I deem it privilege to post this monograph by Ajit Padmanabh.
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Ajit Padmanabh's explanation of svastika in the context of the Cosmic dancer as the embodiment of ākāśa in Chidambaram is simply scintillating. आ-काश m. (Ved.) or (later) n. (ifc. f(आ).) a free or open space , vacuity AitBr. S3Br. MBh. &c; the ether , sky or atmosphere Naigh. S3Br. Mn. &c; n. (in philos.) the subtle and ethereal fluid (supposed to fill and pervade the universe and to be the peculiar vehicle of life and of sound) Veda1ntas. &c; आ-काश--भाषित n. (in theatrical language) speaking off the stage (to one out of sight) Comm. on n. (in theatrical language) speaking off the stage (to one out of sight) Comm. on मृच्छकटिका (Monier-William
Ajit Padmanabh's insights both in his Carnatic fusion and in the embedded monograph should provide a framework for understanding the significance of svastika symbol across civilizations, across millennia.
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Fig 1: Spain Swastika - A Roman mosaic at Barcelona.JPG Caption: Pre-christian Europe also made use of the symbol - A Roman mosaic at Barcelona (Source)
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Fig 2: 20th Century usage.PNG Caption: Svastika was used in USA and Europe widely in 20th century. (Source)
– Director of the human rights group Liberty
I am enthralled by Ajit Padmanabh's 4 min. Carnatic fusion, from his album 'Think Void'. Brilliant.
Musical fusion is also a form comparable to alchemical transmutation as the musical notes engage the ātman.
https://youtu.be/
https://youtu.be/
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"One, The World Over" is from the album "Think Void" by World Void Web (Ajit Padmanabh) featuring the legendary Rock Guitarist Baiju Dharmajan. It's Ajit's debut album, centered around the concepts of our life's webs, this world and the Void. Musically the song is an instrumental Carnatic Rock fusion piece. The song talks about our oneness. It was inspired by deep sea creatures like Ctenophores who live without boundaries. Why then, can't we exist in unity, across the world? Realising that we are all spiritual beings immersed in a human experience can bring about a paradigm shift in our thinking, thereby helping overcome our individualistic web and becoming one, the world over![unquote]
Ajit Padmanabh's insights both in his Carnatic fusion and in the embedded monograph should provide a framework for understanding the significance of svastika symbol across civilizations, across millennia.
On svastika in the context of Indus Script inscriptions, see:
mōṝẽ jasta, sattva 'zinc assembly' kol 'tiger', kole.l 'temple' kolhe 'smelter' mandari 'drummer' mẽṛhẽt 'iron' munda 'Toda village or assembly' mondir 'temple' https://tinyurl.com/y6tzzqoo
Namaskaram.
Kalyanaraman, Sarasvati Research Centre
Svastika and Souvastika – My Tryst -- Ajit Padmanabh
In 2016, while working on the concept of my debut music album “Think Void”, I was seeking an answer to the question – Of all 5 elements depicted visually as “icons”, how is Ether depicted?
My research took me to the physical embodiment of the Ether “Akasha” element i.e. The Nataraja Temple at Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu. The temple is dedicated to the element of Ether and its metaphysical realization as Sadashiva. Each facet of the temple, its placement or its direction is a physical representation of the metaphysical. The element of “Ether” or “Akasha” is associated with the Throat Chakra and denotes purity of thought, action and words. Creativity is the noblest with purity of thoughts, actions and words. This might be the reason why the temple is dedicated to Nataraja, the cosmic dance of creation and destruction. It’s the only temple with all the positions of Bharatanatyam depicted visually.
While it did help me appreciate the depths of our ancient seekers and the multi-skilled intellectuals that they were, the visual depiction of Akasha, the origin of my quest, was still elusive. Raja Dikshitar, the man responsible for spreading the knowledge of the Nataraja temple far and wide, had written this about the temple.
This principle of symmetry is expressed in the ancient doctrine by a geometrical symbol which is both extreme in its simplicity as well as in its effectiveness in conveying the concept of super symmetry in all its implications in all its implications. In the ancient cosmological map, which is the temple of Shiva Nataraja, it is embodied in the total form of the structure. The temple layout has the shape of a sauvastika, an anti-clockwise svastika. This ancient symbol can now be understood as representing the Akasha, the Ether, as well as expressing the concept of super symmetry in modern physics.
There it was. The ubiquitous symbol that I had always seen throughout my life. My question was answered. This has led me to a deeper quest, which has taken me places, in the inner world, and will continue till the end.
