| svastika स्वस्तिक Definition: m. any lucky or auspicious object, (especially) a kind of mystical cross or mark made on persons and things to denote good luck (it is shaped like a Greek cross with the extremities of the four arms bent round in the same direction;the majority of scholars regard it as a solar symbol;that is, as representing a curtailed form of the wheel of the Solar viṣṇu-, consisting of four spokes crossing each other at right angles with short fragments of the periphery of the circle at the end of each spoke turning round in one direction to denote the course of the Sun; according to to the late Sir  Cunningham it has no connexion with sun-worship, but its shape represents a monogram or interlacing of the letters of the auspicious words su ast/i-[ svasti-]in the aśoka- characters;amongst jaina-s it is one of the 24 auspicious marks and is the emblem of the seventh arhat- of the present avasarpiṇī-) |