Hindu mythology, Vedic and Purânic . wasas much as even a eod could manage, transferred Sarasvati toBrahma and Ganga to Siva, andcontented himself with Lakshmialone. Sarasvati is a goddess of some though not of very great im-portance in the Vedas. . She is celebrated both as a river anda goddess. She was primarily a river deity, as her name, thewatery, clearly denotes ; and in this capacity she is celebratedin a few separate passages. Allusion is made in the hymns, aswell as in the Brahmanas, to sacrifices being performed on thebanks of this river, and of the adjoining Drishadvati ; and theSar
Hindu mythology, Vedic and Purânic . wasas much as even a eod could manage, transferred Sarasvati toBrahma and Ganga to Siva, andcontented himself with Lakshmialone. Sarasvati is a goddess of some though not of very great im-portance in the Vedas. . She is celebrated both as a river anda goddess. She was primarily a river deity, as her name, thewatery, clearly denotes ; and in this capacity she is celebratedin a few separate passages. Allusion is made in the hymns, aswell as in the Brahmanas, to sacrifices being performed on thebanks of this river, and of the adjoining Drishadvati ; and theSarasvati in particular seems to have been associated with thereputation for sanctity which . . was ascribed to the whole regioncalled Brahmavartta, lying between these two small streams,and situated immediately to the westward of the Jumna. TheSarasvati thus appears to have been to the early Indians whatthe Ganges (which is only twice named in the Rig-Veda) is totheir descendants. . When once the river had acquired a divine. SARASVATI. Wilsons Works, ii. 187. Sarasvati. 9 n character, it was quite natural that she should be regarded asthe patroness of ceremonies which were celebrated on the marginof her holy waters, and that her direction and blessing shouldbe invoked as essential to their proper performance and connexion into which she was thus brought with sacred ritesmay have led to the further step of imagining her to have aninfluence on the composition of the hymns which formed soimportant a part of the proceedings, and of identifying her withVach, the goddess of speech. At least I have no other explana-tion to offer to this double character and identification.* Sarasvati is frequently invited to the sacrifices along withseveral other goddesses, who, however, were never, like her, rivernymphs, but personifications of some department of religiousworship, or sacred science. She is frequently invoked along withother deities. In many passages where she is celebrated
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