The term sauvastika (or sauwastika) is sometimes used to distinguish the left-facing from the right-facing svastika symbol, a meaning which developed in 19th century scholarship. The left-facing variant is favoured in Bon and Gurung
Dharma; it is called yungdrung in Bon and Gurung Yantra in Gurung Dharma. Both the right-facing and left-facing variants are employed in Hinduism
and Buddhism. However, the left-facing is more commonly used in Buddhism than Hinduism and the right-facing is more commonly used in Hinduism than Buddhism. The sauvastika is imprinted on the chest, feet, palms of Buddha and also the first of the 65 auspicious symbols on the footprint of the Buddha. In Hinduism the left-facing sauwastika
Dharma; it is called yungdrung in Bon and Gurung Yantra in Gurung Dharma. Both the right-facing and left-facing variants are employed in Hinduism
and Buddhism. However, the left-facing is more commonly used in Buddhism than Hinduism and the right-facing is more commonly used in Hinduism than Buddhism. The sauvastika is imprinted on the chest, feet, palms of Buddha and also the first of the 65 auspicious symbols on the footprint of the Buddha. In Hinduism the left-facing sauwastika
is associated with esoteric tantric practices and often stands for Goddess Kali.
Svastika - Symbol of Coherence and Symmetry in Sankhya Philosophy1
Lokmanya Tilak, a mathematician, Sanskrit scholar and patriot, was intrigued by the fact that quite often translations of profound Vedic texts lacked clarity and logical precision. It failed to establish an unequivocal connection with the real world the ancient authors were trying to portray. Through his two classical works, the “The Orion” and “The Arctic Home in the Vedas” he provided a logical explanation for the apparent lack of cogency in many Vedic translations and quite specifically the Rigveda. The Lokmanya boldly pushed back the Vedic chronology to the pre-glacial era, based on his mathematical expertise. It not only seemed plausible but it had to be true if one had to logically reconcile numerous scientific facts the Vedas had exposed. He hypothesized that the present generations of humanity were the survivors of a global flooding cataclysm caused by the melting of glaciers in the Polar Regions.
The first sloka of the Rigveda theorised the availability of free energy in space, for Vedic scientific logic defined it as being substantial, dynamic and holographic; not empty and vacuous. This again, for my tryst with Void, was resonant. The Sanathana school of thought always thought Ether Akasha and Void are one and the same – Supreme, Holographic, All-encompassing. It is bigger than the biggest yet smaller than the smallest in the whole universe (Manifest).
The Sankhya Karika by Ishwara Krishna (Sankhya), containing axiomatic theorems of logic, confirmed this possibility. Sankhya logic split interactive events in space into a sequence of cyclic oscillatory actions when observable, else it was in ‘simultaneous, coherent or synchronised (apparently static)’ state. The pseudo static restful state provided the ground state or 'potential sink' for higher activity levels to drift or gravitate towards it in attaining a state of equilibrium.
Humanity should forever be grateful to Maharishi Kapila for having introduced the concept of a positive intellectual self-affirmation process defined as Siddhi in Sanskrit and doubly confirmed its perfection, by laying bare the axiomatic operating principles of phenomenon in just 70 Suthras, with its own internally derived proof, by an extra-ordinary and unequivocal numerical value. By establishing the fact that the observer need only deal with vibratory counts in measuring cyclic phenomenon, he dislodged the concept of clock time that experimental physics now has raised to a position of eminence. Through rigorous logic, time in Sankhya, is shown to be an indicator of a relative delay in the completion of an interactive event. This factor shown is the measure of slackness, flexibility or degree of freedom to move in states that interact in the simultaneous mode, normally described as coherent, synchronised or symmetric space. He must also be credited with deriving a precise mathematical method to deal with simultaneous or instantaneous phenomenon identifying the coherent potential, that eliminates the pain of dividing by “zero” time and has taught man to discover the large spectrum of coherent phenomenon hidden behind the infinitesimal, by mathematically peeping over the zero time barrier. The cyclic period of coherent and symmetric phenomena is symbolically represented by the mystic symbol the Svastika which can never turn into a cross for the ultimate Moolaprakriti activity cannot be destroyed. Above all, he has raised the so-called empty vacuum of space to its pivotal and deified role as the source of all power in manifesting phenomenon.
Svastika in Music as Spirit/Energy – Ancient Repetitive Patterns2
The repetitive patterns of meditation music can relax taut nerves and induce quasi-hypnotic states in which the mind may become quiet as a lake reflecting the sky. Archaic magic used repetition and in so doing reflected the cosmogonic process. All material organizations' generate a great deal of inertia, and at the beginning of the universe the undifferentiated matter of chaos has to be whirled for immense periods into spirals of cosmic motion through the repetitive operation of forces which in their unity aspect constitute creative spirit. The acts of spirit are immensely repetitive (spirit has been symbolized by the hammer of Thor, the whirling svastika).
