swastika

Cross in which the bars are extended at right angles in the same clockwise or anticlockwise direction. Its origin is uncertain, but it appears frequently as an ancient good luck and religious symbol in both the Old World and the New. In Hinduism it is a symbol of good luck and goodness. In this religion it originates from a symbol for the sun, and takes the form of a cross in which the bars are extended at right angles, usually pointing in a clockwise direction. A swastika with clockwise bars was adopted as the emblem of the Nazi Party and incorporated into the German national flag 1935-45.

The swastika was used as a religious symbol by the Buddhists and Jains. With anticlockwise bars, it is commonly used on maps to indicate a Buddhist temple.

In Hinduism swastikas are often used to decorate mandir (temples) and shrines, or incorporated into mandalas and rangoli patterns, used for meditation.

The swastika is to be found on early Elamite ceramics of the 4th millennium BC, as well as on ceramics of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC from Troy, Greece, Cyprus, India, Tibet, China, and Japan. It was also used among American Indians, and is found in Christian inscriptions from the 2nd century onwards. It appears in heraldry, where it is known as fylfot (from ‘fill-foot’, a pattern to ‘fill the foot’ of a painted window) or crosse cramponnée.