The Swastika Part 6

National Museum by Mr. Yang Yu, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 3. SWASTIKA DESIGN ON SILK FABRICS. This use of the Swastika was forbidden in China by Emperor Tai Tsung (763-779 A. D.). From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S. National Museum by Mr. Yang Yu, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 4. SWASTIKA IN SPIDER WEB OVER FRUIT. (A good omen in China.) From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S. National Museum by Mr. Yang Yu, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 5. BUFFALO WITH SWASTIKA ON FOREHEAD. Presented to Emperor of Sung Dynasty. From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S.

National Museum by Mr. Yang Yu, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 6. INCENSE BURNER WITH SWASTIKA DECORATION. South Tang Dynasty. From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S National Museum Mr. Yang Yu, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 7. HOUSE OF WU TSUNG-CHIH OF SIN SHUI, WITH SWASTIKA IN RAILING. From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S. National Museum by Mr. Yang Yu, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 8. MOUNTAIN OR WILD DATE.--FRUIT RESEMBLING THE SWASTIKA. From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S. National Museum by Mr. Yang Yu, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 31. POTTER'S MARK ON PORCELAIN. China. Tablet of honor, with Swastika. Prime, "Pottery and Porcelain," p. 254.]

The Swastika is one of the symbolic marks of the Chinese porcelain.

Prime[110] shows what he calls a "tablet of honor," which represents a Swastika inclosed in a lozenge with loops at the corners (fig. 31). This mark on a piece of porcelain signifies that it is an imperial gift.

Major-General Gordon, controller of the Royal a.r.s.enal at Woolwich, England, writes to Dr. Schliemann:[111] "The Swastika is Chinese. On the breech chasing of a large gun lying outside my office, captured in the Taku fort, you will find this same sign." But Dumoutier[112] says this sign is nothing else than the ancient Chinese character _c h e_, which, according to D'Alviella,[113] carries the idea of perfection or excellence, and signifies the renewal and perpetuity of life. And again,[111] "Dr. Lockyer, formerly medical missionary to China, says the sign [Z] is thoroughly Chinese."

The Swastika is found on Chinese musical instruments. The U. S. National Museum possesses a Hu-Ch'in, a violin with four strings, the body of which is a section of bamboo about 3-1/2 inches in diameter. The septum of the joint has been cut away so as to leave a Swastika of normal form, the four arms of which are connected with the outer walls of the bamboo. Another, a Ti-Ch'in, a two-stringed violin, with a body of cocoanut, has a carving which is believed to have been a Swastika; but the central part has been broken out, so that the actual form is undetermined.

Prof. George Frederick Wright, in an article ent.i.tled "Swastika,"[114]

quotes Rev. F. H. Chalfont, missionary at Chanting, China, as saying: "Same symbol in Chinese characters 'ouan,' or 'wan,' and is a favorite ornament with the Chinese."

TIBET.

Mr. William Woodville Rockhill,[115] speaking of the fair at k.u.mb.u.m, says:

I found there a number of Lh'asa Tibetans (they call them Gopa here) selling pulo, beads of various colors, saffron, medicines, peac.o.c.k feathers, incense sticks, etc. I had a talk with these traders, several of whom I had met here before in 1889. * * * One of them had a Swastika (yung-drung) tattooed on his hand, and I learned from this man that this is not an uncommon mode of ornamentation in his country.

Count D'Alviella says that the Swastika is continued among the Buddhists of Tibet; that the women ornament their petticoats with it, and that it is also placed upon the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of their dead.[116]

He also reports[117] a Buddhist statue at the Musee Guimet with Swastikas about the base. He does not state to what country it belongs, so the author has no means of determining if it is the same statue as is represented in fig. 29.

INDIA.

Burnouf[118] says approvingly of the Swastika:

Christian archaeologists believe this was the most ancient sign of the cross. * * * It was used among the Brahmins from all antiquity. (Voyez mot "Swastika" dans notre dictionnaire sanskrit.) Swastika, or Swasta, in India corresponds to "benediction" among Christians.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 32. FOOTPRINT OF BUDDHA WITH SWASTIKA, FROM AMARAVATI TOPE. From a figure by Fergusson and Schliemann.]

The same author, in his translation of the "Lotus de la Bonne Loi," one of the nine Dharmas or Canonical books of the Buddhists of the North, of 280 pages, adds an appendix of his own writing of 583 pages; and in one (No.

