Sarasvati

Sarasvati

Sarasvati

This article is about Sarasvati, the Indian goddess. There are separate articles about the Vedic Sarasvati River and Saraswati River, a small river in Haryana

In Hindu mythology, Sarasvati, sometimes romanised as Saraswati, is the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, science, speech, and all arts-- music, painting, dance and literature. She is traditionally depicted in art as a woman with four arms in which she plays a kind of lute called a veena, and holds prayer beads and some kind of written document. Generally she is either shown nude or wearing a white sari. Sometimes Sarasvati is seated on a lotus blossom, other times she is seated on or accompanied by a swan or a peacock.

In India today, Hindus still revere Sarasvati as a goddess; her festival is held in late January or early February and offerings, called puja, are made to her. Since she is the goddess of knowledge/wisdom, students often offer her their books and supplies before they begin classes and her image sometimes appears on school gates.

Sarasvati can be found in Vedic texts, such as Rig Veda, and in Puranic texts, such as Ramayana. She likely originated as a Vedic river goddess; the river which once shared her name no longer exits, but where the banks of these rivers are believed to have once been, the earliest writing in India have been found. As a water goddess, she symbolises fertility, and prosperity. In the Rig-Veda(6,61,7) Sarasvati is credited with killing the asura (demon) Vritra, who represents drought, darkness, and chaos. She is often seen as equivalent to the other Vedic goddesses like Vaak (divine word, also romanised as Vac), Savitri (Illumination) and Gayatri. In the Shakta tradition (worship of Shakti or Devi, the female aspect of the divinity), Sarasvati represents intelligence, consciousness and cosmic knowledge. In later Puranic literature Sarasvati (Brahmi) becomes the consort of the creator god Brahma. Texts place her opposed to Laksmi, Goddess of wealth.

In Indian classical music Sarasvati is revered as the Mother of Music by some of the world's greatest instrumentalists, such as Ravi Shankar and Ustad Bismillah Khan.

Sarasvati In Non-Hindu Culture

Besides her role in Hinduism, she was also, like the Hindu goddess Tara, absorbed from Vedic culture into the Buddhist pantheon and came to China via the Chinese translations of the Sutra of Golden Light, which has a section devoted to her. Now largely forgotten in China, she is still worshipped in Japan under the name Benzaiten. Other names for her include Sarada, Sharada, Vani.