St. Cloud Times photo gallery, May 3, 2006, showing removal of 1920's era terra cotta swastika tile.</ref> The upper church, constructed in the late 1920's, included a number of decorative tiles including a series of ten that depicted ancient forms of the cross.<ref>History of Saint Mary's Cathedral, Cathedral of St. Mary, St. Cloud, Minnesota website, author not identified, "History of the Luminous Disks", July 9, 2006.</ref> Located near the eaves, the tiles represented the crux gammata, also known as the Gammadion, "hooked cross". The swastika tiles alternated with a related design featuring the Lauburu or "Basque cross". The building was designed in the Italian Romanesque style by a local architect who added Art Deco features, including the ancient symbols, sunburst brick patterns and zig zag details.
Three of the tiles were destroyed in the process of removal, one was put on permanent display at the church. The removal was prompted in part by criticism from some current and former faculty at St. Cloud State University, where the university's electronic diversity newsletter featured a series of articles, including a history of the swastika that claimed by 1920 it was already "the symbol of Aryan conquest and mastery".<ref>Robert Lavenda,"A History of Swastikas", Insights For A Diverse Campus Community, St. Cloud State University, Volume II, Issue 4, Spring 2005, page 3.</ref> At the time of construction, the church was under the control of the Benedictine Monks at St. Johns University in Collegeville, who arrived in Central Minnesota in 1851 from Pennsylvania.<ref>Patricia Kelly Witte, "St. Marys Mother Church of St. Cloud", Sentinel Printing, 2004, pages 56-61.</ref>
According to documents at the Stearns History Museum in St. Cloud, approximately ten years before St. Mary's was designed, there were more than 2000 local residents from the heavily German Catholic area serving in the US military, fighting against Germany.<ref>Dunn, Mary Irene, "Stearns County in the World War, An Honor Roll of the Men and Women of this Community Who Served Their Country in the Period from April 6, 1917 to November 11, 1918, Compiled From State and National U.S. Military Records",manuscript dated 1932, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.</ref> President Wilson wrote a letter to the local Catholic bishop thanking him for his support of the war effort<ref>Woodrow Wilson, photocopy of letter on White House stationary with note "Original in Chancery Archive vault", to Rt. Rev. J. F. Busch, Bishop of St. Cloud, January 26, 1918. Stearns History Museum. The museum in St. Cloud is one of only five in Minnesota accredited by the American Association of Museums.</ref>
The removal coincided with the sesquicentennial anniversary for the city, St. John's University and St. Mary's parish.
  • In November 1998 the Rome, New York Sentinel newspaper reported that swastika tiles were removed from the Gansevoort Elementary School where they had survived on a school floor for 84 years. The newspaper's editorial<ref>"Our Opinion" Editorial, "Lost Chance to Educate", Daily Sentinel, Rome, NY, November 5, 1998.</ref> responded: "School officials lost a chance to enlighten the public. A recommendation earlier this year by a committee of Gansevoort staff and parents to "leave the floor as is" and install a display about the history of the swastika was ignored. Instead, at the risk of being viewed by a small, uninformed segment of the community as being politically incorrect, they knuckled under to pressure rather than educate. How unfortunate!"
  • The same Sentinel editorial also notes that similar tiles were left untouched at a Jewish synagogue, Temple Beth El, in nearby Utica, New York "because the connotation to the Jewish congregation is not that of the Third Reich."
  • The Reuters News Agency reported in 1990 that the seaside community of Hull, Massachusetts voted to remove swastika tiles from their town hall floor, built in 1923, after complaints from the New England Director of the Jewish Defense League.<ref>"Massachusetts Town Votes To Remove Indian Swastikas", Reuters, January 14, 1990.</ref> The removal went forward in spite of opposition from a local Jewish synagogue.<ref>David Grossack, "Donkeys in Brownshirts", Tinytown Gazette Newspaper and Advertising Company, October 4, 2006, Page 10.</ref>
  • A swastika design is visible on the exterior of the Detroit, Michigan downtown public library, built in 1931. A local website notes "They were a popular item in certain Deco designs, and many are used in architecture throughout Downtown Detroit. They also can be seen quite often on floor tiles in church buildings."
  • A bank in Bolton England has refused to remove swastika mosaic tiles from the entry of a branch office constructed in 1927. A bank spokesperson replied to critics noting that "At that time, these symbols were commonly used as architectural decoration."<ref>Benjamin Joffe-Walt,"The unfortunate Bolton swastika", Guardian Unlimited, April 27, 2006.</ref>
  • Upminster Bridge London Underground station has a swastika-like tile pattern on the ploor of the ticket hall, dating back to when the district line was extended into Essex in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
"When shown in a counterclockwise direction, an ancient religious symbol that represented a sign of good luck."
"Prior to the Nazis co-opting this symbol, it was known as a good luck symbol and was used by various religious groups. Hitler made the Nazi swastika unique to his party by reversing the normal direction of the symbol so that it appeared to spin clockwise."
Using the definition the ADL has provided to law enforcement agencies, most of the historic tiles listed above could be classified as extremist symbols because their arms are not in what the ADL calls the "normal" orientation<ref>"Hate on Display: A Visual Database of Extremist Symbols, Logos and tattoos, "Swastika/Nazi Party Flag", Anti-Defamation League, Law Enforcement Agency Resource Network.</ref>.

