SARASVATI

Her name means “Flowing Water.”  She is a Hindu (India) Mother Goddess, and Goddess of wisdom who later became a patron of the arts.  Her cults 
rained throughout India.

Sarasvati is the Hindu Goddess of all arts: music, painting, sculpture, dance, and writing.   She is credited with presenting the gift of writing 
to mankind so that her songs could be written down and preserved. 

Sarasvati is often depicted on the back of a swan or peacock, and with four arms, with which she plays the lute or drum and bestows jeweled 
blessings.   She is the Goddess of eloquence, and words pour from her like a sweetly flowing river.  

One myth of this Goddess is that She is a jealous rival of the Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, and that pursuing wealth alone will assure that 
Sarasvati's gifts will desert you. 

Her known period of worship: circa 600 BC, but undoubtedly based on  much prehistoric models, until present.   Synonyms: Brahmi; Vagdevi (Goddess 
of speech).  Other epitaphs include Bharati.

Sarasvat was the wife of Brahma and was born of his body; the mother of Vedas.  She was orginally a Vedic river Goddess (although the river 
Sarasvati is now gone).  She invented the Devenagari (Sanskrit alphabet).  Depicted as a beautiful young woman with four arms, one hand holds 
out a flower to her husband, another a book of palm leaves, one hand holds a garland, and the other a little drum.  Sometimes she is depicted as 
seated on a lotus with two arms, playing on the vina.

In Tibet, she is a Goddess of teaching and learning wife of the Bodhisattva Manjushri Jampal.

In the Vedic capacity it is said her waves can smash mountains and her voice is the roar of the torrent.  Since her strength is the primeval 
water, she is inexhaustible and she is the bringer of fertility and bountiful harvests, thus by inference she also brings prosperity.

Her presence purifies, and in antiquity, she slew Vrtra, the demonic God of chaos.

In her capacity as a Vedic Goddess, she is invoked on the sacrificial field with the lesser Goddesses, Ila, Bharati, Mahi, & Hotra. 

In later Puranic literature, Sarasvati (Brahmi) becomes the first consort of the creator God Brahma.  Other texts also show her as the consort, 
Laksmi, of Visnu.

The Vedas are her inspiration, and she has been known as the “mother of the Vedas.”

A Hindu festival in her honor is celebrated in early January or late February.  

She is the patron Goddess of students, and books, pencils, and pens are offered to her by children before they begin classes.  Her image often 
appears on portals of schools and gates.

She is generally depicted with four or two arms.  Her color is white; she may be seated or ride upon a swan, a peacock or a lotus leaf.  
Attributes include the particularly the lute, but also the arrow, bell, book, bow, conch, prayer wheel, rosary, water jar, and other items.  
She may offer a piece of sugar cane or a flower to Brahma.  Infrequently, she may be depicted as having three heads.

MACHA’S NOTE: Please visit here http://www.brigitsforge.co.uk/sarasvati1.htm, and read more about Sarasvati, and then follow the links to 
http://www.brigitsforge.co.uk/brigitgoddess.html to see a fab essay on the Celtic Goddess, Brigit, and Sarasvati and their similarities.

References:

Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan.

The Witches’ Goddess, by Janet & Stewart Farrar.

Internet Sources:

http://www.lunaea.com/goddess/creativity/sarasvati.html

http://www.brigitsforge.co.uk/sarasvati1.htm

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