In an article on Early Buddist Symbolism, in Vol. XVIII. Part 3, of the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal (1886), I expressed my belief that the three objects of worship and ornament so commonly seen on Buddhist scultpures in India, the Svastika, triśūla, were not indigenous Indian emblems, but symbols of Western Asian origin—whether Semitic or Aryan matters little—adopted of old by the Hindus, and accepted, originally by Buddists, not as being in themselves Buddist symbols, but as being symbols of religious signification in general use among the people.