Sarasvati

Sarasvati, or Saraswati, is the Hindu Goddess of learning, wisdom, music, and aesthetics. She was originally associated with the Sarasvati River, which, like the Ganges, flows from the Himalayas and is considered a sacred source of purification, fertility, and good fortune for those who bathe in her waters. Her name means flowing one and her water conferred divinity on kings when it was used in their baptism. Her role as a river Goddess may also extend to the Heavenly River, the Milky Way, which was seen as a road to immortality and heavenly afterlife.

Sarasvati is often depicted with four arms, holding a Veena - a stringed musical instrument, a book, and a strand of beads or ritual pot. She's known for brilliant white skin representing the light of knowledge. Her companion is a white swan or hamsa, who in myth is believed to be able to separate milk from water --a representation of Sarasvati's ability to separate good from evil. Source: Legendary Ladies by Ann Shen. Sarasvati is also associated with the lotus flower, which symbolizes purity, rebirth, culture, and enlightenment.

Sarasvati original painting available through Saatchi Art. Prints and other merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America.

Sarasvati is considered to be the wife of Brahma, but like Hera, worship of her probably predates her husband's existence. Barbara G. Walker writes, "Sarasvati was ... the Queen of Heaven assimilated to Brahmanism as Brahma's wife, a combination that suggests the biblical A-brahm and Sara(h). She was said to have invented all of the arts of civilization: music, letters, mathematics, calendars, magic, the Vedas, and all other branches of learning." Sarasvati was sometimes referred to as "Daugher of the Sun". Her role in learning and wisdom combined with being the daughter of the Sun reminds me of Sophia, the Gnostic Christian Goddess of wisdom and daughter of the Sun.

The goddess has her own festivals, notably the Saraswati Puja, held on the first day of spring, during which children are taught to write for the first time, since she created the Sanskrit alphabet.

Sarasvati is also the special Goddess of the Jains, "a religion that began in the late centuries BCE and emphasizes not divinity but transcendant jinas, highly evolved souls. Even this nontheistic religion could not entirely eliminate devotion to the Goddess, of whom Sarasvati was the favorite form." Source: Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines by Patricia Monaghan.

The earliest depiction of Sarasvati that has been found is from Kankali Tila, an important Jain archaeological site excavated between 1870 and 1896.

Metal sculpture of Goddess Sarasvati dated to 132 CE, from the Jain site of Kankali Tila. Source

Her posture here reminds me of the lotus headed Lajja Gauri who birthed the universe.

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