The Swastika Part 2

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 Muller 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 t.i.tle Sovastikaya, 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 cakya, called Nandavartaya, 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 [S] were diffused in China and India before the advent of Sakya in the sixth century B. C. (according to Chinese, j.a.panese, 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]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 14. NANDaVARTAYA, A THIRD SIGN OF THE FOOTPRINT OF BUDDHA. Burnouf, "Lotus de la Bonne Loi," Paris, 1852, p. 696.]

Klaproth[25] calls attention to the frequent mention by Fa-hian, of the Tao-sse, sectaries of the mystic cross [S] (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 Ka.s.sapo, Buddha's predecessor.[26] Mr. James Burgess[27] mentions the Tirthankaras or Jainas as being sectarians of the Mystic Cross, the Swastika.

The Cyclopaedia of India (t.i.tle Swastika), coinciding with Prof. Max Muller, says:

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 circ.u.mstances.

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.

General Cunningham[28] adds his a.s.sertion of the Swastika being the symbol used by the Buddhist sect of that name. He says in a note:

The founder of this sect flourished about the year 604 to 523 B. C., and that the mystic cross is a symbol formed by the combination of the two Sanskrit syllables _su_ and _ti-suti_.

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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d of light and of life, and believed in the immortality of the soul.

R. P. Greg says:[31]

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 G.o.d 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.

Waring, while he testifies to the extension of the Swastika both in time and area, says:[32]

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.

He mentions the Swastika of the Buddhists, the cross, the circle, their combination, the three-foot [Y] and adds: "They exhibit forms of those olden and widely spread pagan symbols of Deity and sanct.i.ty, eternal life and blessing."

Professor Sayce says:[34]

The Cyprian vase figured in Di Cesnola's "Cyprus," pl. XLV, fig. 36 [see fig. 156], which a.s.sociates the Swastika with the figure of an animal, is a striking a.n.a.logue of the Trojan whorls on which it is a.s.sociated with the figures of stags. The fact that it is drawn within the v.u.l.v.a of the leaden image of the Asiatic G.o.ddess [see fig. 125]

seems to show that it was a symbol of generation. I believe that it is identical with the Cyprian character [symbol] or [symbol] (ne), which has the form [symbol] in the inscription of Golgi, and also with the Hitt.i.te [symbol] or [symbol] which Dr. Hyde Clarke once suggested to me was intended to represent the organs of generation.

Mr. Waller, in his work ent.i.tled "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.

Pugin, in his "Glossary of Ornament," under the t.i.tle "Fylfot," says that in Tibet the Swastika was used as a representation of G.o.d crucified for the human race, citing as his authority F. Augustini Antonii Georgii.[35]

He remarks:

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.

Its use was continued in Tibet into modern times, though its meaning is not given.[36] (See p. 802.)

The Rev. G. c.o.x, in his "Aryan Mythology," says:

We recognize the male and the female symbol in the trident of Poseidon, and in the fylfot or hammer of Thor, which a.s.sumes the form of a cross-pattee in the various legends which turn on the rings of Freya, Holda, Venus, or Aphrodite.

Here again we find the fylfot and cross-pattee spoken of as the same symbol, and as being emblematic of the reproductive principles, in which view of its meaning Dr. Inman, in his "Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names," concurs.

Burnouf[37] recounts the myth of Agni (from which comes, through the Latin _ignis_, the English word igneous), the G.o.d of Sacred Fire, as told in the Veda:[38]

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 G.o.d (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.

Mr. Greg[40] opposes this entire theory, saying:

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 b.u.t.ter 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."

Burton[42] also criticises Burnouf's theory:

If used on sacrificial altars to reproduce the holy fire, the practice is peculiar and not derived from everyday life; for as early as Pliny they know that the savages used two, and never three, fire sticks.

Burnouf continues his discussion of myths concerning the origin of fire:

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 G.o.d.

One of the Vedas says of Agni, the G.o.d of fire:[43]

Agni, thou art a sage, a priest, a king, Protector, father of the sacrifice; Commissioned by our men thou dost ascend A messenger, conveying to the sky Our hymns and offerings, though thy origin Be three fold, now from air and now from water, Now from the mystic double _Arani_.[44]

Count Goblet d'Alviella combats the hypothesis of Burnouf that the Swastika when turned to right or left, pa.s.sed, the one for the male and the other for the female principle, and declares, on the authority of Sir George Birdwood, that it is, in modern India, a popular custom to name objects which appear in couples as having different s.e.xes, so that to say "the male Swastika" and the "female Swastika," indicating them by the p.r.o.nouns "he" or "she," would be expressed in the same manner when speaking of the hammer and the anvil or of any other objects used in pairs.[45]

Ludwig Muller, in his elaborate treatise, gives it as his opinion that the Swastika had no connection with the Tau cross or with the _Crux ansata_, or with the fire wheel, or with arani, or agni, or with the mystic or alphabetic letters, nor with the so-called spokes of the solar wheel, nor the forked lightning, nor the hammer of Thor. He considers that the triskelion might throw light on its origin, as indicating perpetual whirling or circular movement, which, in certain parts of southern Asia as the emblem of Zeus, was a.s.similated to that of Baal, an inference which he draws from certain Asiatic coins of 400 B. C.

Mr. R. P. Greg[46] opposes this theory and expresses the opinion that the Swastika is far older and wider spread as a symbol than the triskelion, as well as being a more purely Aryan symbol. Greg says that Ludwig Muller attaches quite too much importance to the sun in connection with the early Aryans, and lays too great stress upon the supposed relation of the Swastika as a solar symbol. The Aryans, he says, were a race not given to sun worship; and, while he may agree with Muller that the Swastika is an emblem of Zeus and Jupiter merely as the Supreme G.o.d, yet he believes that the origin of the Swastika had no reference to a movement of the sun through the heavens; and he prefers his own theory that it was a device suggested by the forked lightning as the chief weapon of the air G.o.d.

Mr. Greg's paper is of great elaboration, and highly complicated. He devotes an entire page or plate (21) to a chart showing the older Aryan fire, water, and sun G.o.ds, according to the Brahmin or Buddhist system.

The earliest was Dyaus, the bright sky or the air G.o.d; Adyti, the infinite expanse, mother of bright G.o.ds; Varuna, the covering of the shining firmament. Out of this trinity came another, Zeus, being the descendant of Dyaus, the sky G.o.d; Agni, the fire; Sulya, the sun, and Indra, the rain G.o.d. These in their turn formed the great Hindu trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva--creator, preserver, and destroyer; and, in his opinion, the Swastika was the symbol or ordinary device of Indra as well as of Zeus. He continues his table of descent from these G.o.ds, with their accompanying devices, to the sun, lightning, fire, and water, and makes almost a complete scheme of the mythology of that period, into which it is not possible to follow him. However, he declines to accept the theory of Max Muller of any difference of form or meaning between the Suavastika and the Swastika because the ends or arms turned to the right or to the left, and he thinks the two symbols to be substantially the same. He considers it to have been, in the first instance, exclusively of early Aryan origin and use, and that down to about 600 B. C. it was the emblem or symbol of the supreme Aryan G.o.d; that it so continued down through the various steps of descent (according to the chart mentioned) until it became the device and symbol of Brahma, and finally of Buddha. He thinks that it may have been the origin of the Greek fret or meander pattern. Later still it was adopted even by the early Christians as a suitable variety of their cross, and became variously modified in form and was used as a charm.