Manasara Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Manasara-Shilpashastra; III. Manasara on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Manasara: Translation; V. Architecture of Manasara: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v7.c47.7270

v7.c47.7270

(13) ‘M. Burnouf holds that this mysterious and much debated symbo (Svastika 卍, 卐) is intended to denote the invention of the fire-drill, and preserve the sacred remembrance of the discovery of fire by rotating a peg in dry wood. It represents according to him, the two pieces of wood laid crosswise, one upon another, before the sacrificial altar, in order to produce the holy fire. The ends of the cross were fixed down by arms, and at the point where the two pieces are joined there was a small hole in which a wooden peg or lance (pramantha, whence the myth of Prometheus, the fire-bearer) was rotated by a cord of cow-hair and hemp till the sacred spark was produced. The invention of the fire-drill would mark an epoch in human history. Mr. Tylor, in his *Early History of Mankind*, has largely shown its use at some period in every quarter of the globe, and it is conceivable that its invention would be commemorated by a holy symbol. After this Mr. Walhouse has shewn that both forms existed in all countries of Europe, Asia and Africa. “Its first appearance (in Europe) is on the pottery of archaic Greece, as on that in the British Museum ascribed to between the years 700 and 500 b.c.” About India, he says that ‘a character nearly resembling the runic G, occurs in a Pāli inscription, and reversed 卍, in a rock-inscription at Salsette” (*J. R. A. S.*, Vol. xx, p. 250, etc.). He has also shewn that it is both a Buddhist, Jaina, and Christian emblem. “In our own day,” says he, “it has become a favourite ornamental device,”—we may be sure with no thought of symbolism,—and archaeologist returning from India may observe it covering ceilings, cornices, fenders, and other ironworks.’