Dear Eric
There was an article on the Swastika in Journal No.10
of July 1929, pp.4-5 which contains some comments
attributed to Kipling and also identifies the source
of the Ganesha roundel that appears on the Macmillan
editions (and now the Journal). I have appended a
transcript below.
From my observation, the swastika was still on "Limits
and Renewals" (1932) but has disappeared from
"Souvenirs of France" (July 1933).
With best regards
David Page
Harrow, UK
-------------------------
The Swastika.
A Note by Mr. Edgar Brown (Member).
IN adopting the Swastika from the covers and pages of
the Kipling books as an emblem, the Kipling Society
has chosen a sign not only of immediate significance
but also of the widest and most appropriate
application. The Swastika,which in Sanskrit means
"fortunate"' or "well-being," has been used from the
earliest times and by the most varied peoples.
Kipling himself has been fascinated by it. "There is a
huge book (I've forgotten the name, but the
Smithsonian will know)about the Swastika (pronounced
Swas-ti-ka to rhyme with "car's ticker") in
literature, art, religion, dogma, etc.," is what
he wrote in reply to a query from Edward Bok, then
Editor of the American Ladies' Home Journal, to which
Kipling contributed William the Conqueror and other
items.
The symbol, with embellishing lines between the arms
in the first known instance, appeared in the
Mediterranean area before it found its way into the
East. It is encountered in Europe at the close of the
Neolithic Age, originating possibly in the Ęgean
civilisation and being used as a potter's stamp on
neolithic ware at Tordos and in South Italy. It is
among the marks incised upon the blocks used for the
Minoan palaces of Phaestus and Cnossus, and it appears
in the lake villages and neolithic remains in France
and Central Europe.
The Swastika is, however, primarily Aryan and has been
found at Troy as well as in India. Buddhist migration
seems to have carried it to China and Japan, and
similar forces took it to America and West Africa. It
was also widely employed in early Christian art. Under
the name "fylfot" or "filfot" it can
be found "filling the foot" of ecclesiastical
stained-glass windows. It has been called also
Gammadion, Gammation and Svastika.
"I believe there are two sorts of Swastika," continued
Kipling to Bok, and here he indicated the two
different ways the Zeds can be twined; "one is bad,
the other is good, but which is which I know not for
sure. The Hindu trader opens his yearly account-books
with a Swastika as 'an auspicious beginning,' and
all the races of the earth have used it. It's an
inexhaustible subject, and some man in the Smithsonian
ought to be full of it. Anyhow, the sign on the door
or the hearth should protect you
against fire and water and thieves." There follows a
reference to Bok's newly-acquired broad-stepped home
at Merion, Pennsylvania, for which Kipling had
suggested the name "Swastika."
"By this time should have reached you a Swastika
door-knocker,which I hope may fit in with the new
house and the new name. It was made by a village-smith
; and you Will see that it has my initials, to which I
hope you will add yours, that the story may be
complete. . ."
In another communication to Edward Bok, written after
the death of the elder Kipling, Rudyard Kipling says :
"I am sending with this for your acceptance, as some
little memory of my father to whom you were so kind,
the original of one of the plaques that he used to
make for me. I thought it being the Swastika would be
appropriate for your Swastika. May it bring you even
more good fortune."
The plaque was one of red clay, showing the familiar
elephant's head, the lotus and the Swastika reproduced
on the covers of so many of the Kipling volumes. Other
specimens of the Swastika appear in various books, in
combination with Kipling's initials in outline, of
which the "R" is reversed, or over his signature
within a circle.
So, in new and old worlds and in new and very old
civilisations, the Swastika has been patterned and
painted and shows no sign of decay. Perhaps nothing
better than that could serve to cover the
multitudinous facets of Kipling's lasting work.
____________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping"
your friends today! Download Messenger Now
http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html
|