INDIA.

Being one of the ancient centres of civilization from which the Chinese

are said to have derived theirs, India, the country where the swastika

abounds, first arrests our attention. In support of the assertion I have

already advanced, that the primitive symbol is always found accompanied by

a set of ideas almost as ancient as itself, I have pleasure in

transcribing the following detached but instructive and suggestive

extracts from my note-book.

The fair Arya or Aryans, after about 2,000 B.C., penetrated India from the

northwest. Arya means “those who command” or “the venerable.” The name

Hindu or Sindu was given to the Indian Aryans. Our knowledge of Hindu art

begins in the third century B.C. and none of the present popular forms of

Hindu religion are presumed to be earlier than the ninth century A.D. “It

is well known that the Brahman system and faith were not developed by the

Hindus till they had conquered the Ganges, Western and Southern India and

there is no trace of this tradition or even of Brahma as a deity in the

Vedas.”...

“The supreme god of antiquity was Indra ... next to and above whom was the

mysterious god Varuna, the creator, who gave eternal laws which god and

men were obliged to follow. He showed the stars their paths and gave each

creature his qualities.... He is the sun by day and the stars at

night”.... From these statements the duality of the creator and his power

over both light and darkness alike, stand out clearly.

Another form of the supreme being was the sun god Surya, who was also

named Savitri, the generator, Pushan=the feeder and Mithra=the light-god,

who is called the watcher and ruler of the world and was associated with

the wheel, which is termed “the most ancient symbol of divine power and

dominion.”(89)

“In India the wheel was, moreover, connected with the title of a

chakrayartin (from chakra=a wheel), the title meaning a supreme ruler or

universal monarch, who ruled the four quarters of the world and on his

coronation he had to drive his chariot or wheel to the four cardinal

points to signify his conquest of them” (Wm. Simpson, Quarterly statement

of Palestine Expl. Fund, 1895, p. 84). It is significant that “Mithra,”

the god of the wheel, who was, as I shall show later on, likewise

associated with the serpent, is represented with a chariot pulled by seven

horses and thus to find the idea of centrifugal power, combined with the

numeral seven and the conception of central rulership extending to the

four quarters.

While the above passages afford an interesting insight into the ancient

significance and symbolism of the chariot, the use of which, with that of

the throne was, originally, exclusively confined to the central supreme

ruler, they also furnish a curious parallelism to the Chinese tours of

inspection performed, by the emperor, to the four provinces in rotation.

The general application of the quadruplicate system is moreover shown by

the fact that, from time immemorial, the population of India has been

divided into four great castes, and these are associated with distinctive

colors, the Sanscrit word for color, _varna_, signifying also caste.

According to the native myth, Brahma created the Brahmin or ruling caste

from his mouth, the warrior caste from his arms and hands, the merchant

and agricultural caste from his hips and the artisan or lowest caste from

the soles of his feet. The warrior caste was named Kschatria; the people

the yellow, or Vaicya; the original, conquered inhabitants of India were

named the black, or Sudra. The Brahman caste was above all these.

Concerning the origin of the Brahmans, it is related that “Manu was

created ... he, in turn created ten great sages, the ancestors of the

Brahmans. These created _seven_ other Manus or spiritual princes, the

preservers of moral orders in the world” (Goodyear). Pointing out that the

seven Manus evidently constituted a septarchy, let us now study the

Brahmanistic conception of a supreme divinity. From various authorities we

learn that, in later times “the Brahmans invented a new god, the

impersonal Brahma, who only appears in the youngest portion of the Vedas.”

He is described as “the supreme One who alone exists really and

absolutely,” and is represented with four heads and four arms, the idea of

four-fold power and rule being thus expressed. The proof that, at the same

time, the idea of duality existed, is furnished by the invention of a

female counterpart of Brahma, namely, his consort Sarawati and the later

development of the rival religions which now exist side by side and divide

the population of India into halves. The cult of Vishnu, associated with

the male principle, though curiously blended with the principle of

preservation, is obviously a parallel form of the American and Chinese

cult of the Above or Heaven; while that of Siva, or the female principle,

strongly mingled with the idea of destruction, forms a parallel to the

cult of the Earth-mother and of darkness and the nocturnal heaven. Brahma

was born of an egg and is also figured as springing from a lotus which, in

turn rises from the navel of Vishnu or Narayana, “the Spirit moving on the

waters.”...(90)

In modern Buddhism the identical fundamental ideas continue to exist in a

slightly different form; the six directions in space are known and

elaborately worshipped. The embodiment of central power is Buddha, seated

cross-legged on a lotus flower. According to Birdwood, cited by Mr.

