Saraswati (Sharada) ಶಾರದೆ

Names

• Sharada — bestower of essence or knowledge¹
• Vagdevi — goddess of speech¹
• Vani — flow of music and song¹
• Brahmani — power of Brahma¹
• Varnesvari — goddess of letters¹
• Kavijihvagravasini — she who dwells on the tongue of poets¹
• Bharati, