Saraswati

Definition

Saraswati (also Sarasvati) is the Hindu goddess of learning, wisdom, music, and aesthetics. She is also known as Bharati (eloquence), Shatarupa (existence), Vedamata ('mother of the Vedas'), Brahmi, Sarada, Vagisvari, and Putkari. As Vac, she is the goddess of speech. Saraswati first appears in the Rigveda and, in later religious texts, she is identified as the inventor of Sanskrit and, appropriately, gives Ganesha the gifts of pen and inks. She is also a patron of the arts and sciences, and the wife of Brahma, even if the Bengal Vaisnavas considered her first the wife of Vishnu. Sarasvati is also worshipped as the goddess of learning in Jainism and by some Buddhist sects.

More about: Saraswati

Timeline

  • c. 1500 BCE - c. 500 BCE
    The Vedic Period in India after a greater migration of the Indo-Aryans from Central Asia
  • c. 1500 BCE - c. 500 BCE
    Indian scholars of the so-called Vedic Period commit the Vedas to written form; basic tenets of Hinduism are established.
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