[edit] Religion and mythology

[edit] Hinduism

In Hinduism, the two symbols represent the two forms of the creator god Brahma: facing right it represents the evolution of the universe (Pravritti), facing left it represents the involution of the universe (Nivritti). It is also seen as pointing in all four directions (North, East, South and West) and thus signifies stability and groundedness. Its use as a sun symbol can first be seen in its representation of the god Surya. The swastika is considered extremely holy and auspicious by all Hindus, and is regularly used to decorate all sorts of items to do with Hindu culture. It is used in all Hindu yantras and religious designs. Throughout the subcontinent of India it can be seen on the sides of temples, written on religious scriptures, on gift items, and on letterhead. The Hindu god Ganesh is often shown as sitting on a lotus flower on a bed of swastikas.<>

The swastika is found all over Hindu temples, signs, altars, pictures and iconography where it is sacred. It is used in all Hindu weddings, festivals, ceremonies, houses and doorways, clothing and jewelry, motor transport and even decorations on food items like cakes and pastries. Amongst the Hindus of Bengal, it is common to see the name "swastika" applied to a slightly different symbol, which has the same significance as the common swastika, and both symbols are used as auspicious signs. This symbol looks something like a stick figure of a human being.<ref>Subhayu Banerjee. "Shubho Nabobarsho". Bengal on the Net. April 16, 2001</ref> "Swastika" is a common given name amongst Bengalis and a prominent literary magazine in Calcutta is called the Swastika. The stick figure, however, is not mainstream usage in India.

The Aum symbol is also sacred in Hinduism. While Aum is representative of a single primordial tone of creation, the Swastika is a pure geometrical mark and has no syllabic tone associated with it. The Swastika is one of the 108 symbols of Lord Vishnu and represents the sun's rays without which there would be no life.

[edit] Buddhism

Swastika on a Buddhist temple in Korea.

Buddhism originated in the Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE and inherited the swastika. These two symbols are included, at least since the Liao Dynasty, as part of the Chinese language, the symbolic sign for the character 萬 or 万 (wàn in Chinese, man in Korean/Japanese, vạn in Vietnamese) meaning "all", and "eternality" (lit. myriad) and as 卐 which is seldom used. A swastika marks the beginning of many Buddhist scriptures. The swastikas (in either orientation) appear on the chest of some statues of Gautama Buddha and is often incised on the soles of the feet of the Buddha in statuary. Because of the association with the right facing swastika with Nazism, Buddhist swastikas (outside India only) after the mid-20th century are almost universally left-facing: 卍. This form of the swastika is often found on Chinese food packaging to signify that the product is vegetarian and can be consumed by strict Buddhists. It is often sewn into the collars of Chinese children's clothing to protect them from evil spirits.

