Swastika motif
The origins of the swastika are unknown. It has been used for thousands of years as a symbol of the sun, of infinity and continuing recreation and fertility in China, Sumeria, Egypt, India, Greece, Scandinavia, the Americas and elsewhere. It has been found on the textiles of the Incas, on the relics unearthed at Troy and in the catacombs of Rome. It is also one of the sacred signs of Buddhism.
The word comes from the Sanskrit ‘svastika’ meaning ‘prosperity’, and it was thought to bring good luck. As a decorative motif, it exists in many distorted forms on the doors of nearly all Seljuk and Ottoman buildings, notably on the gateways of Diyarbakir, and in the gateway of the Karatay Mosque in Konya.
Some extremist Teutonic nationalists in Austria began to use it in the mistaken belief that the swastika was of Indian origin and therefore an Aryan motif symbolising their self-designated racial superiority. Hitler himself saw it as symbolising, in his own words: ‘The fight for victory of Aryan man and of the idea of creative work, which in itself eternally has been anti-Semitic and eternally will be anti-Semitic’.
Ani, Eastern Turkey
Swastika motif
The origins of the swastika are unknown. It has been used for thousands of years as a symbol of the sun, of infinity and continuing recreation and fertility in China, Sumeria, Egypt, India, Greece, Scandinavia, the Americas and elsewhere. It has been found on the textiles of the Incas, on the relics unearthed at Troy and in the catacombs of Rome. It is also one of the sacred signs of Buddhism.
The word comes from the Sanskrit ‘svastika’ meaning ‘prosperity’, and it was thought to bring good luck. As a decorative motif, it exists in many distorted forms on the doors of nearly all Seljuk and Ottoman buildings, notably on the gateways of Diyarbakir, and in the gateway of the Karatay Mosque in Konya.
Some extremist Teutonic nationalists in Austria began to use it in the mistaken belief that the swastika was of Indian origin and therefore an Aryan motif symbolising their self-designated racial superiority. Hitler himself saw it as symbolising, in his own words: ‘The fight for victory of Aryan man and of the idea of creative work, which in itself eternally has been anti-Semitic and eternally will be anti-Semitic’.
Ani, Eastern Turkey