Goodyear, “In the Hindu cosmogony the world is likened to a lotus flower,

floating in the centre of a shallow circular vessel, which has for its

stalk an elephant and for its pedestal a tortoise. The seven petals of the

lotus flower represent the seven divisions of the world as known to the

ancient Hindus and the tabular torus (_Nelumbium speciosum_) which rises

from their centre represents Mount Meru, the Hindu Olympus.”

In the statues of Buddha, thus associated with the centre of the world, we

have what may be termed the highest development of the idea of stability,

quietude and absolute repose which impressed itself upon the human mind by

the observation of Polaris. The abstract conception of Nirvana, “the state

in which all individuality and consciousness are lost, and life and death,

good and evil, and every other possible antithesis disappear in absolute

unity,” appears to me to be the natural ultimate outgrowth of the

primitive appreciation of stability and repose as the most desirable of

conditions.

An ancient American priest-astronomer, imbued with the native ideas, would

doubtlessly see in the modern figures of Buddha a more perfect artistic

rendition of the same conception which was expressed in the Copan

swastika. He might remark that, in the statues of Buddha, the human form

is intended to convey the idea of quadruple organization and that in

certain images the primitive symbols of the centre, “the belly and navel,”

are obviously emphasized. In the fakirs, who cultivate immobility, he

might see people who are under the absolute dominion of the ideal of

stability and detect the origin of this suggestion from the fact that the

swastika position of either arms or legs is a favorite one among Hindoo

fanatics, just as, out of devotion, many persons have swastikas painted or

tattooed upon their limbs.

It is interesting to note the peculiar result attained by the Buddhists in

their development of the twin idea of permanence, _i. e._ immutability or

immortality, as shown in the following quotation: “There is a remarkable

distinction between the Buddhism of China and of Tibet. In regard to

philosophy there is little or no difference, but in Tibet there is a

hierarchy which exercises political power. In China this could not be. The

Grand Lama and many other lamas in Mongolia and Tibet assume the title of

‘Living Buddha.’ In him, most of all, Buddha is incarnate, as the people

are taught to think. He never dies. When the body, in which Buddha is for

the time incarnate, ceases to perform its functions, some infant is chosen

by the priests, who are intrusted with the duty of selecting, to become

the residence of Buddha until, in turn, it grows up to manhood and dies.

No Buddhist priest in China pretends to be a ‘living Buddha’ or to have a

right to the exercise of political power. In Tibet, on the other hand, the

Grand Lama, as chief of the ‘living Buddhas,’ not only holds the place of

the historical Buddha long since dead, acting as a sort of high-priest,

but he also exercises sovereignty over the country of Tibet ruling the

laity as well as the clergy and being only subordinate to the lord

paramount, the Emperor of China” (Edkins, Religion in China, p. 8).

“The form of the Buddhist temples exemplifies in a striking manner the

relative positions of Buddha and the gods. Four kings of the gods are

represented in the vestibule. Their office is to guard the door by which

entrance is obtained to the presence of Buddha.... The central position is

that of Buddha, who is seated on the lotus flower in the attitude of a

teacher....” (Edkins). In this attitude an ancient American high-priest

would see the graphic representation of one of the titles of the star-god

Polaris, “the teacher of the world.”

The association of Buddha with the north and with the number seven is

curiously shown in the mythical account that “when Buddha was born a lotus

blossomed where he touched the ground; he stepped seven steps northward

and a lotus marked each footfall.”

Distinct evidence of the ancient cult of Polaris is yielded by the Hindu

marriage custom, which I have found described thus in Meyer’s

conversations Lexikon: “In the evening the bride and bridegroom seat

themselves on the hide of a red ox, after making the usual offerings....

Then the bridegroom points out the pole-star to the bride and says: ‘the

heaven is firm, also the earth; the universe is stedfast, so mayest thou

be stedfast in our family’....” The symbolism of the act of sharing the

ox-hide as a seat becomes apparent when it is realized that the name for

cow or ox=go, also signifies possessions and riches, a conception which is

traceable to a period when cattle constituted the chief and most valued

possession of pastoral tribes. The veneration accorded in India to the cow

is well known and travellers have frequently described the sacred statue

of a cow, which is seven feet in height and stands next to the sacred well

of the temple at Benares.

