The swastika (Sanskrit "good luck" or "well-being", literally "it is good") is a symbol which commonly appears throughout history. Resembling a cross with its arms bent 90 degrees to either right or left, 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 supremacy. 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 gammadion (in Greek). 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] (http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/s/sayagata.htm). As the negative space between the lines has a distinctive shape, the pattern is sometimes called the "key fret" motif in English.

Interlocking swastika design in pavement of Amiens Cathedral

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 [2] (http://www.labyrinth-enterprises.com/amiens.html). A border of linked swastikas was a common Roman architectural motif [3] (http://romanbristol.tripod.com/avon/tockington.html), 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 right-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.

Shortly after the beginning of the second world war, 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 to them the swastika had come to symbolize evil. This decree was signed by representatives of these tribes. Here is the text of the decree,

Because the above ornament which has been a symbol of friendship among our forefathers for many centuries has been descercrated 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.

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

Typical Hindu Swastika

In Hinduism, the two symbols represent the two forms of Brahma; clockwise it represents the evolution of the universe (Pravritti), anti-clockwise it represents the involution of the universe (Nivritti). It is also seen as pointing in all four direction (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 Surya, the Hindu lord of the Sun. It is used as a good-luck symbol. However, it is also seen as a power symbol, and alternate forms that reflect the shape of a man are popular. It is used in all Hindu yantras and religious designs till today. All over the subcontinent of India it can be seen on the sides of temples and on religious scripture to gift items and letterhead. 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. The Hindu God Ganesh is closely associated with the symbol of the swastika. Its use is widespread in India and Nepal.

In Buddhism, the swastika is oriented horizontally. These two symbols are included, at least since the Liao dynasty, as part of the Chinese language (as 卍 (in pinyin: wan4), the symbolic sign for the character 萬 (wan4) meaning "all", and "eternality" and as 卐 which is seldom used.) The swastikas (in either direction) appear on the chest of some statues of Gautama Buddha. Because of the association with the right facing swastika with Nazism, Buddhist swastikas after the mid 20th century are almost universially left facing. 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. Also this type of swastika is often sewn into the collars of Chinese children's clothing to protect them from evil spirits.

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 [4] (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Archaeology/eingedi.html).

In native Indo-European religion, the symbol was often used as a symbol for the sun and its might. In the Germanic religion, the Swatsika or Sunwheel also represented power and lightning. It was related to the Suncross (A symbol like the Celtic Cross, but with all 4 arms in equal length) and there were also combinations of them both, in Germanic religion the symbol was linked to the god Thor, and the Celts associated it with Taranis; both were Gods of Thunder.

The Swastika is found all over Hindu temples, signs, altars, pictures and iconography in India and Nepal, both from the past and today.

Other uses

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.

The Lotta Svärd 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.

ASEA logo used from the 1800s until 1933

The Swedish company ASEA, now a part of Asea Brown Boveri, used the swastika in its logo from the 1800s to 1933, when it was removed from the logo.

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.

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 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.

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).

The Swastika and Nazism

A clockwise Nazi swastika

For many people in the West, the swastika is associated primarily with the twentieth century Nazi movement.

Prior to the creation of the Nazi movement, the swastika was already in use as a symbol of German volkisch nationalist movements. The 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. Two 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

• The Arrow Cross of the Hungarian fascist party.
• The Celtic Cross, used by many modern neo-Fascists.
• The Odal rune of the neo- nazi African Student Federation.
• The three-legged badge of the Isle of Man bears certain similarity with the swastika. See Triskelion article.

External links

• The History of the Swastika (http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/aa120699a.htm)
• The Swastika in Heraldry (http://www.heraldica.org/topics/swastika.htm) (comments from a mailing list)
• Windsor's "Swastikas" Hockey Teams 1905 - 1916 (http://www.birthplaceofhockey.com/hockeyists/swastikas/swastikas-story.html)
• Origins of the Swastika Flag (Third Reich, Germany) (http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/de%7Dns_or.html) (collection of links and comments)
• Origins and its first appearance as a Nazi symbol (http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x31/xr3187.html)
• Neonazi flags (http://flagspot.net/flags/naz.html) (a collection of links)
• CITY OF GLENDALE INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMUNICATION (http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/government/lampposts.html) (a letter from the City Attorney to the Mayor discussing swastikas on lampposts in Glendale, California; Attachment E has photographs of the lampposts in question)
• Friends of the Swastika (http://www.manwoman.net/swastika/index.html) (images of swastikas in various contexts)