The story I heard (me being a Hindu) about the Swastika was (as given in the Vedic sanskrit text) that about 10,000 years ago a phenomenon occured in the night sky which resembled the shape of the Swastika.
Is that in the Gita? I'd be interested in seeing an English translation of the text to which you refer, if there is one.
The distinction between the clockwise swastika (co-opted by the Nazis) and the counterclockwise swastika (Hindu, etc.) does seem to have some basis in historical usage of the symbol. But the Greek potters who decorated their urns and vases with swastikas apparently didn't distinguish between the two orientations.
Is that in the Gita? I'd be interested in seeing an English translation of the text to which you refer, if there is one.
The distinction between the clockwise swastika (co-opted by the Nazis) and the counterclockwise swastika (Hindu, etc.) does seem to have some basis in historical usage of the symbol.
No, its not The Gita. The Vedic text I am talking about is much much older. The book is called Rig Veda. It is the first of the Vedic literature. There are a few more Vedic text (most notably AyurVeda or the book of medicine). The Rig Veda is probably the first book of the Aryans. It was written in Sanskrit (a primitive version of Sanskrit might have been the language of the Aryans) anywhere between 10,000 to 7,000 BC.
While The Gita is more of a metaphysical reasoning or philosophical argument given to a warrior about to fight his brothers in the battle (The Gita is actually a conversation that took place while the two armies were arranged in battle formations), the Rig Veda is book which chronicled various historic events in the early life of the Aryans. It has some details about the way of life of primitive Aryans. The book has mostly descriptions of the religious rituals and practices followed by the Aryans. For most historical and archeological purposes the books is obscure about aspects relating to origins of those customs and rituals and aspects relating to their accuracy. The book also gives very little details if any about where the Aryans came from or where and when the book (Rig Veda) was written. And surprisingly it makes no mention of the mass exodus or invasion of the Aryans as so commonly believed by historians.
The night sky phenomenon related to the Swastika which I mentioned in my previous post was only from hearsay (which in this case is pretty reliable). I do not have an English translation of the Rig Veda (or for that matter even a Sanskrit version). However I would be happy to pass onto you any stuff that I come across relating to that subject.