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The name sauwastika is sometimes given for the supposedly "evil" form of the swastika. There are several conflated issues here:
- is there a genuine distinction between the orientations of the swastika
- are these different orientations really referred to as swastika vs. sauwastika?
- if so, in which language/culture?
- is either form traditionally associated with "evil"?
In Sanskrit, sauvastika is a so-called vriddhi-derivation of svastika. In Sir Monier Monier-William's dictionary [1] (http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/indologie/tamil/mwd_search.html), it is glossed as an obscure word attested only by lexicographers, with a meaning "benedictive, salutatory" or "auspicious progress".
Wilson, in The Swastika, quotes Prof. F. Max Müller's letter to Dr. Heinrich Schliemann (which Schliemann published in Ilios, Harper Brothers, 1881 (pp. 347,348)) —
- In the footprints of Buddha the Buddhists recognize no less that sixty-five auspicious signs, the first of them being the Svastika [see fig.32], (Eugene Burnouf, "Lotus de la bonne loi," p. 625); the fourth is the Suavastika [sic], or that with the arms turned to the left [see fig.10]; the third, the Nandyurarta [see fig.14], is a mere development of the Svastika.
D'Alviella , in The Migration of Symbols, says [2] (http://www.jrbooksonline.com/HTML-docs/The_Backwards_Swastika.htm) —
- In India it [the gammadion] bears the name of swastika, when its arms are bent towards the right (fig. 14a), and sauwastika when they are turned in the other direction (fig. 14b).
The right-facing swastika has a sunwise rotation whereas the left-facing sauwastika has a widdershins rotation. These rotations have traditional opposite associations:
- sunwise toward God, lucky, good
- widdershins away from God, unlucky, evil
Which might lead people to suppose that the sauwastika is "evil". But the sauwastika is still a solar sign, with the positive associations of celestial fire. What then does the contrary rotation indicate? Wilson cites Müller —
- the Svastika
was originally a symbol of the sun, perhaps of the vernal sun as opposed to the autumnal sun, the Suavastika, and, therefore, a natural symbol of light, life, health, and wealth.
But, Wilson notes —
- The "Suavastika" which Max Müller 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.
The evidence for sauwastika seems sketchy and there seems to be very little other than conjecture to support the notion that the left-facing swastika regarded as evil in Hindu tradition. Although the more common form is the right-facing swastika, Hindus all over India and Nepal still use the symbol in both orientations for the sake of balance. Buddhists almost always use the left-facing swastika.
Some contemporary writers – Servando González (http://www.intelinet.org/swastika/swasti01.htm), for example – confuse matters even further by asserting that the right-facing swastika is the "evil" sauwastika. (González "proves" that the left-facing swastika is the sunwise one with reference to an 1930s box of Standard fireworks from Sivakasi, India.)
This inversion – whether intentional or not – seems to be a modern response to the Nazi's use of the right-handed swastika. (See also: Taboo in North America and Europe.) But the notion that Hitler deliberately inverted the "good left-facing" swastika is risible.
References
- Thomas Wilson (Curator, Department of Prehistoric Anthropology, U.S. National Museum), The Swastika: The Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migrations; with Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times – Smithsonian Institution, 1896
See also
External links
- sites presenting versions of Wilson's The Swaztika (above)
- The Swastika (http://www.northvegr.org/lore/swastika/index.php?PHPSESSID=6e17139f201061f6bb3d0e9216741fcd) (a transcription for Northvegr by Alfta Svani Lothursdottir; contains some transcription errors)
- Swaztika (http://www.maitreya.org/swastika/) (sic) (a scan of the original publication)
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