In 1922, the Chinese syncretist movement Daoyuan founded the philanthropic association Red Swastika Society in imitation of the Red Cross. The association was very active in China during the 1920s and the 1930s.

On maps in the Taipei subway system a swastika symbol is employed to indicate a temple, next to a cross indicating a Christian church.

The swastika used in Buddhist art and scripture is known in Japanese as a manji (which literally just means "the Chinese character for eternality" 万字), and represents Dharma, universal harmony, and the balance of opposites. When facing left, it is the omote (front) manji, representing love and mercy. Facing right, it represents strength and intelligence, and is called the ura (rear) manji. Balanced manji are often found at the beginning and end of Buddhist scriptures (outside India).

Image:A Buddhist hall in Songtan.jpg

[edit] Jainism

Jainism gives even more prominence to the swastika than Hinduism. It is a symbol of the seventh Jina (Saint), the Tirthankara Suparsva. It is considered to be one of the 24 auspicious marks and the emblem of the seventh arhat of the present age. All Jain temples and holy books must contain the swastika and ceremonies typically begin and end with creating a swastika mark several times with rice around the altar. Jains use rice to make a swastika (also known as "Sathiyo" in the state of Gujarat, India) in front of idols in a temple. Jains then put an offering on top of this swastika - this offering is usually a fruit, a sweet (mithai), a dried fruit or sometimes a coin or currency note.

[edit] Abrahamic religions

The swastika was not widely utilized by followers of the Abrahamic religions. Where it does exist, it is not portrayed as an explicitly religious symbol and is often purely decorative or, at most, a symbol of good luck. One example of scattered use is the floor of the synagogue at Ein Gedi, built during the Roman occupation of Judea, which was decorated with a swastika.<ref>"Ein Gedi: An Ancient Oasis Settlement". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. November 23, 1999.</ref>

In Christianity, the swastika is sometimes translated as a symbol representing the resurrection of Jesus Christ (the swastika can be seen as a hooked crucifix, symbolizing Christ's victory over death.) Some Christian churches built in the Romanesque and Gothic eras are decorated with swastikas, carrying over earlier Roman designs. Swastikas are prominently displayed in a mosaic in the St. Sophia church of Kiev, Ukraine dating to the 12th century. They also appear as a repeating ornamental motif on a tomb in the Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan. However, a proposed direct link between it and a swastika floor mosaic in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens, which was built on top of a pagan site at Amiens, France in the 1200s, is considered unlikely.

The Muslim "Friday" mosque of Isfahan, Iran and the Taynal Mosque in Tripoli, Libya both have swastika motifs.

[edit] Other Asian traditions

Some sources indicate that the Chinese Empress Wu (武則天)(684-704) of the Tang Dynasty decreed that the swastika would be used as an alternative symbol of the sun. As part of the Chinese script, the swastika has Unicode encodings U+534D 卍 (pronunciation following the Chinese character "萬": Cantonese: "man"; Mandarin: wan); (left-facing) and U+5350 卐 (right-facing).<ref>"CJK Unified Ideographs", The Unicode Standard, Version 4.1. Unicode, Inc. 2005. (PDF file)</ref>

The Mandarin "Wan" is a homophone for "10,000" and is commonly used to represent the whole of creation, e.g. 'the myriad things' in the Dao De Jing.

Image:HasekuraBlason.jpg In Japan, the swastika is called manji. Since the Middle Ages, it is used as a family coat of arms. On Japanese maps, a swastika (left-facing and horizontal) is used to mark the location of a Buddhist temple. The right-facing manji is often referred as the gyaku manji (逆卍, lit. "reverse manji"), and can also be called kagi jūji, literally "hook cross."

The left-facing Buddhist swastika also appears on the emblem of Falun Gong. This has generated considerable controversy, particularly in Germany, where the police have reportedly confiscated several banners featuring the emblem. A court ruling subsequently allowed Falun Gong followers in Germany to continue the use of the emblem.

