Although generally taken as the wife of Brahma ji, she is a river goddess according to the Vedas. Saraswati river, in the vedic period, flowed down from the Himalayas but is understood to have dried up and lost its existence due to curse by sage Uthathya, to god of waters Varun, for abducting the wife of the sage.
ORIGIN
Saraswati Ji came into being from Brahma Ji’s head (therefore called Manas Kanya) when he was meditating while trying to create the world.
ABODE
Along with Brahma Ji, she is eternal & omnipresent. She is also considered to reside in musical instruments and items used in learning (inkpot/pen etc.). She is also known to be sitting on the tongue of persons at the moment when any truthful statement comes from them, some-what unintentionally.
IMPORTANCE
She is goddess of learning, knowledge and speech and is credited with the invention of Devnagari script as well as the invention of writterng itself, She is also known as the river goddess in Vedas.
TYPICAL DEPICTION
Milky complexion, beautiful, sitting on lily and playing Vina (lute), Also shown riding swan or peacock, her vehicles.
SOME TEMPLES
Images of Saraswati Ji can be found in temples dedicated to other gods also.
Her sculptures exist in Halibid in Karnataka showing as dancing Saraswati Ji.
As Sharda, she is worshipped in Maihar Temple situated on Trikoot Hill in M.P. Maihar is lang for Mai ka Haar (Garland of Devi) which fell on the hilltop.
RELATED FESTIVALS
She is worshipped in schools with morning prayers.
Basant Panchmi, when winter is over, is a special day for her worship.
OTHER INTERSTING INFORMATION
In Vedas, Saraswati Ji is associated with river Saraswati but later recognized more as goddess of knowledge encompassing all creative arts and one who bestows poets, artists, musicians etc.
She is understood to have cursed Laksmi Ji to appear as a plant on earth. Tulsi is a result of this curse. In retaliation , Lakshmi ji cursed her to appear on earth as a river which happened to be river Saraswati.
Myth has it that once when Brahma Ji was performing a religious ceremony and wanted his wife Saraswati ji to be his side, she did not come on time. Furious Brahma Ji told attending gods to fetch the first woman they see, for substituting Saraswati Ji. Gods went out and saw one milkmaid named Gayatri, brought her to Brahma Ji, who instantly married her and gave her Saraswati ji’s place and performed the ceremony. When Saraswati Ji finally turned up, she was very annoyed and cursed all present there as follows:-
Brahma Ji –You will nit be worshipped
Vishnu Ji – You will be born as man on earth and suffer separation from your wife (later incarnated as Ram Chandr Ji)
Shiv Ji –You will deprived of manhood
Indr – You will lose your divine kingdom
Agni – You will have to recklessly consume everything whether good or bad.
Brahmans (priest) –You will be confined to perform poojas only, depending on food offered by devitees.
Lakshmi ji –You will remain with sinners.
Other Goddesses –None of you will bear children
However, Gayatri Ji took this opportunity to marginally modify Saraswati Ji’s curse, to the benefit of those cursed.
Actually this milkmaid was none other than personification of Gayatri, the Vedic hymn.
According to Hindu scriptures, Saraswati Ji is among the five goddess which emerged (along with Parvati Ji, Lakshmi ji, Savitri Ji & Radha Ji) from the supreme spirit, endowed with the force of learning.
According to earlier mythology, Saraswat ji was on of the wive of Vishnu ji, along with Laxmi Ji & Ganga Ji. Once Saraswati Jig or jealous of sharing Vishnu Ji with the other two and cursed Laksmi Ji to become plant Tulsi and Ganga Ji to become a river in earth where people would wash off their sins. In retaliation, Ganga Ji also cursed Saraswati Ji to become a river to flow in the nether world.
You may know about Jalandhar's wife Vrinda who was Tulsi in her next birth.
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