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A closed lattice of interwoven right-angled lines with no beginning and no end.
Also known as: Eternal knot, Shrivatsa, Mystic knot, Palibhadra
The endless knot, or shrivatsa, is one of the eight auspicious symbols: a single line woven at right angles into a closed lattice with no loose end anywhere in it. The reading usually given is the interdependence of things — nothing in the figure can be pulled out without unmaking the whole — and in a devotional context it is also read as long life. It is the member of the set most often met on its own, and is regularly sold in the West as a Celtic knot, which is a different tradition with a different geometry.
Is drawn as one continuous line woven at right angles into a closed lattice, so that no end is visible anywhere in the figure — the property the name refers to.
Contexts: Religion
Is read as the interdependence of things, and in devotional use also as long life: no part of the knot can be removed without unmaking all of it.
Contexts: Religion
Is frequently sold in Western jewellery and tattoo design as a Celtic knot. The two traditions are unrelated: Celtic interlace is curvilinear and derives from insular manuscript ornament, while this figure is rectilinear and belongs to the Ashtamangala.
A square lattice of interwoven bands turning at right angles, woven over and under one another so that the line never terminates.
One of the eight auspicious symbols.
Both are closed interlace figures with no loose end.