[edit] Native American traditions

The swastika shape was used by some Native Americans. 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).<ref>Dottie Indyke. "The History of an Ancient Human Symbol". April 4, 2005. originally from The Wingspread Collector’s Guide to Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque, Volume 15.</ref> A brightly colored Native American saddle featuring swastika designs is on display at a museum in Saskatchewan, Canada.<ref>Photo and text,"Why is there a Swastika on the saddle in the First Nations Gallery?", Royal Saskatchewan Museum</ref>

Image:KunaYalaFlag.svg

A swastika shape is an ancient symbol in the culture of the Kuna people of Kuna Yala, Panama. In Kuna tradition it symbolises the octopus, which created the world; its tentacles, pointing to the four cardinal points, gave rise to the rainbow, the sun, the moon and the stars.<ref>Chants and Myths about Creation, from Rainforest Art. Retrieved February 25, 2006.</ref>

In February, 1925, the Kuna revolted against Panamanian suppression of their culture, and were granted autonomy in 1930; the flag which they adopted at this time is based on the swastika shape, and remains the official flag of Kuna Yala. A number of variations on the flag have been used over the years; red top and bottom bands instead of orange were previously used, and in 1942 a ring (representing the traditional Kuna nose-ring) was added to the centre of the flag to distance it from the symbol of the Nazi party.<ref>Panama - Native Peoples, from Flags of the World. Retrieved February 20, 2006.</ref>

[edit] Pre-Christian European religions

The swastika (also called a fylfot, a term coined in the 19th century from a 1500 reference to a figure used to fill empty space at the foot of stained-glass windows in medieval churches) appears as an ornament on many pre-Christian artefacts, drawn both left-facing and right-facing. Similar motifs, within a circle or in a swirling form have also been interpreted as "swastikas".

The Greek goddess Athena was sometimes portrayed as wearing robes covered with swastikas.

An Ogham stone found in Anglish, Co Kerry (CIIC 141) was modified into an early Christian gravestone, and was decorated with a cross pattée and two swastikas at this time. The pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo, England, contains gold cups and shields adorned with swastika-like shapes.

Image:Broken crossed circle.svg

The pre-Christian Norse regularly used the so-called Sun cross or Sun wheel one form of which is often interpreted as a variant of the swastika, and it appears regularly in Scandinavian folk art. Swastika shapes are found, among similar ornaments, on Germanic Migration period artifacts, such as the Gothic spearhead found at Brest-Litovsk, Russia, or the Younger Futhark Snoldelev Stone, in Ramsø, Denmark.

In some Neopagan religions, such as Asatru and Heathenry these swastika-like shapes are often used as religious symbols. Adherents of these faiths note that their use is not connected to the political implications that the symbol gained under Nazism, citing the pre-Christian Germanic use of the symbol.

Image:Receboga.jpg

The swastika shape was also present in pre-Christian Slavic mythology. It was dedicated to the sun god Svarog and called kolovrat, (Polish kolowrót). In the Polish first Republic the symbol of the swastika was also popular with the nobility. According to chronicles, Varangians prince Oleg who in the 9th century with his Rus Vikings had captured Constantinople, had nailed his shield to the city's gates, which had a large red swastika painted on it. The several Polish noble houses, e.g. Boreyko, Borzym, and Radziechowski from Ruthenia also had Swastikas as their coat of arms. The family had reached its greatness in the 14-15th centuries and their crest can be seen in many heraldry books produced at that time.

The Vatican Museums contain examples of Etruscan pottery bearing the swastika.

[edit] Medieval Vehmic courts

Walker (A Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects) states that the double swastika was associated with the Vehmic courts of the Middle Ages, a "secret sect" founded to persecute "heretics and Jews" before becoming associated with the Inquisition. These courts, she says, continued as "underground societies of summary justice" and "hotbeds of anti-Semitism" during the nineteenth century before being superseded by the Nazi party, the members of which substituted the single swastika for the doubled version.