8) devoted to an enumeration and description of the sixty-five figures traced on the footprint of cakya (fig. 32) commences as follows:

1. _Svastikaya_: This is the familiar mystic figure of many Indian sects, represented thus, [S], and whose name signifies, literally, "sign of benediction or of good augury." (Rgya tch'er rol pa, Vol. 11, p. 110.)

* * * The sign of the Swastika was not less known to the Brahmins than to the Buddhists. "Ramayana," Vol. II, p. 348, ed. Gor., Chap. XCVII, st. 17, tells of vessels on the sea bearing this sign of fortune. This mark, of which the name and usage are certainly ancient, because it is found on the oldest Buddhist medals, may have been used as frequently among the Brahmins as among the Buddhists. Most of the inscriptions on the Buddhist caverns in western India are either preceded or followed by the holy (_sacramentelle_) sign of the Swastika. It appears less common on the Brahmin monuments.

Mr. W. Crooke (Bengal Civil Service, director of Eth. Survey, Northwest Provinces and Oudh), says:[119]

The mystical emblem of the Swastika, which appears to represent the sun in his journey through the heavens, is of constant occurrence. The trader paints it on the flyleaf of his ledger, he who has young children or animals liable to the evil eye makes a representation of it on the wall beside his doorpost. It holds first place among the lucky marks of the Jainas. It is drawn on the shaven heads of children on the marriage day in Gujarat. A red circle with Swastika in the center is depicted on the place where the family G.o.ds are kept (Campbell, Notes, p. 70). In the Meerut division the worshiper of the village G.o.d Bhumiya constructs a rude model of it in the shrine by fixing up two crossed straws with a daub of plaster. It often occurs in folklore. In the drama of the Toy Cart the thief hesitates whether he shall make a hole in the wall of Charudatta's house in the form of a Swastika or of a water jar (Manning, Ancient India, 11, 100).

_Village shrines._--The outside (of the shrines) is often covered with rude representations of the mystical Swastika.

On page 250 he continues thus:

_Charms._--The bazar merchant writes the words "Ram Ram" over his door, or makes an image of Genesa, the G.o.d of luck, or draws the mystical Swastika. The jand tree is reverenced as sacred by Khattris and Brahmins to avoid the evil eye in children. The child is brought at 3 years of age before a jand tree; a bough is cut with a sickle and planted at the foot of the tree. A Swastika symbol is made before it with the rice flour and sugar brought as an offering to the tree.

Threads of string, used by women to tie up their hair, are cut in lengths and some deposited on the Swastika.

Mr. Virchand R. Gandhi, a Hindu and Jain disciple from Bombay, India, a delegate to the World's Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893, remained for some time in Washington, D. C., proselyting among the Christians. He is a cultivated gentleman, devoted to the spread of his religion. I asked his advice and a.s.sistance, which he kindly gave, supervising my ma.n.u.script for the Swastika in the extreme Orient, and furnishing me the following additional information relative to the Swastika in India, and especially among the Jains:

The Swastika is misinterpreted by so-called Western expounders of our ancient Jain philosophy. The original idea was very high, but later on some persons thought the cross represented only the combination of the male and the female principles. While we are on the physical plane and our propensities on the material line, we think it necessary to unite these (s.e.xual) principles for our spiritual growth. On the higher plane the soul is s.e.xless, and those who wish to rise higher than the physical plane must eliminate the idea of s.e.x.

I explain the Jain Swastika by the following ill.u.s.tration [fig. 33]: The horizontal and vertical lines crossing each other at right angles form the Greek cross. They represent spirit and matter. We add four other lines by bending to the right each arm of the cross, then three circles and the crescent, and a circle within the crescent. The idea thus symbolized is that there are four grades of existence of souls in the material universe. The first is the lowest state--Archaic or protoplasmic life. The soul evolves from that state to the next--the earth with its plant and animal life. Then follows the third stage--the human; then the fourth stage--the celestial. The word "celestial" is here held to mean life in other worlds than our own.

All these graduations are combinations of matter and soul on different scales. The spiritual plane is that in which the soul is entirely freed from the bonds of matter. In order to reach that plane, one must strive to possess the three jewels (represented by the three circles), right belief, right knowledge, right conduct. When a person has those, he will certainly go higher until he reaches the state of liberation, which is represented by the crescent. The crescent has the form of the rising moon and is always growing larger. The circle in the crescent represents the omniscient state of the soul when it has attained full consciousness, is liberated, and lives apart from matter.