In connection with the reference to the pole-star made by the Hindu

bridegroom, it is noteworthy that the Sanscrit for star is stri, tara, for

stara; Hindu sitara, tara and Bengal stara and that variants of the same

word constitute the name for star in Latin, Greek, Gothic, Old and Anglo

Saxon, Welsh, Icelandic, Swedish, Danish and Basque, in which language it

appears as izarra, recalling the Hindu sitara and, if I may venture to say

so, the Nahuatl word for star, citlallin.

The supreme veneration and importance accorded in India to the North, from

time immemorial, are shown by passages of the book of Manu, which

prescribe the severe penances which were to be performed by the Brahmans

who attained advanced age. He “is to inflict all sorts of tortures upon

himself and when he falls ill in consequence, he is to set out to walk to

the northwest, towards the holy mountain Meru, until his mortal frame

breaks down and he unites himself with Brahma.” It is likewise stated that

when a Brahman king grew old and ill he was obliged to abdicate in favor

of his son and voluntarily seek death in battle or by starvation, whilst

wandering towards the holy mountain Meru, in the northwest. I point out

the curious parallelism of this custom, which was carried out during

countless centuries and determined a periodical migration towards the

northwest of venerable sages, presumably accompanied by faithful

followers, and the search for the stable centre of the world which caused

the wanderings of American tribes under their chiefs.

According to various encyclopædias and general works of reference, Brahma

is said to have made the world in two parts, _i. e._, heaven and earth;

placed air between both and made the eight regions, fire and the eternal

waters. The mythical mountain Meru, on the summit of which the supreme

power is said to be enthroned in eternal majesty, is the traditional

paradise and is supposed to lie somewhere in the northwest of the

Himalayas. It is situated in the centre of the seven zones in which the

earth is divided, thence its name Meru=the Middle. The association of the

central mountain with divinity and eternal stability is further shown by

the statement that the sun, moon and stars circled about it and that it

supported the heaven.

As the natural complement to the above, I can cite the following evidences

of an all-pervading quadruplicate division and organization, as set forth

in an ancient manuscript which was brought from India by Count Angelo de

Gubernatis and exhibited in Florence in 1898, by Mr. Pullé, in an

extremely instructive series of native maps of India: 1. In the oldest

maps, the empire of India was represented as a disk, divided into a number

of concentric zones, in the centre of which arose the sacred mountain. 2.

These representations were, in several cases, accompanied by

representations of the swastika obviously representing quadruplicate

territorial division.

On Mount Meru itself there were four lakes respectively filled with milk,

butter, coagulated milk and sugar. Four great rivers flowed from the

mountain towards the cardinal points, namely, the Ganges, issuing from the

mouth of a cow, the Sita from the head of the elephant; the Bhadra from a

tiger or lion and the Chaksu from a horse. According to Buddhistic

mythology, the sacred mountain Meru, which constitutes the centre of the

world, is guarded by four hero “kings of demons.” Their names are as

follows: 1. Kubera or Vaisrānana, the god of wealth, who lives in the

north, whose attributes are the lance and banner, the rat which throws

forth jewels from its mouth. 2. Virūdhaka, who rules the south, and whose

attributes are the helmet in the form of an elephant’s head, and a long

sword. 3. Virūpāksha, the guardian of the west: attributes, the jewel and

the serpent. 4 Dhrtarāshtra, the ruler of the east: attribute, the

mandoline.

An interesting parallelism is brought out by a comparison between the

ancient Mexican mode of producing the sacred fire by means of a reed and a

piece of wood and its symbolism of the mystic union of the two principles

of nature, to the origin of fire as told in the Veda and the ceremonial

mode employed in India to produce the sacred fire by means of the mystic

arani and the pramantha. The difference between the ancient American and

Indian apparatus should be noticed. The two arani, made of the wood of

_Ficus religiosa_, were placed crosswise. “At their junction was a

fossette or cup-like hole and there they placed a piece of wood upright,

in the form of a lance (the pramantha), violent rotation of which by means

of whipping, produced fire, as did Prometheus, the bearer of fire in

Greece” (Bournouf, Des Sciences et Religions and Prof. Thomas Wilson, The

Swastika, p. 777). A remarkable relation unquestionably exists between the

two mystic arani, which, crossed, form a four-branched cross from the

centre of which fire is produced by rotation and the almost universal

identification of Polaris and Ursa Major, as the central source of life,

power extending to four directions, rotation and duality underlying

quadruplicity. In my opinion no more graphic presentation of the rotation

of Ursa Major around Polaris, the central ruler of heaven, could have been

devised than the cross figure from the centre of which fire was

perpetually obtained.

