Saraswati
Saraswati, also spelled as Sarasvati, is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of knowledge, education, learning, arts, speech, poetry, music, creativity, purification, language and culture. Together with the goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati, she forms the trinity of chief goddesses, known as the Tridevi. Saraswati is a pan-Indian deity, venerated not only in Hinduism but also in Jainism and Buddhism.
She is one of the prominent goddesses in the Vedic tradition who retains her significance in later Hinduism. In the Vedas, her characteristics and attributes are closely connected with the Saraswati River, making her one of the earliest examples of a river goddess in Indian tradition. As a deity associated with a river, Saraswati is revered for her dual abilities to purify and to nurture fertility. In later Vedic literature, particularly the Brahmanas, Saraswati is increasingly identified with the Vedic goddess of speech, Vac, and eventually, the two merge into the singular goddess known in later tradition. Over time, her connection to the river diminishes, while her association with speech, poetry, music, and culture becomes more prominent. In classical and medieval Hinduism, Saraswati is primarily recognized as the goddess of learning, arts and poetic inspiration, and as the inventor of the Sanskrit language. She is linked to the creator god Brahma, either as his creation or consort. In the latter role, she represents his creative power, giving reality a unique and distinctly human quality. She becomes linked with the dimension of reality characterized by clarity and intellectual order. Within the goddess-oriented Shaktism tradition, Saraswati is a key figure and venerated as the creative aspect of the Supreme Goddess. She is also significant in certain Vaishnava traditions, where she serves as one of Vishnu's consorts and assists him in his divine functions. Despite her associations with these male deities, Saraswati also stands apart as an independent goddess in the pantheon, widely worshipped as a celibate goddess, without a consort.
She is portrayed as a serene woman with a radiant white complexion, dressed in white attire, representing the quality of sattva. She has four arms, each holding a symbolic object: a book, a rosary, a water pot, and a musical instrument known as the veena. Beside her is her mount, either a hamsa or a peacock. Hindu temples dedicated to Saraswati can be found worldwide, with one of the earliest known shrines being Sharada Peeth in Kashmir. Saraswati continues to be widely worshipped across India, particularly on her designated festival day, Vasant Panchami, when students honor her as the patron goddess of knowledge and education. Traditionally, the day is marked by helping young children learn how to write the letters of the alphabet.
In Buddhism, she is venerated in many forms, including the East Asian Benzaiten. In Jainism, Saraswati is revered as the deity responsible for the dissemination of the Tirthankaras' teachings and sermons.
Etymology
Saraswati is a Sanskrit fusion word of saras meaning "pooling water", but also sometimes translated as "speech"; and vati, meaning "she who possesses". Originally associated with the river or rivers known as Saraswati, this combination, therefore, means "she who has ponds, lakes, and pooling water" or occasionally "she who possesses speech". It is also a Sanskrit composite word of sarasu-ati which means "one with plenty of water".The word Saraswati appears both as a reference to a river and as a significant deity in the Rigveda. In initial passages, the word refers to the Saraswati River and is mentioned as one among several northwestern Indian rivers such as the Drishadvati. Saraswati, then, connotes a river deity. In Book 2, the Rigveda describes Saraswati as the best of mothers, of rivers, of goddesses.
Her importance grows in the later Vedas composed after the Rigveda as well as in the later Brahmana texts, and the word evolves in its meaning from "waters that purify", to "that which purifies", to "vach that purifies", to "knowledge that purifies", and ultimately into a spiritual concept of a goddess that embodies knowledge, arts, music, melody, muse, language, rhetoric, eloquence, creative work and anything whose flow purifies the essence and self of a person.
Names and epithets
Saraswati is known by many names. Some examples of synonyms for Saraswati include Sharada, Brahmani, Brahmi, Bharadi, Vani and Vachi, Varnesvari, Kavijihvagravasini.Other names include: Ambika, Bharati, Chandrika, Devi, Gomati, Hamsasana, Saudamini, Shvetambara, Subhadra, Vaishnavi, Vasudha, Vidya, Vidyarupa, and Vindhyavasini.
In the Tiruvalluva Maalai, a collection of fifty-five Tamil verses praising the Kural literature and its author Valluvar, she is referred to as Nāmagal and is believed to have composed the second verse.
Outside Nepal and India, she is known in Burmese as Thurathadi or Tipitaka Medaw, in Chinese as Biàncáitiān, in Japanese as Benzaiten and in Thai as Suratsawadi or Saratsawadi.
