India's goddess of learning started out as a river
Saraswati, patron of knowledge, music and speech, first appears in the Rigveda as a sacred river of northwest India, hailed as the best of mothers and goddesses. Over centuries the meaning of her name drifted from purifying waters to purifying speech and then to purifying knowledge, and the river faded behind the muse.
Her name joins Sanskrit saras, pooling water (sometimes rendered speech), with vati, she who possesses: roughly, the one who has lakes and ponds. As a river deity she was honoured for cleansing and for nourishing fertility. In the later Brahmana texts she merged with Vac, the Vedic goddess of speech, and by classical and medieval times she was chiefly the goddess of learning, arts and poetic inspiration, even credited with inventing Sanskrit.
Her relationships vary by tradition. She is linked with the creator Brahma, as his creation or his consort and creative power. Shakta devotees see her as the creative face of the Supreme Goddess, and some Vaishnava lineages count her among Vishnu's consorts. Yet she is also widely worshipped alone, as a celibate goddess. With Lakshmi and Parvati she forms the Tridevi, the trio of principal Hindu goddesses.
Artists show her serene and dressed in white, a colour tied to sattva, the quality of goodness. Her four hands hold a book, a rosary, a water pot and a veena, and a white goose or a peacock accompanies her. Among the earliest known shrines is Sharada Peeth in Kashmir, active from the 6th to the 12th centuries CE. Her festival, Vasant Panchami, falls on the fifth day of spring, when students honour her and small children are traditionally helped to write their first letters.
Her reach extends well past Hinduism. Jains revere her as the deity who spreads the teachings of the Tirthankaras. In Buddhism she takes many forms, most famously Benzaiten in Japan, whose name means roughly deity of eloquence and talent; she is also known in Burmese, Chinese and Thai. A Tamil collection of verses praising the poet Valluvar, the Tiruvalluva Maalai, calls her Namagal and credits her with composing its second verse. Her many epithets include Varnesvari, goddess of letters, and one meaning she who lives on the tongue of poets.
Source: Saraswati