[edit] Early 20th century

[edit] United Kingdom

Logo from a 1911 edition of Rudyard Kipling.
Logo from a 1911 edition of Rudyard Kipling.

The pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo, England, contains gold cups and shields adorned with swastika-like shapes.

The British author Rudyard Kipling, who was strongly influenced by Indian culture, had a swastika as his personal moniker on the dust jackets of all his books until the rise of Nazism made this inappropriate. One of Kipling's Just So Stories, "The Crab That Played With The Sea", had an elaborate full-page illustration by Kipling including a stone bearing what was called "a magic mark" (a swastika); some later editions of the stories blotted out the mark, but not its captioned reference, making the readers wonder what the "mark" was.

During World War I, the swastika was used as the emblem of the British National War Savings Committee.<ref>House of Commons Hansard Debates for 12 Jun 1996 (pt 41).</ref> Image

The swastika was also used as a symbol by the Boy Scouts in the United Kingdom, and worldwide. According to "Johnny" Walker,<ref>C.R. "Johnny" Walker. "The Fleur-de-lis and the Swastika". "Johnny Walker's Scouting Milestones Pages. November 2003.</ref> the earliest Scouting use was on the first Thanks Badge introduced in 1911. Robert Baden-Powell's 1922 Medal of Merit design adds a swastika to the Scout fleur-de-lis as good luck to the person receiving the medal. Like Kipling, he would have come across this symbol in India. During 1934 many Scouters requested a change of design because of the use of the swastika by the Nazis. A new British Medal of Merit was issued in 1935.

Image:Ilmav SK ja lippu.jpg

[edit] Finland

In Finland the swastika was used as the official national marking of the Army between 1918 and 1st April, 1945, and also of the Finnish Air Force, anti-aircraft troops as a part of the air force and tank troops at that time. The swastika was also used by the Lotta Svärd organisation. The blue swastika was the good luck symbol used by the family of Swedish Count Eric von Rosen, who donated the first plane to the Finnish White Army during the Finnish Civil War. It has no official connection to the Nazi use of the swastika but represents the Cross of Freedom, the oldest order in Finland. This, however, remains for some people controversial, because Rosen was later one of the founding members of Nationalsocialistiska Blocket, a Swedish Nazi political party. Rosen also gained a closer connection to Germany when Hermann Göring married Carin von Kantzow, whose sister was married to Rosen.

The national socialistic party of Germany, adopted the swastika as its party symbol two years later, 1920.

The swastika also appeared in Finnish medals and decorations. The decorations of the Order of the Cross of Liberty, mostly designed by Akseli Gallen-Kallela in 1918, bears a Swastike laid on a George's Cross. As the Grand Master of the order, the President of Finland uses a Cross of Liberty in her personal flag. Image:Presidential Standard of Finland.svg

[edit] Iceland

The Icelandic Steamship Company, Eimskip (founded in 1914) used a swastika in its logo.

[edit] Ireland

The "Ogham stone" found in County Kerry, Ireland is inscribed with several swastikas dating to the fifth century AD, and is believed to have been an altar stone of the Druids. [4]

In Dublin, Ireland, a laundry company known as the Swastika Laundry existed for many years in Ballsbridge on the south side of the city. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the company's customers were concerned abou the company's name. Accordingly, it changed it to "Swastika Laundry (1912) Ltd". The company's fleet of electric delivery vans were red, and featured a black swastika on a white background.<ref>See http://www.askaboutireland.ie for a picture of a vehicle made up to look like such a van, for the purposes of a television drama. Retrieved June 22, 2006.</ref> The business started in the early 20th century and continued up until recent times. The Laundry's tall chimneystack was emblazoned with a large white Swastika, which was clearly visible from the surrounding streets. The name and logo eventually disappeared when the laundry was absorbed into the Spring Grove company.