Literature
In Hinduism, Saraswati has retained her significance as an important goddess, from the Vedic age up to the present day. She is praised in the Vedas as a water goddess of purification, while in the Dharmashastras, Saraswati is invoked to remind the reader to meditate on virtue, and on the meaning of one's actions.In Vedic literature
''Rigveda''
Saraswati first appears in the Rigveda, the most ancient source of the Vedic religion. Sarawsati holds significant religious and symbolic value in the Rigveda, as a deified entity embodying attributes of abundance and power. Primarily linked with the celestial domain of Waters and the formidable Storm Gods, this deity forms an integral triadic association alongside the sacrificial goddesses Ila and Bharati within the pantheon.Saraswati is described as a loud and powerful flood who roars like a bull and cannot be controlled. She was associated with the Milky Way, indicating that she was seen as descending from heaven to earth.
The goddess is mentioned in many Rigvedic hymns, and has three hymns dedicated to her. In Rigveda 2.41.16 she is called: "Best of mothers, the best of rivers, best of goddesses".
As part of the Apas, Saraswati is associated with wealth, abundance, health, purity and healing. In Book 10 of the Rigveda, Saraswati is celebrated as a deity of healing and purifying water. In the Atharva Veda, her role as a healer and giver of life is also emphasized. In various sources, including the Yajur Veda, she is described as having healed Indra after he drank too much Soma.
Saraswati also governs dhī. Dhī is the inspired thought, it is intuition or intelligence – especially that associated with poetry and religion. Saraswati is seen as a deity that can grant dhī if prayed to. Since speech requires inspired thought, she is also inextricably linked with speech and with the goddess of speech, Vāc, as well as with cows and motherhood. Vedic seers compare her to a cow and a mother, and saw themselves as children sucking the milk of dhī from her. In Book 10 of the Rigveda, she is declared to be the "possessor of knowledge". In later sources, like the Yajur Veda, Saraswati is directly identified with Vāc, becoming a deity called Saraswatī-Vāc.
In the Brahmanas, Saraswati-Vac's role expands, becoming clearly identified with knowledge and as such, she is "the mother of the Vedas" as well as the Vedas themselves. The Shatapatha Brahmana states that "as all waters meet in the ocean...so all sciences unite in Vāc". The Shatapatha Brahmana also presents Vāc as a secondary creator deity, having been the first deity created by the creator god Prajapati. She is the very instrument by which he created the world, flowing forth from him "like a continuous stream of water" according to the scripture. This is the basis for the Puranic stories about the relationship between Brahma and Saraswati.
In other Rigvedic passages, Saraswati is praised as a mighty and unconquerable protector deity. She is offered praises and compared to a sheltering tree in Rigveda 7.95.5, while in 6:49:7 cd she is said to provide "protection which is difficult to assail." In some passages she even takes a fiercesome appearance and is called a "slayer of strangers" who is called on to "guard her devotees against slander". Her association with the combative storm gods called Maruts is related to her fierce fighting aspect and they are said to be her companions.
Like Indra, Saraswati is also called a slayer of Vritra, the snake like demon of drought who blocks rivers and as such is associated with destruction of enemies and removal of obstacles. The Yajur Veda sees her as being both the mother of Indra and also as his consort.
In Book 2 of Taittiriya Brahmana, Saraswati is called "the mother of eloquent speech and melodious music".
Mahabharata
Saraswati in the Mahabharata, one of the two great epics of Hindu literature composed between 400 BCE and 400 CE, undergoes a transformation, marking her evolution from a river to a fully developed goddess of speech and knowledge.As a River
As a river, Saraswati in the Mahabharata appears in a more subdued form compared to her powerful and overflowing depiction in the Vedic hymns. She emerges at Plaksha, disappears into the sands at Vinasana, and then reemerges in several places, ultimately reaching the ocean at Prabhasa. This representation reflects an attempt to reconcile the historical drying up of the river with its continued importance in religious thought. The Mahabharata preserves the grandeur of the Saraswati River by presenting a mythologised geography that both recalls her past and reinterprets her course in accordance with Dharma. Her flow is depicted as being guided by divine will, avoiding the unrighteous and serving the pious. The epic also universalizes her identity by attributing her name to multiple rivers, reinforcing her Rig Vedic epithet saptasvasar and declaring, "all rivers are Saraswati-s."Religiously, Saraswati's banks become lined with numerous tirthas, which are sites of pilgrimage and sacrifice. While the Panchavimsha Brahmana describes sacrificial rituals along her course, the Mahabharata expands upon this, transforming her river into a vast pilgrimage route filled with sacred sites. This shift marks a broader transition in religious practice—from complex Vedic sacrifices performed exclusively by Brahmins to more accessible devotional practices open to a wider public, including women. The act of visiting Saraswati's tirthas is often equated with the merit of Vedic sacrifices, thus preserving Vedic authority while adapting to new religious contexts.