The Swastika
Dispersion of the Swastika
It is not claimed that this shell proves the migration of Buddhism from Asia, nor its presence among North American Indians. "One swallow does not make a summer." But this figure, taken in connection with the Swastika, presents a set of circumstances corresponding with that possibility which goes a long distance in forming circumstantial evidence in its favor.
M. Gustave d'Eichthal wrote a series of essays in the Revue Archæologique, 1864-656, in which he collated the evidence and favored the theory of Buddhist influence in ancient America. Other writers have taken the same or similar views and have attributed all manner of foreign influence, like the Lost Tribes of Israel, etc., to the North American Indian, (1) but all these theories have properly had but slight influence in turning public opinion in their direction. Mr. V. R. Gandhi, in a recent letter to the author, says of this specimen (pl. 10):
While the Swastika technically means the cross with the arms bent to the right, later on it came to signify anything which had the form of a cross; for instance, the posture in which a persons sits with his legs crossed is called the Swastika posture; also when a person keeps his arms crosswise over his chest, or a woman covers her breast with her arms crossed, that particular attitude is called the Swastika attitude, which has no connection, however, with the symbolic meaning of the Swastika with four arms. The figure [pl. 10], a photograph of which you gave me the other day, has the same Swastika posture. In matters of concentration and meditation. Swastika posture is oftentimes prescribed, which is also called Sukhasana, meaning a posture of ease and comfort. In higher forms of concentration, the posture is changed from Sukhasana to Padmasana, the posture which is generally found in Jain and Buddhist images. The band around the waist, which goes form the navel lower on till it reaches the back part, has a peculiar significance in the Jain philosophy. The Shvetamber division of the Jain community have always this kind of band in their images. The object is twofold: The first is that the generative parts ought not to be visible; the second is that this band is considered a symbol of perfect chastity.
There can be no doubt of the authenticity of these objects, nor any suspicion against their having been found as stated in the labels attached. They are in the Museum collection, as are other specimens. They come unheralded and with their peculiar character unknown. They were obtained by excavations made by a competent and reliable investigator who had been engaged in mound exploration, a regular employé of the Bureau of Ethnology; under the direction of Prof. Cyrus Thomas during several years, and always of good reputation and unblemished integrity. They come with other objects, labeled in the same way and forming one of a series of numbers among thousands. Its resemblance of Buddhist statues was apparently undiscovered or unrecognized, at least unmentioned, by all those having charge of it, and in its mutilated condition it was laid away among a score of other specimens of insufficient value to justify notice or publication, and is now brought to light through accident, no one having charge of it recognizing it as being different from any other of the half hundred engraved shells theretofore described. The excavation of Toco mound is described by Professor Thomas in the Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pages 379-384.
We can now be governed only by a record as to the objects associated with this shell (pl. 10), which shows it to have been found with skeleton No. 8, in Big Toco mound, Monroe County, Tenn., while the Swastika of figure 238 was found with skeleton No. 49, Toco mound contained fifty-two skeletons, or, rather it contained buried objects reported as from that many skeletons. Those reported as with skeleton No. 8 were, in addition to this gorgot: One polished as with skeleton No. 8 were, in addition to this gorgot: One plashed stone hatchet, one stone pipe, and one bowl with scalloped rim. Toco mound seems to have been exceedingly rich, having furnished 198 objects of considerable importance. Association of discovered objects is one of the important means of furnishing evidence in prehistoric archæology. It is deemed of sufficient importance in the present case to note objects from Toco mound associated with the Buddha statue. They are given in list form, segregated by skeletons:
Skeleton No.
4. Two polished stone hatchets, one discoidal stone.
5. One polished stone hatchet.
7. Two large seashells.
8. One stone pipe, one polished stone hatchet, one ornamented
shell gorget (the Buddha statue, pl. 10) one ornamented bowl,
with scalloped rim.
9. Two polished stone hatchets.
12. A lot of small shell beads.
13. Four bone implements (one ornamented), one stone pipe,
two shell gorgets (one ornamented), one bear tooth.
17. One polished stone hatchet.
18. Two polished stone hatchets, one stone pipe, one boat-
shaped bowl (ornamented), one shell gorget (ornamented),
one shell mask, one shell pin, one shell gorget, one bear
tooth, lot of shell beads.
22. Two polished stone chisels, one stone disk.
24. One polished stone hatchet.
26. Two polished stone hatchets, one waterworn stone, two
hammer stones.
27. One polished stone hatchet.
28. Two polished stone hatchets, one ornamented bowl.
31. One polished stone hatchet, one polished stone chisel.
33. Two polished stone hatchets, one two-eared pot, one
small shell gorget, three shell pins, fragments of pottery.
34. Three polished stone hatchets.
36. One discoidal stone.
ENDNOTES:
1. This theory was first announced by Antonio de Montezinos and published by MANASSER ben ISRAEL in Amsterdam, 1636. In Leser Library, Phil., and Cohen Library, Balto. Catalogued by Dr. Cyrus Adler. First English Ed. by Moses Wall, London: 1651, republished by Dr. Crossmann, Am. JEWS Annual 1889, p. 83. [Back]
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