Based at IIT-Kharagpur and led by one of its most senior professors, it was conducted by Sandhi, an HRD ministry-sponsored effort to amalgamate ancient Indian knowledge systems with contemporary science.

Key Highlights Swastika is the Indian symbol of peace and continuity that Hitler co-opted for his twisted Aryan supremacy theory

Researchers believe Swastika is older than the Aryans and even the Indus Valley Civilization

Research was based at IIT-Kharagpur and led by one of its most senior professors

KHARAGPUR: Swastika -the Indian symbol of peace and continuity that Hitler co-opted for his twisted Aryan supremacy theory -is much older than believed, older than the Aryans and even the Indus Valley Civilization, says a team of top-notch researchers from some of the most prestigious institutions in India.

The researchers say the Swastika dates back at least 11,000 years and have traced its spread to western and Middle-Eastern civilizations. In fact, one of their key findings is that a Ukranian Swastika, believed to date back 12,000 years to the Paleolithic Age, may not be this old, say sources.

The team will announce these and other “breakthroughs“ at the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) on July 8, exhibiting all the evidence they have collec ted. They will also answer queries.

The research was like solving a jigsaw puzzle in the maze of history , involving study of codes and symbols that would excite Dan Brown.

Based at IIT-Kharagpur and led by one of its most senior professors, it was conducted by Sandhi, an HRD ministry-sponsored effort to amalgamate ancient Indian knowledge systems with contemporary science.

The riddle was pieced together by scholars from many IITs, NITs, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology-Ahmedabad, School of Planning and Architecture-Bhopal, and Jadavpur University . In tracking the antiquity of the Swastika, the resear chers came across a staggering discovery -that the Rig Veda, generally associated with Aryan civilization, existed much before that, dating back to the pre-Harappan times in the form of Shruti that were orally handed down through the Indus Valley civilization.

“We have found the most mature and geometrically ordered Swastika in the pre-Harappan times in the form of seals. We have also been able to trace the mention of the Swastika in the Vedas around the same time. These are scintillating findings that will help us announce that the Indian civilization is far more ancient than what is written in accepted history books, mostly by Europeans,“ said Joy Sen, a faculty member at IIT-Kgp faculty and lead project investigator.

The team will show how the Swastika migrated from India -through the Tartar Mongoloid route via Kamchatka to the Americas (hence the plethora of Swastikas in the Aztec and Mayan civilisations), and through the Western land route to Finland, Scandinavia, British Highlands and Europe where the symbol is present in varying shapes of the cruciform.

“After dividing the world into nine quadrants into which Swastika moved from India, we retraced its footprints and have been able to graphically prove our claim through ancient seals, inscriptions, imprints, and religious symbolism in these countries. We will reveal it in great detail,“ Sen said.

Unfortunately talk of Swastika cannot avoid the horrors of its hijack by Hitler to suit his Aryan supremacy theory. “It inspired Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche and their progeny , Adolf Hitler, who started an inverted agenda of anti-Semitism based on a falsified Aryan invasion myth through seven years of war, terror, corruption and extermination," Sen said.

