The name sauwastika is a variant of swastika. It comes from the Sanskrit, sauvastika being a vriddhi-derivation of svastika. In English, the spelling is meant to distinguish the left-facing from the right-facing form of the motif. Some writers have speculated that the left-facing and right-forms had different meanings, and that the left-facing form was inauspicious, in opposion to the right-facing version.

Contents

1 Early accounts of distinctions between the two versions 2 Modern use of the sauwastika 3 Nazi swastika and the sauwastika 1 References 2 See also 3 External links

Early accounts of distinctions between the two versions

Eugene Burnouf, the first Western expert on Buddhism, stated in his book "Lotus de la bonne loi" (p. 625) that the Buddhists recognize no less that sixty-five auspicious signs in the footprints of the Buddha, the first of them being the Svastika the fourth is the Suavastika [sic], or that with the arms turned to the left; the third, the Nandyurarta, is a mere development of the Svastika. When Heinrich Schliemann discovered swastika motifs in Troy, he wrote to the Indologist Max Müller, who confirmed this distinction, adding that "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." The letter was published in Schliemann's book Ilios, (Harper Brothers, 1881, pp. 347,348)).

However, Thomas Wilson, author of The Swastika (1896), states that: "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." Likewise, in Sir Monier Monier-Williams's Sanskrit dictionary [1], it is glossed as an obscure word attested only by lexicographers, with a meaning "benedictive, salutatory" or "auspicious progress".

Modern use of the sauwastika

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.

Nevertheless the notion of a 'backwards' swastika has persisted. D'Alviella, in The Migration of Symbols, says [2] —

In India it [the gammadion] bears the name of swastika, when its arms are bent towards the right, and sauwastika when they are turned in the other direction.

The distinction has acquired significance in some forms of neo-paganism in which it is claimed that the right-facing swastika has a sunwise rotation whereas the left-facing sauwastika has a widdershins rotation. These rotations are said to have traditional opposite associations:

• sunwise – toward God, lucky, good
• widdershins – away from God, unlucky, evil

Nazi swastika and the sauwastika

Some contemporary writers – Servando González, for example – confuse matters even further by asserting that the right-facing swastika, used by the Nazis is in fact 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 derive from a desire to prove that the Nazi's use of the right-handed swastika was expressive of their "evil" intent. (See also: Taboo in North America and Europe.) But the notion that Hitler deliberately inverted the "good left-facing" swastika is wholly unsupported by any historical evidence.

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

• Lauburu
• Sun cross
• Triskelion
• Valknut

External links

• sites presenting versions of Wilson's The Swaztika (above)
  • The Swastika (a transcription for Northvegr by Alfta Svanni Lothursdottir; contains some transcription errors)
  • Swaztika (sic) (a scan of the original publication)