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The swastika is an equilateral cross with arms bent at right angles, all in the same rotary direction, usually clockwise. The swastika as an ancient symbol of prosperity and good fortune, and it was widely distributed throughout the ancient and modern world. The word for this symbol is derived from the Sanskrit svastika, which means "conducive to wellbeing." The swastika was a favorite symbol on ancient Mesopotamian coinage. In Scandinavia, the lefthand swastika was the sign for the god Thor's hammer. The swastika also appeared in early Christian and Byzantine art and was known as the gammadion cross, or crux gammata, because it could be constructed from four Greek gammas attached to a common base. The symbol can also be found in South and Central America, among the Maya, and in North America, principally among the Navajo (Encyclopedia Britannica Online).

The swastika has had a religious connotation for centuries and continues to be seen in this light in some places. The swastika continues to be seen in India as the most widely used auspicious symbol of Hindus, Jainas, and Buddhists. Among the Jainas, the swastika is the emblem of their seventh Tirthankara (saint), and its four arms are also said to remind the worshiper of the four possible places of rebirthin the animal or plant world, in hell, on Earth, or in the spirit world. The Hindus (and also Jainas) use the swastika to mark the opening pages of their account books, thresholds, doors, and offerings. A clear distinction should be made between the righthand swastika, which moves in a clockwise direction, and the lefthand swastika (more correctly called the sauvastika), which moves in a counterclockwise direction. The righthand version is considered a solar symbol because it imitates the course taken daily by the sun in the rotation of its arms, for in the Northern Hemisphere the sun appears to pass from east, then south, to west. The lefthand swastika more...