In his "Irisches Tagebuch" the future Nobel Laureate, Heinrich Böll writes about a year spent living in the west of Ireland in the 1950s. While in Dublin before heading to Co. Mayo, he…

"was almost run over by a bright-red panel truck whose sole decoration was a big swastika. Had someone sold Völkischer Beobachter delivery trucks here, or did the Völkischer Beobachter still have a branch office here? This one looked exactly like those I remembered; but the driver crossed himself as he smilingly signalled to me to proceed, and on closer inspection I saw what had happened. It was simply the "Swastika Laundry," which had painted the year of its founding, 1912, clearly beneath the swastika; but the mere possibility that it might have been one of those others was enough to take my breath away." <ref>"Irish Journal" translated by Leila Vennewitz (Abacus, London, 1983) pp.21-2</ref>


One story tells how the physicist Erwin Schrödinger, in political exile in Ireland after fleeing the Nazi regime, was almost killed by one of these vans when crossing the street, and briefly believed an attempt had been made on his life by the Third Reich.[citation needed]

[edit] Latvia

In Latvia, too, the swastika (known as Thunder Cross and Fire Cross) was used as the marking of the Latvian Air Force between 1918 and 1934, as well as in insignias of some military units.<ref>Dov Gutterman, Latvia: Aircraft Marking, June 20, 2004.</ref> It was also used by the Latvian fascist movement Perkonkrusts (Thunder Cross in Latvian), as well as by other non-political organizations. Latvian left facing swastika or Thunder Cross dates back to Bronze age. It is widely seen scratched on the surfaces like rocks, weapons and pottery as a protector sign. To avoid diplomatic embarrassment, Latvian officials were asked by NATO not to put swastikas on mittens and other gifts to delegates at a summit in the country in 2006. [5]

[edit] North America

The Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875, incorporated the Swastika into its seal because of the Hindu and Buddhist associations of the symbol, combining it with a Star of David, Ankh and Ouroboros.

The swastika's use by the Navajo and other tribes made it a popular symbol for the Southwestern United States. Until the 1930s, blankets, metalwork, and other Southwestern souvenirs were often made with swastikas.

  • Arizona state highway markers up until 1940 featured a right-facing swastika superimposed on an arrowhead (Arizona Roads)
Arizona state highway marker from late 1920s.
Arizona state highway marker from late 1920s.
  • The original 1936 patented design (no. 98,617) for the Wigwam Motel called for four swastikas to encircle each tipi shaped motel room.
  • Swastika is the name of a small community in northern Ontario, Canada, approximately 580 kilometres north of Toronto, and 5 kilometres west of Kirkland Lake, the town of which it is now part. The town of Swastika was founded in 1906. Gold was discovered nearby and the Swastika Mining Company was formed in 1908. The government of Ontario attempted to change the town's name during World War II, but the town resisted.
Original insignia of the 45th Infantry Division (from the American Indian symbol).
Original insignia of the 45th Infantry Division (from the American Indian symbol).
  • In 1925, Coca-Cola made a lucky watch fob in the shape of a swastika with the slogan, "Drink Coca Cola five cents in bottles".
  • The Health, Physical Education and Recreation Building (HPER) at Indiana University contains decorative Native American-inspired swastika tilework on the walls of the foyer and stairwells on the southeast side of the building. HPER was built as the university fieldhouse in the 1920s, before the Nazi party came to power in Germany. In recent years, the HPER swastika motif, along with the Thomas Hart Benton murals in nearby Woodburn Hall have been the cause of much controversy on campus.
  • The public access area of Fish Lake near Windom, Minnesota is named Swastika Beach.
  • Shortly after the beginning of World War II, several Native American tribes (the Navajo, Apache, Tohono O'odham, and Hopi) published a decree stating that they would no longer use the swastika in their artwork. This was because the swastika had come to symbolize evil to them. This decree was signed by representatives of these tribes. The decree states:
Because the above ornament which has been a symbol of friendship among our forefathers for many centuries has been desecrated recently by another nation of peoples.
Therefore it is resolved that henceforth from this date on and forever more our tribes renounce the use of the emblem commonly known today as the swastika or fylfot on our blankets, baskets, art objects, sandpainting, and clothing.