Swastika (redirected from Swastica)

swastika

Equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, all in the same rotary direction, usually clockwise. It is used widely throughout the world as a symbol of prosperity and good fortune. In India, it continues to be the most common auspicious symbol of Hindus and Jains, as well as for Buddhists, for whom it symbolizes the Buddha’s feet or footprints. In China and Japan, where it traveled with the spread of Buddhism, it has been used to denote plurality, prosperity, and long life. It occurs as a motif in early Christian and Byzantine art, as well as in Maya and Navajo art. The counterclockwise swastika, suggested as a general anti-Semitic symbol in 1910 by the German poet and nationalist Guido von List, was adopted as the symbol of the Nazi Party at its founding in 1919–20.

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swastika

this symbol with clockwise arms, officially adopted in 1935 as the emblem of Nazi Germany

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swastika [′swäs·tə·kə]

(mathematics)

A plane curve whose equation in Cartesian coordinatesxandyisy⁴-x⁴=xy.

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swastika

symbol of German anti-Semitism since 1918; became emblem of Nazi party. [Ger. Hist.: Collier’s, XVIII, 78]

See : Anti-Semitism

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swastika

ancient sign of good luck, often in the form of a charm or talisman. [Asiatic Culture: Brewer Dictionary, 1051]

See : Luck, Good

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Swastika

a cross with the ends of the arms bent at right angles; one of the oldest decorative motifs found on works of art of ancient cultures of Europe and Asia, including ancient India, and, more rarely, of Africa and America. During classical Greek and Roman times, the swastika was occasionally used on Greek vases and Greek and Sicilian coins; later it was used by European medieval and folk artists. The symbolism of the swastika is unclear. It has been interpreted to represent, among other things, the sun, crossed bolts of lightning, and Thor’s hammer. The swastika is sometimes called gammadion (crux gammata) because it consists of four Greek capital letters gamma branching out from one point.

In more recent times, the swastika has been used as the central compositional element of the flag of fascist Germany and has come to symbolize barbarism and violence.

REFERENCCE

Jaeger, K. Zur Geschichte und Symbolik des Hakenkreuzes. Leipzig, 1921.