Extra Reading Notes: Saraswati: Stories of the Goddess of Wisdom

  • Coming from Brahma's forehead or third-eye is Saraswati.
  • So trying to hide from his lustful gaze, Saraswati moved to four other sides of Brahma with each head sprouting to look at her, hence why every story in just words about this says he grew four heads to look at her from every direction.
    • These comics do help visualize what is actually happening in these stories I have been reading. Sometimes some details may get glossed over either by me or the source material.
  • I too would be upset if someone stared at me all the time with unblinking eyes.
  • The fifth head sprouted to look above Brahma: an easy target for a chopping. I am concerned about where and how Brahma would sprout his head is Saraswati moved somewhere below him.
  • A war rages between brahmins and kshatriyas that results in an all-consuming fire (vadavagni) that could destroy the world. The Devas ask Shiva and Saraswati for help. Shiva gave the fire to Saraswati, and she then merged with a plaksha (fig) tree from which she as a river originated. Because of this the water at Pushkar is considered sacred.
  • King Prubhanjana was out hunting and killed a deer feeding its child. The deer cursed him to be a tiger until he met a cow named Nanda 100 years later. Without realizing, he found her and was going to eat her. He let her go for one day to make arrangements with her calf. She then returns as she promised and reveals that she is Nanda, which causes the curse to break. Yama comes and offers her a boon for her honesty. She asks for her and her calf to have an important place in the universe and to have the River Saraswati to be known by her name as well.
    • What if the tiger just ate the cow? That could result in either being stuck as a tiger forever, or the cow could make his curse worse.
  •  Vishwamitra found Vasishtha meditating on Saraswati's banks. Vishwamitra asked Saraswati to bring Vasishtha to him on her waves, but knowing he was up to no good, she instead pulled Vasishtha away. Vishwamitra cursed her to become a river of blood. Some sages came by one day, and after hearing of the wrongdoing to Saraswati, they helped to cleanse her and remove the curse.
    • You could totally turn the river into any other substance, like some flavor of jell-o that no one likes or whatever.
    • How could one rewrite the rivalry?
 

Emblem of Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University (Saraswati)
Web Source: Wikimedia Commons


Bibliography. "Saraswati: Stories of the Goddess of Wisdom (Volume 840)" from Amar Chitra Katha, link to Reading Guide.

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