The Swastika
Dispersion of the Swastika
extreme
end of the bent arm an eighth of an inch longer. This is too fine a point
to be relied upon. If this punch mark had these arms lengthened an eighth
of an inch, it would confessedly become a square. Swastika on ancient Hindu coins. --- It is not to be inferred from this opposition that the Swastika never appearedon ancient coins. It did appear, but seems to have been of a later date and to have belonged farther east among the Hindus. Fig. 230 shows an ancient (Hindu?) coin reported by Waring, who cites Cunningham as authority for its having been found at Ujain. The design consists of a cross with independent circles on the outer end of each of the four arms, the circles being large enough to intersect each other. The field of each of these circles bears a Swastika of normal form. Other coins are cited of the same style, with small center dots an concentric circles int he stead of the Swastika. What meaning the Swastika has here, beyond the possible one of being a lucky penny, is not suggested.
Other ancient Hindu coins bearing the Swastika (figs. 231-234) are attributed to Cunningham by Waring. (1) These are said by Waring to be Buddhist coins found at Behat near Scharaupur. Mr. E. Thomas, in his article on the "Earliest Indian Coinage," (2) ascribes them to the reign of Krananda, a Buddhist Indian king contemporary with or prior to Alexander, about 330 B. C.
The coins of Krananda, (3) contemporary of Alexander the Great, (4) bear the Swastika mark, associated with the principal Buddhist marks, the trisula, the stupha, sacred tree, sacred cone, etc. Waring says (5) that according to Prinsep's "Engravings of Hindu Coins," the Swastika seems to disappear from them about 200 B. C., nor is it found on the
ENDNOTES:
1. "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," pl. 41, figs. 20-23. [Back]
2. Numismatic Chron. (new series), IV. Back
3. "La Migration des Symboles," figs. 17, 123. Back
4. Edward thomse, Journ. Royal Asiatic Soc. (new series), I, p. 475. Back
5. "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," p. 83. Back
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