Divine Beings
Saraswati
सरस्वती
Goddess of the Sacred River
Who was Saraswati?
Saraswati (सरस्वती): Goddess of the Sacred River, one of the divine beings in the Mahabharata. The holiest river of the epic and the goddess of speech, whose water bounds Kurukshetra and whose banks carry more hermitages than any other stream.
Quick Facts
| Sanskrit name | सरस्वती |
|---|---|
| Title / Epithet | Goddess of the Sacred River |
| Faction | Divine Beings |
| Key traits | sacred, fertile, learned, vanishing |
| Notable relationships | Sprung from his lake: Brahma, Mother of his son: Dadhichi, Drew the rod from his form: Vishnu, River of his pilgrimage: Balarama |
| Featured in | 8 stories |
About Saraswati
The holiest river of the epic and the goddess of speech, whose water bounds Kurukshetra and whose banks carry more hermitages than any other stream. She held the seed of Dadhichi in her womb and bore him the sage Sarasvata, who alone kept the Vedas alive through a twelve-year drought and taught them back to sixty thousand munis who had forgotten them. When Chastisement vanished from the world and creatures began to devour one another, it was Saraswati who drew the science of Danda-niti out of the terrible form Vishnu had made of himself.
In Their Words
I held thy energy for thee, knowing that such fire is not permitted to perish.
Saraswati
Traits
- sacred
- fertile
- learned
- vanishing
Story Appearances
Stories Featuring Saraswati
7 further tales on this site name Saraswati, in canonical reading order.
- Twenty-Three Days on the SaraswatiBhishma fights his own preceptor and neither man can win
- The Grandsire Names the GodDuryodhana asks why he keeps losing and gets a theology instead
- The Kingdom Poured on the FireA sage is mocked with dead cattle and burns a realm with them
- The Yajus Taken From the SunA goddess entering a man's mouth, and the fee split in two
- The Horse-Headed Voice in the DeepHow the Vedas were sung back out of the hands of thieves
- The Wind Answers the Thousand-Armed KingKartavirya boasts, and an invisible voice begins to argue
- The Elephant the Sage Called SonGautama argues his way through every heaven for a stolen calf
Character Arc
- The Seed CarriedA sage's energy held in a river's womb until it could live
- The Twelve-Year DroughtHer son teaching Veda back to sixty thousand
- The Rod Given FormDanda-niti drawn out for a world eating itself
Key Relationships
Places in Saraswati's Story
Drawn from the stories Saraswati appears in.
Related Characters
Others counted among the Divine Beings.