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.c47.7295

v7.c47.7295

Before examining the very widely spread use of the svastika figure in Indian life and culture, it is desirable to notice briefly its antiquity and use in other countries, without, however, committing oneself about its migration from India, or its independent growth in other countries all over the world. Thomas Wilson in his book *Suastika* (Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1894) has largely referred to the various objects of different countries whereupon the svastika mark has been found. ‘The earliest undoubted reference of the svastika’, as held by Mr. H. K. Deb, ‘is said to be in connection with the Third city on the site of Hissarlik, identified with ancient Troy.’ It is common also in the Fourth and Fifth cities on the same site, and is principally found there on spindle whorls, dating approximately from fourteenth or thirteenth century B. C. It is, however, a remarkable fact that this svastika was not found in the First and Second cities but emerged in a variety of forms in the Third or the burnt city. This fact clearly indicates that the svastika was foreign to Troy and that it was imported and introduced there about the middle of the second millenium B. C. Its importation from Vedic India is indicated by Professor Winckler’s discoveries at Boghaz Kuei. It has been established by C. H. W. Johns (*Ancient Assyria*, 1912, p. 54) that about 1400 B. C. kings with Indo-Aryan names and worshipping vedic gods were ruling the region of Mitanni. ‘The names Sutarna, Dushratta, etc., have a distinctly Indo-Aryan appearance. It is instructive to compare the name Gilukhipa, borne by a daughter of Sutarna I, who was also queen of Amernophis III of Egypt (*c.* 1400 B. C.) with the name Gurukshepa (Pargiter, *Dynasties of the Kali Age*, p. 9) borne by the third successor of Bṛihadbala of Kosala who had fallen in the Bharata War.’ Ample evidence has been secured which goes to show that there was intimate inter-communication at that period among the different peoples inhabiting Asia Minor, Egypt and the Aegean Island, so that the Vedic religion obtaining in Mittani had many opportunities for circulation abroad. Earlier still, Mittani had been the centre of an extensive empire, and the migration of the svastika symbol to Troy in those days is intelligible enough (*J. R. A. S.*, Vol. XVII, p. 242).