The interpretation, according to the Jain view of the cross, has nothing to do with the combination of the male and female principle.

Worship of the male and female principles, ideas based upon s.e.x, lowest even of the emotional plane, can never rise higher than the male and female.

The Jains make the Swastika sign when we enter our temple of worship.

This sign reminds us of the great principles represented by the three jewels and by which we are to reach the ultimate good. Those symbols intensify our thoughts and make them more permanent.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 33. EXPLANATION OF THE JAIN SWASTIKA, ACCORDING TO GANDHI. (1) Archaic or protoplasmic life; (2) Plant and animal life; (3) Human life; (4) Celestial life.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 34_a_. THE FORMATION OF THE JAIN SWASTIKA--FIRST STAGE. Handful of rice or meal, in circular form, thinner in center.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 34_b_. THE FORMATION OF THE JAIN SWASTIKA--SECOND STAGE. Rice or meal, as shown in preceding figure, with finger marks, indicated at 1, 2, 3, 4.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 34_c_. THE FORMATION OF THE JAIN SWASTIKA--THIRD STAGE. Ends turned out, typifying animal, human, and celestial life, as shown in fig. 33.]

Mr. Gandhi says the Jains make the sign of the Swastika as frequently and deftly as the Roman Catholics make the sign of the cross. It is not confined to the temple nor to the priests or monks. Whenever or wherever a benediction or blessing is given, the Swastika is used. Figs. 34 _a_, _b_, _c_ form a series showing how it is made. A handful of rice, meal, flour, sugar, salt, or any similar substance, is spread over a circular s.p.a.ce, say, 3 inches in diameter and one-eighth of an inch deep (fig. 34_a_), then commence at the outside of the circle (fig. 34_b_), on its upper or farther left-hand corner, and draw the finger through the meal just to the left of the center, halfway or more to the opposite or near edge of the circle (1), then again to the right (2), then upward (3), finally to the left where it joins with the first mark (4). The ends are swept outward, the dots and crescent put in above, and the sign is complete (fig. 34_c_).

The sign of the Swastika is reported in great numbers, by hundreds if not by thousands, in the inscriptions on the rock walls of the Buddhist caves in India. It is needless to copy them, but is enough to say that they are the same size as the letters forming the inscription; that they all have four arms and the ends turn at right angles, or nearly so, indifferently to the right or to the left. The following list of inscriptions, containing the Swastikas, is taken from the first book coming to hand--the "Report of Dr. James Burgess on the Buddhist Cave Temples and their Inscriptions, Being a Part of the Result of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Seasons' Operations of the Archaeological Survey of Western India, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879:"[120]

+--------------------------------------------------+ Inscription Direction Plate. number. in which ends are bent. -------- --------------- ----------- ------------- Bhaja XLIV 2 To right. Kuda XLVI 26 Do. Do XLVI 27 To left. Kol XLVI 5 To right. Karle XLVII 1 Do. Do XLVII 3 Do. Junnar XLIX 5 Do. Do XLIX 6 To left. Do XLIX 7 To right. Do XLIX 8 To left. Do XLIX 9 To right. Do XLIX 10 Do. Do XLIX 11 (?) Do. Do XLIX 12 Do. Do XLIX 13 (?) Do. Do XLIX 13 (?) To left. Do XLIX 14 Do. Do L 17 To right. Do L 19 Do. Nasik LII 5 Do. Do LV (Nasik 21) 5 (?) Do. Do LV (Nasik 24) 8 (?) Do. +--------------------------------------------------+

Chantre[121] says:

I remind you that the (East) Indians, Chinese, and j.a.panese employ the Swastika, not only as a religious emblem but as a simple ornament in painting on pottery and elsewhere, the same as we employ the Greek fret, lozenges, and similar motifs in our ornamentation. _Sistres_ [the staff with jingling bells, held in the hand of Buddha, on whose base is engraved a row of Swastikas, fig. 29 of present paper] of similar form and style have been found in prehistoric Swiss lake dwellings of the bronze age. Thus the _sistres_ and the Swastika are brought into relation with each other. The _sistres_ possibly relate to an ancient religion, as they did in the Orient; the Swastika may have had a similar distinction.

De Mortillet and others hold the same opinion.[122]

CLa.s.sICAL ORIENT.

BABYLONIA, a.s.sYRIA, CHALDEA, AND PERSIA.