Fig. 47.—A stone slab from the ancient city of Mayapan (Yucatan, Central America), on which (right side) a curvilinear swastika is carved. (From the American Antiquarian Society, 1881.)
Apart from this problem, there is an interesting question as to how the device probably took its origin. The "Swastika" is sometimes called the "gammadion," because it may be regarded as four individuals of the Greek letter gamma (which has this shape [Greek: G]) joined at right angles to one another. The old English name for it, dating from Anglo-Saxon times, was fylfot—an old Norse word of doubtful meaning, which has no currency at the present day.
A method of making the Swastika by piling up sand or grain on a flat surface, actually in use at the present time in India, is shown in Fig. 48. The artist makes first of all a circle with a cross drawn within it (A). Then the circle is rubbed out or cut away at four corresponding points where the arms of the cross touch the circle, and so we get B. Then by the straightening of the curved pieces we get the correct rectangular Swastika, C. It is not probable that this is the way in which the Swastika was originally devised, though it is not possible to arrive at any certainty on the subject.
In these matters concerning the origin of simple ornamental patterns, designs, and symbols, we always have to deal with certain natural opposing tendencies on the part of the artist-draughtsman or designer, one or other of which may be variously called into prominence by the softness or hardness or other quality of the material he has to use, or by the individual fancy for elaboration or for simplification which exists in him. I will call four of these tendencies which concern us in regard to the Swastika: 1, the rectilinear as opposed to 2, the curvilinear, and 3, the grammatizing as opposed to 4, the naturalizing tendency, and will show what bearing they may have on the origin of the device known as the Swastika.
Fig. 48.—Diagram to show the derivation of the swastika from a Greek cross enclosed by a circle. In India the swastika is actually modelled in this way—in native ceremonies with rice-grain spread on the ground. The successive figures drawn above are produced by moving the rice with the hand.