Sarasvati - W J Wilkins

Brahma’s wife is Sarasvati, the goddess of wisdom and science, the mother of the Vedas, and the inventor of the Devanagari letters. She is represented as a fair young woman, with four arms. With one of her right hands she is presenting a flower to her husband, by whose side she continually stands; and in the other she holds a book of palm-leaves, indicating that she is fond of learning. In one of her left hands she has a string of pearls, called Sivamala (Siva’s garland), which serves as a rosary; and in the other is a damaru, or small drum. At other times, she is represented with two arms only, seated on a lotus, playing a kind of banjo. She dwells on earth amongst men, but her special abode is with her husband in Brahmaloka.

Sarasvati having been produced from Brahma, was regarded as his daughter; hence her union with him was said to be criminal by the other gods. Sometimes she is called the wife of Vishnu, but this difficulty is explained by a legend.1 "Sarasvati, by the standard mythological authorities, is the wife of Brahma. The Vaishnavas of Bengal have a popular legend that she was the wife of Vishnu, as were also Lakshmi and Ganga. The ladies disagreed, Sarasvati, like the other type of learned ladies, Minerva, being something of a termagant; and Vishnu, finding that one wife was as much as even a god could manage, transferred Sarasvati to Brahma and Ganga to Siva, and contented himself with Lakshmi alone.

© "Hindu Mythology" by W J Wilkins, published (2001) by Rupa & Co., 7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002. Reprinted with permission.

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