SARASWATI MAYA PRAKRITI OWMEN GOD OF WATER AND KNOWLEDGE
प्र क्षोद॑सा॒ धाय॑सा सस्र ए॒षा सर॑स्वती ध॒रुण॒माय॑सी॒ पूः । प्र॒बाब॑धाना
र॒थ्ये॑व याति॒ विश्वा॑ अ॒पो म॑हि॒ना सिन्धु॑र॒न्याः ॥
This Sarasvatī, firm as a city made of metal, flows rapidly with all her
life-giving water, sweeping away in its might all other waters as a
charioteer (clears the road).Rigveda 7.95.1
Why is Saraswati depicted as a woman? The feminine mother, the womb, was
associated with the creation of life by Vedic philosophers. Water is
essential to creating life and personified Saraswati is the symbolic mother
of Vedic civilization and life itself. Saraswati is also known as Maha-Māyā
(the most excellent Māyā). To understand Saraswati, we must understand
Māyā, a foundational concept in Vedic philosophy. Māyā is the projection of
ultimate reality (brahman) onto our perceived reality. It is like a user
interface that helps us navigate nature (Prakriti). Māyā of the Universe is
like the VR headset in the metaverse. Māyā drives all-natural phenomena
through the physical law of Karma – cause/effect or action/reaction. Thus,
the life-giving river Saraswati symbolizes nature and the causal phenomena
that sustain life.
The legacy of Saraswati remains with us. To this day, we benefit from the
most magnificent literary and philosophical works known to mankind, created
in its protection – the Vedās, their better half – the Upanishads, and
their most distinguished children – the Ramayana of Valmiki, the
Mahabharata of Vyasa, and the Shrimad Bhagwad Gita. These works,
particularly the oldest of them, the Rigveda, mention the Saraswati in
gratitude and reverence and describe its route, tributaries, and biosphere,
matching current scientific estimates based on archaeological, geological,
and paleontological evidence
Why does Saraswati hold a Pustaka (book), an mālā (rosary), and a vīnā
(musical instrument) in her hands? This has great symbolic significance
too. The Pustaka represents Vedic literature – covering philosophy and
lower knowledge of matter and energy. Protected by this river, the sages
invented the zero, the decimal system, a system of weights and measures,
planned cities, and advanced agriculture. Saraswati’s vīnā represents
melody and play, music, and rhythmic oral transmission of Vedic knowledge. And
finally, Saraswati’s rosary represents the importance of Yoga and
meditation. Saraswati symbolizes the dance between science/technology and
the higher knowledge of consciousness, which is the verse of the Isha
Upanishad (इश उपनिषद), verse 11
विद्यां चाविद्यां च यस्तद्वेदोभयं सह ।
अविद्यया मृत्युं तीर्त्वा विद्ययामृतमश्नुते।।
He who knows both knowledge and action (māyā),
With action, cheats death,
And with knowledge, reaches immortality.
So influential was this culture, this symbolism, this technology, and this
literature, that the deification of Saraswati spread far and wide in
ancient times.
1 Benten, (Japanese: Divinity of the Reasoning Faculty), in Japanese
mythology, one of the Shichi-fuku-jin (Seven Gods of Luck); the Buddhist
patron goddess of literature and music, of wealth, and of femininity. She
is generally associated with the sea; many of her shrines are located near
it, and she is frequently depicted riding on, or accompanied by, a sea
dragon. According to one legend, she married a sea dragon, thus putting an
end to his ravages of the island Enoshima. She is often shown playing the
biwa, a kind of lute. A white serpent serves as her messenger. Benten is
identified with the Indian goddess Sarasvatī, also a patron of literature and
the arts, who probably travelled to Japan along with Buddhism. See also
Shichi-fuku-jin.
2 Thurathadi {BURMA} is represented by riding on the side of the
golden Hintha with her legs dangling off the side. She carries one or more
Tipitaka books in her right hand.According to legend, she is often equated
with Saraswati from the Hindu religion. However, Thurathadi has a number of
her own stories and has long been worshiped in Myanmar since the Pagan
dynasty. In Myanmar, the Shwezigon Mon Inscription near Bagan, dated 1084
AD, recites the name Saraswati as follows:
"The wisdom of eloquence, called Saraswati, shall dwell in the mouth of King
Sri Tribhuwanadityadhammaraja at all times." – Translated by Than Tun
According to legend, she will be the mother of both the future king and his
bride Mya Sein Yaung. She was also told that she would be reborn as a male
and a Buddha. At a Bo Bo Aung shrine near Bagan, the statue of Thuyathadi
riding her golden Hintha Bird is found just behind and to the side of the
weizza's image. Thuyathadi is a very important nat in Myanmar, ranked and
honored as one of the five great devas, and the oldest of all the nats.
After the god Thagyamin, she is considered the most important supporter of
the religion. Claim for her support of gaing beliefs in weizzas would seem
designed to stress the higher Buddhist motivation of the weizzas. Because
she guards the Buddhist scriptures—a traditional source of occult lore—and
was once in India the goddess Saraswati, who was accredited with inventing
Sanskrit, her reputed patronage adds both a Buddhist and scholarly air to
weizza affairs.