It is all the more significant, therefore, to find it stated that the

ancient Aryan light-god, Mithra, was worshipped under the form of fire. I

point out that, in a representation published by Layard in his Culte de

Mithra and reproduced here (fig. 72, 1) from Mr. Goodyear’s work, a man

and a woman are represented as worshipping a star, the scene so strongly

recalling the portion of the Hindu marriage ceremony where the pole-star

is pointed out, that an identity of scene suggests itself. Returning to

the swastika: its meaning in India appears to be forgotten; but, according

to Professor Thomas Wilson, a follower of the Jain religion expressed the

opinion that “the original idea was very high, but later on some persons

thought the swastika represented only the combination of the male and

female principles” (Thomas Wilson, On the Swastika, p. 803).

To the Hindu, holding this view and also accustomed to associate the

pole-star with the marriage rite, there must exist a curious band of union

and identity between Polaris and the swastika, both connected with the

combination of the male and female principles.

To treat of the Hindu calendar and division of time would be to transgress

beyond the limits of the present investigation which has already assumed

unforeseen dimensions. As I shall discuss it in detail in my monograph on

the ancient Mexican Calendar system, it will suffice to recall here that

Humboldt pointed out the resemblance between the latter and the Hindu

system, and that this has been further dwelt upon for instance in the

article on the subject in the Encyclopædia Britannica. In the same work of

reference it is also stated that, “according to the conclusions of

Delambre, the Hindoo knowledge of astronomy was greatly inferior to that

of the Greeks, and it has been argued by Laplace, in opposition to the

previous opinions of Bailly, that the Indian astronomy is not of the

highest antiquity, but must have been imperfectly borrowed from the

Greeks.” I may as well state here, however, that, in India as in Mexico,

the divisions of time were in accordance with the general scheme, and

enabled human activity and labor to be controlled and carried out by means

of rotation, and with strict impartial law, order and harmony.

Pausing here and with a clear realization of probable omissions and

deficiencies of material, I venture to believe that the foregoing data

suffice to establish beyond a doubt the point which is the main object of

the present essay, namely, that in India the swastika is found accompanied

by the primordial set of ideas which also form the basis of the Chinese

and ancient American civilizations. The Middle is, moreover, associated in

India with the idea of immovability, repose and centrifugal power and

rule, incorporated in the supreme divinity whose symbol is the wheel and

who is represented as dual and quadruple in nature, _i. e._ with four

hands (as two persons), and with four heads (four persons), the six

persons thus symbolized being united in the person of the seventh, the

synopsis of them all. The seven-day period; the seven zones of the earth;

the seven divine footsteps towards the north; the seven councillors of the

Brahmin king, etc., all prove that, whereas six directions in space were

worshipped in India, they were inseparable from the sacred seventh which

united all of them. The mythical sacred mountain Meru, the throne of the

supreme eternal power, constituted the fixed centre of the world and

strikingly exemplified quadruplicate division and organization, being

associated with four lakes and four rivers; four mythical animals and four

guardians. In consonance with this plan Brahma was endowed with four heads

and four hands; the empire was divided into four quarters and seven zones,

and the population into four castes identified with four colors, and

governed by a king and seven councillors. The wheel, associated in the

case of Mithra with the serpent, constituted the emblem of supreme

dominion and rule which was connected with the idea of an extension to the

four quarters. The swastika was but another expression of the same idea

and represented also an image of the universal scheme. This sign and the

pole-star were both associated, in the native mind, with the

life-producing union of the male and female principles of nature and the

sacred element fire, under which form the supreme god was anciently

worshipped. The lotus flower symbolized the universe, its unity and

complexity; the number of petals represented usually agreeing with the

number of the cosmical divisions. Two points should further be briefly

referred to: The division of time into seven-day periods coincides with

the septenary scheme of organization resting upon the seven directions in

space. The sacred soma tree, the hom, was an object of cult in India. The

custom of planting a Bodhi tree wherever Buddhist missionaries established

their doctrine indicates its association with the idea of an established

centre. The employment of wooden sticks for the production of the sacred

fire under which form the supreme central god was anciently worshipped,

also connected wood and the tree with the sacred Centre. Deferring a

discussion of the different and yet analogous way in which the fundamental

set of ideas was worked out in America and India, I shall but mention here

how clearly, in each case, the ultimate results can be traced back to a

common primitive and natural origin.