It is shocking that a two-rupee coin has been issued (2006) with a ?sectarian? or ?religious? motif. This is a pseudo-secular assault on the state which vows ?pantha nirapekshata??neutrality to ?religion?. This is a departure from the practice of issuing commemorative coins to celebrate Mahatma Gandhi.
In the history of human civilization, symbols have often been used with evil intent and to promote ?personality cults?. The colonial regime issued coins showing the profiles of royalty. The mis-use of svastika to promote Nazi supremacy is another instance. History is replete with abuses of symbols with intent to proselytise. Islamists use the symbol of the crescent moon to promote the doctrine of a nation of Islam. Evangelists have carried the cross to establish Dominus Jesus (an initiative to assert unicity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ and the Church). Christians use the symbol of the cross to promote Dominus Jesus. It is a pathetic state of affairs, indeed, in the mints of India, that the designers should have chosen the cross with four-dots plagiarizing a coin?AR denier?issued by Louis the Pious (814-840) showing a cross with four besants (dots). Surely, the mint-master who chose the symbol for the two-rupee coin should be imagining commemorating Antonia Maino from Italy as the feminine version of present-day royalty, a prima donna of the polity.
Dr S. Kalyanaraman of Chennai writes to HPI that the four dots that are part of the ?voided cross? on the latest Indian two-rupee coin are seen in some forms of the ?Jerusalem cross.? This is a solid cross with equal arms (i.e., a ?plus? sign) with four smaller crosses set around the arms, and in one example, dots, just as the dots are on the rupee. See Wikipedia, (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross) and scroll down to ?Crusaders? cross? for an illustration. The description reads, ?Also known as the Jerusalem cross. This cross was the symbol of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, which existed for almost two hundred years after the First Crusade. The four smaller crosses are said to symbolize either the four books of the Gospel or the four directions in which the Word of Christ spread from Jerusalem. Alternately, all five crosses can symbolize the five wounds of Christ during the Passion.?
Dr Kalyanaraman also points out that the coin is close to the coin of ?Louis the Pious,? shown on this website, which was made in the 8th century. The coin shows a solid cross with four dots set around it, similar to what is on the Indian rupee.
On the website of the Lutheran Church is a further definition, ?Cross Voided: A cross voided throughout, also known as the gammadia, can be seen as a Greek cross with its centre lines removed, or as composed of four angles (L shapes) separated by a thin space. The name gammadia refers to its being made up of four shapes similar to a capital Greek letter gamma. This is the third letter of the Greek alphabet, which can symbolize the Holy Trinity. The four angles represent the four Gospels being spread to the four corners of the earth, and the voided lines show us that Christ left the cross to proclaim his victory over sin, death, and the devil.?
The cross on the coin also contains four dots arranged one within each ?L,? a design feature not found in our research.
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