Svastika, hence, becomes a symbol of cyclicity of music, be it a beat, a rhythm or a combination of notes. And to think of it, Svastika is the aniconic symbolism of Sun, the life-force. Music, Art, Dance, Life and facets associated with it, all being cyclic, can thus be encompassed within this symbol.
Svastika in Metallurgy:
In a research paper, Dr S Kalyanaraman links the Svastika glyph in the Sindhu Sarasvati Script to denote Zinc, an ingredient of the Alloy of Brass. His paper got me intrigued and I tried to link the common symbolism of luck, love and happiness that Svastika is associated with, and if it has a bearing in terms of neurosciences.
A bit about Zinc in terms of Indian Metallurgy. Zinc production may have begun in India, and ancient northwestern India is the earliest known civilization that produced zinc on an industrial scale. The distillation technique was developed around 1200 CE at Zawar in Rajasthan. In 1738, William Champion is credited with patenting in Britain a process to extract zinc from calamine in a smelter, a technology that bore a strong resemblance to and was probably inspired by the process used in the Zawar zinc mines in Rajasthan. His first patent was rejected by the patent court on grounds of plagiarising the technology common in India. However, he was granted the patent on his second submission of patent approval. Postlewayt's Universal Dictionary of 1751 still wasn't aware of how Zinc was produced!3
The total content of zinc in the adult human body averages almost 2 g. This is approximately half the total iron content and 10 to 15 times the total body copper. In the brain, zinc is with iron, the most concentrated metal. The highest levels of zinc are found in the hippocampus in synaptic vesicles, boutons, and mossy fibers. Zinc is also found in large concentrations in the choroid layer of the retina which is an extension of the brain. Zinc plays an important role in axonal and synaptic transmission and is necessary for nucleic acid metabolism and brain tubulin growth and phosphorylation. Lack of zinc has been implicated in impaired DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis during brain development. For these reasons, deficiency of zinc during pregnancy and lactation has been shown to be related to many congenital abnormalities of the nervous system in offspring.4
Interestingly, when I look at neuroscientific research, the element Zinc comes across as the main bringer of happiness to the human body, be it in terms of synapses in the brain or in the heart.5 What a beauty that Svastika was referred to as denotion of happiness, good life, light etc since the ancient times.
Svastika - Misconceptions
Myth: The svastika is mostly associated with Buddha in India, China, and Japan. Early Chinese symbolism (Source)
Fact: Svastika is associated with the Vedic civilization and even finds mentions in Civilizations across the world, eons before the birth of Buddha or Christ. For more, jump to the book reference6 at the end of this blog.
Myth: Nazi symbol, outrages the west
Fact:
Fig 1: Spain Swastika - A Roman mosaic at Barcelona.JPG Caption: Pre-christian Europe also made use of the symbol - A Roman mosaic at Barcelona (Source)
Fig 2: 20th Century usage.PNG Caption: Svastika was used in USA and Europe widely in 20th century. (Source)
Svastika was always used in the west until 1920s across sports, military and pop culture, as shown above. It’s banned in Germany, with rest of Europe thinking about it. The fear psychosis it generates in the west can be understood from the Microsoft Apology stated below (Source).
Microsoft has learned of a mistake in the Bookshelf Symbol 7 font... we failed to identify, prior to the release, the presence of two svastikas2 within the font. We apologize for this and for any offense caused.
– Steven Sinofsky, senior vice-President, Microsoft
– Steven Sinofsky, senior vice-President, Microsoft
Another instance when the symbol caused outrage occurred in 2005, when Prince Harry appeared at a fancy dress party wearing a desert uniform of Rommel's Afrika Korps tunic complete with svastika armband and German Wehrmacht (defence force) collar badge.
Summary:
What started with an innocuous query to satiate my curiosity turned out to be a life-long quest to seek knowledge from sources ancient and the modern, on the depth of our ancestors’ acumen. The Svastika is ubiquitous in various spheres of life, be it in temple architecture, music, astronomy, astrology, metallurgy, the very working of cosmos and everything within it, apart from a symbol of happiness and luck.
Education would be more beneficial than a ban.
– Director of the human rights group Liberty
It’s time the west is sensitized on the ancient symbolism and the positivity associated with the symbol, spanning across ancient civilizations, on all continents. The svastika continues to represent life, love, light and good luck to billions of people globally, with it denoting Zinc, the happiness element for the human body.
References and Further Reading:
1 - 1. Secret Of Sankhya: Acme Of Scientific Unification by G Srinivasan
2 - Magic of Tone and Art of Music by Dane Rudhyar
3 -2. Zinc in Ancient India
4 - 3. Zinc in Human Brain
5 - 4. Zinc - The Happiness Element