3 Watu Gunung is a figure in the foundation mythology of the Indonesian
island of Java. He is a descendant of the gods, the son of King Palindriya
of Gilingwesi and Dewi Sinta. One day, when he is very young, his mother
scolds him for troubling her. This upsets him, and he runs away to live in
another kingdom. After he grows up, he overthrows the king of that kingdom
and takes the throne, but not before the king has cursed him. Not knowing
his own parentage, he invades Gilingwesi in order to marry the reputedly
beautiful wives of king Palindriya. He then marries his mother, Dewi Sinta,
and his aunt/stepmother, Dewi Landep, and has 27 sons by them. The true
identity of the incestuous parties is eventually uncovered. Watu Gunung,
who is already virtually indestructible because of his godly nature,
becomes more and more arrogant, and builds an iron city to live in. The
other gods, resenting his pride, go to war with him. In some versions of
the myth, he is betrayed by his kinfolk, who tell the enemy about his
single vulnerability. Ultimately, peace is secured and Watu Gunung, his
wives and children all ascend to heaven. Lessa describes the story as
containing elements of Oedipal type.
Watugunung, the last day of the pawukon calendar, is
devoted to Saraswati, goddess of learning. Although it is devoted to books,
reading is not allowed. The fourth day of the year is called Pagerwesi,
meaning "iron fence". It commemorates a battle between good and evil.
Saraswati is an important goddess in Balinese Hinduism. She shares the same
attributes and iconography as Saraswati in Hindu literature of India – in
both places, she is the goddess of knowledge, creative arts, wisdom,
language, learning and purity. In Bali, she is celebrated on Saraswati day,
one of the main festivals for Hindus in Indonesia. The day marks the close
of 210 day year in the Pawukon calendar.
On Saraswati day, people make offerings in the form of flowers in temples
and to sacred texts. The day after Saraswati day, is Banyu Pinaruh, a day
of cleansing. On this day, Hindus of Bali go to the sea, sacred waterfalls
or river spots, offer prayers to Saraswati, and then rinse themselves in
that water in the morning. Then they prepare a feast, such as the
traditional bebek betutu and nasi kuning, that they share.
CHINA: Biàncáitiān (Saraswati) Although Hinduism is a
little-practiced religion in China, it had a significant, but indirect role
in influencing Chinese culture through Buddhist beliefs, practices and
traditions (which share a common Dharmic root with Hinduism) which diffused
and spread to China from India from the 1st or 2nd century CE onwards.
During this influence and synthesis of ideas, some terms were mapped into
pre-existing concepts - raksasas as luocha, others terms were introduced -
pisacas in Hinduism as pishezuo in Chinese. As a result, traces of
Hinduism's influence on Chinese culture can be found in Chinese Buddhism,
which has syncretized many Hindu deities within its pantheon. One example
is the Chinese Buddhist belief in the Twenty-Four Devas, a grouping of
protective dharmapalas of Buddhism.
Twenty-one of the devas in the group consists of deities borrowed
from Hinduism, including, but not limited to, Dàzìzàitiān (Shiva),
Dìshìtiān (Indra), Dàfàntiān (Brahma), Jíxiáng Tiānnǚ (Lakshmi), Biàncáitiān
(Saraswati) and Yánmóluówáng (Yama). Statues of the Twenty-Four Devas are
enshrined in many Chinese Buddhist temples and monasteries, usually in the
Mahavira Hall Aside from the deities, other beings from Hinduism are also
shared in Chinese Buddhist belief, such as the Eight Legions of Devas and
Nāgas (Chinese: 天龍八部; Pinyin: Tiānlóngbābù) which includes beings like
asuras, mahoragas and kinnaras. Yakshas (Chinese: 夜叉; Pinyin: Yèchā)
originally from Hinduism, are a class of nature ghosts or demons in Chinese
Buddhism. Belief in the Yaksha made its way to China through the Lotus
Sutra, which was originally translated into Chinese by Dharmaraksa around
290 CE, before being superseded by a translation in seven fascicles by
Kumārajīva in 406 CE. Garuda, the mount of Vishnu, is also well known as
Jiālóuluó (Chinese: 迦楼羅; Pinyin: Jiālóuluó) or The Golden Winged Great Peng
(Chinese: 金翅大鵬雕; Pinyin: Jīnchì Dàpéng Diāo). Rakshasas (Chinese: 羅剎;
Pinyin: Luóchà) are also well known in Chinese communities as human-eating
demons or ghosts. Hanuman is also believed by some scholars to be a source
for the Chinese mythological character Sun Wukong.
สุรัสวดี or Suratsawadi.Thailand: The Japanese-Buddhist Goddess
Benzai-ten is none other than Saraswati, the Chinese-Buddhist God Shui-tian
is Vedic Varuna, etc., all imported by Buddhism without the help of a
single (non-Buddhist) Brahmin. As D.D. Kosambi notes: ‘Pali records started
by making Indra and Brahma respectful hearers of the original Buddhist
discourses. The Mahayana admitted a whole new pantheon of gods including
Ganesha, Shiva and Vishnu, all subordinated to the Buddha.’… But in
Japanese Buddhism too, we find many practices that are not traditionally
Japanese nor Buddhist in the strictest sense, but that have been carried
along by Buddhism as a part of its Hindu heritage, e.g. the fire ceremony
of the Shingon sect which, like the Vedic sacrifice, is called ‘feeding the
Gods’…. The inclusion of Vedic and other Gods in the Mahayana Buddhist
pantheon is well-attested.(-D.D. Kosambi: Culture and Civilisation of
Ancient India, p.179;} In ancient Thai literature, Saraswati (Thai: สุรัสวดี;
RTGS: Suratsawadi) is the goddess of speech and learning, and consort of
Brahma Over time, Hindu and Buddhist concepts merged in Thailand. Icons of
Saraswati with other deities of India are found in old Thai wats. Amulets
with Saraswati and a peacock are also found in Thailand.
In Tibet, she is known as Yang chen ma or Yang chen drolma and is
considered the consort of Mañjuśri, Buddha of Wisdom, and is one of the 21
Taras.[Saraswati in Buddhism]
K Rajaram IRS 11 4 24
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