The word Saraswati appears both as a reference to a river and as a significant deity in the Rigveda.
In initial passages, the word refers to the Sarasvati River and is mentioned as one among several northwestern Indian rivers such as the Drishadvati.
Saraswati, then, connotes a river deity.
In Book 2, the Rigveda describes Saraswati as the best of mothers, of rivers, of goddesses.
अम्बितमे नदीतमे देवितमे सरस्वति
Saraswati is celebrated as a feminine deity with healing and purifying powers of abundant, flowing waters in Book 10 of the Rigveda, as follows:
अपो अस्मान मातरः शुन्धयन्तु घर्तेन नो घर्तप्वः पुनन्तु |
विश्वं हि रिप्रं परवहन्ति देविरुदिदाभ्यः शुचिरापूत एमि ||
In Vedic literature, Saraswati acquires the same significance for early Indians as that accredited to the river Ganges by their modern descendants.
In hymns of Book 10 of Rigveda, she is already declared to be the "possessor of knowledge".
Her importance grows in Vedas composed after Rigveda and in Brahmanas, and the word evolves in its meaning from "waters that purify", to "that which purifies", to "vach (speech) that purifies", to "knowledge that purifies", and ultimately into a spiritual concept of a goddess that embodies knowledge, arts, music, melody, muse, language, rhetoric, eloquence, creative work and anything whose flow purifies the essence and self of a person.
In Upanishads and Dharma Sastras, Saraswati is invoked to remind the reader to meditate on virtue, virtuous emoluments, the meaning and the very essence of one's activity, one's action.
Saraswati finds a significant number of mentions in the Rigveda, with a number of tributes offered to her:
इ॒मा जुह्वा॑ना यु॒ष्मदा नमो॑भि॒: प्रति॒ स्तोमं॑ सरस्वति जुषस्व । तव॒ शर्म॑न्प्रि॒यत॑मे॒ दधा॑ना॒ उप॑ स्थेयाम शर॒णं न वृ॒क्षम् ॥
इमा जुह्वाना युष्मदा नमोभिः प्रति स्तोमं सरस्वति जुषस्व । तव शर्मन्प्रियतमे दधाना उप स्थेयाम शरणं न वृक्षम् ॥
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𝕸𝖊𝖉𝖍𝖆 - The wisdom of the world
Tiểu thuyết Lịch sửSaraswati the goddess of knowledge, who is praised by the wise, who is the wife of the creator, may she reside on the tip of my tongue.
