Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism
by Thomas Inman, M.D. (1874)
Pagan and Christian symbolism

Fig. 132

Figure 132 is copied from plate xxix. of Pugin's Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament (Lond., 1868). The plate represents "a pattern for diapering," and is, I presume, thoroughly orthodox. It consists of the double triangle, see Figures 20, 80, 81, 82, pp. 82, 88, the emblems of Siva and Parvati, the male and female; of Rimmon the pomegranate, the emblem of the womb, which is seen to be full of seed through the "vesica piscis," la fente, or la porte de la vie. There are also two new moons, emblems of Venus, or la nature, introduced. The crown above the pomegranate represents the triad, and the number four; whilst in the original the group which we copy is surrounded by various forms of the triad, all of which are as characteristic of man as Rimmon is of woman. There are also circles enclosing the triad, analogous to other symbols common in Hindostan.