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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JULY, 1881.
very early in the work. After remarking on the by means of a cord made of cow's hair and religion of the Aryans he takes up the doctrine hemp, till the fire was generated by friction." of the Swastikas as opposed to that of the...... "The pramantha was afterwards Brahmans, and states that "the Swastikas transformed by the Greeks into Prometheus,' derived their name from their peculiar symbol who, they imagined, stole fire from heaven, so the swastika, or mystic cross, which was a as to instil into earth-born man the bright symbol of their belief in Swasti. This term is a spark of the soul." Dr. Schliemann further compound of su' well,' and asti, 'it is'; meaning states that M. E. Burnonf "adds that the 'it is well', or, as Wilson expresses it, so be Greeks for a long time generated fire by friction, it'; and implying complete resignation under all and that the two lower pieces of wood that lay circumstances." In anote hesays "The Swasti at right angles across one another were called of Sanskrit is the suti of Pali; and the mystic ordupós, which word is either derived from the cross or Swastika is only & monogrammatic root stri, which signifies lying upon the earth, symbol formed by the combination of the two and is then identical with the Latin sternere, syllables su + tirsuti." Without entering on or is derived from the Sanskrit word státara, a lengthy discussion on the theory that the which means 'firm, solid, immoveable. Since symbol had its origin in a combination of letters the Greeks had other means of producing fire, of an alphabet dating from perhaps not very the word oraupós passed into simply in the long before the third centary B.C., it will be quite sense of cross.'” He concludes with the resufficient to point to the Hissarlik discoveries of mark that from the remotest times the different Schliemann for a proof that the symbol existed, forms of the Swastika "were the most sacred perfect and complete, ages before the alphabet of symbols of our Aryan forefathers." Asoka was in use in India, so far as we know. In January 1870 there appeared an interesting The earliest of the settlers on that historical spot, articlo in the Edinburgh Review summarising whose remains are found in strata of débris 40 some of the opinions which had found favour to 46 feet below the ruins of the Hellenic in- regarding this" Pre-Christian Cross," and giving habitants of the seventh century B.C., used the the writer's own view in the matter very strongly Swastika in its most modern form as their expressed. After pointing out the universality favourite sacred symbol. Further comment on of the cruciform emblem amongst the earliest the monogrammatic theory would seem to be known races of the world, and stating, someneedless.
what boldly, that “the marvellous rock-hewn In the sixth chapter of his Troy and its Remains caves of Elephanta and Elara, and the stately Schliemann devotes considerable space to the temples of Mathurâ and Tirupati in the East, subject of the Swastika, shewing how apparently may be cited as characteristical examples of one universal was its use amongst several of the laborious method of exhibiting it; and the earliest races of Asia and Europe "at a time megalithic structures of Callernish and Newwhen Germans, Indians, Pelasgians, Celts, grange in the West, of another, "-(rather a Persians, Slavonians and Iranians still formed confusion here, surely !)-the reviewer goes on one nation and spoke one language,” (p. 102), to give his very decided opinion as to the And he quotes at length from the work of origin of the symbol: "The aureole or disc M. Émile Burnouf, La Science des Religions, encircling the heads of gods and saints, and on the question of its origin. "The repre- signifying perfection, was primarily intended to sents the two pieces of wood which were laid represent the solar orb; but in the course of crosswise upon one another before the sacrificial time, as Sabean worship travelled beyond the altars, in order to produce the holy fire agni, region of its source, and extraneous influences and whose ends were bent round at right were brought to bear upon it, the same symbol reangles and fastened by means of four nails, appears with an infinitude of scarcely distin
so that this wooden scaffolding might not guishable additions internally and externally. be moved. At the point where the two pieces .... When divided into four equal segments, of wood were joined, there was a small hole, ... it was the symbol of the primeval abode in which a third piece of wood, in the form of man, the traditional Paradise of Eden." of lance (called Pramantha), was rotated The Rev. W. Haslam (The Cross and the
