Gediminaičių stulpai simbolikos požiūriu
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Gediminaičių stulpai; Heraldika; Simbolika; Colums of Gediminas; Heraldry; Symbolism; Symbols; The Columns of the Gediminid Dynasty.
ENAs is indicated in the heading, the article deals with the heraldic sign of the dynasty of the Lithuanian king Gediminas, established since his grandson Vytautas in the late 14th century, concentrating not on its history, prevalence or attributive meaning, but on the symbolism of its very graphic structure. The article is divided into two parts. In the first one, attempts are put to establish the material object, which may be graphically reflected in the figure. First, some earlier conjectures are shortly surveyed. Then the meaning of “columns”, evident from the very denomination known since the 16th c., is analysed taking into account such samples as ancient Indian brahman (previously some wooden construction in the form of arch or gate, cf. brahma-dvāram in Maitrī-upanishad IV.4; VI.28 etc.), Greek dókana, Roman porta triumphalis, Old Prussian paired columns devoted to the legendary twins Worskaito and Iszwambrato etc. Finally it is maintained that the whole figure represents the ancient archetypal temple en face with the altar and the fire on it in the centre and the two portal pillars on both sides, or the poles of the enclosure around it in profile (vertical section). The figure, then, as representing the vertical section of the archetypal temple, corresponds to the principal mandala as the horizontal section, or the ground plane, of the same archetypal temple, i.e. the circle depicting the enclosure with the inscribed quadrat depicting the altar and the point in the centre depicting the fire on the altar, as viewed from above. As a matter of fact, many temples of very different religions (such as Catholic churches, Islamic mosques, Buddhist shrines, etc.) en face coincide in structure with the figure of the Columns.In the second part of the article, the symbolism of the three mentioned geometrical components of the mandala (the circle, the inscribed quadrat, and the central point) in their interrelation are analysed including such cases as the vault of the Sky covering the Earth with the Fire, or Man, in the centre; God the Father, the Mother Goddess, and their Son (the primal, archetypal Trinity); the Father embracing the Mother with the Child in her lap (the archetypal Holy Family); the Egg (the shell, the white, and the yolk); comparable also to the plum (the peel, the pulp, and the stone, namely centrum); in the mental sphere it amounts to the Aristotelian great premise, the small premise and the solution; the Hegelian thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, etc. As the figure of the Columns with its structural components represents the vertical section of the same object, i.e. the archetypal temple, which in the ground plane (the horizontal section) constitutes the mandala with its corresponding structural components, so the very same symbolism, in the final analysis, applies also to the sign of Columns. Its essential meaning could be summarised as “the principal schema of productivity”, in the most wide possible sense. [From the publication]
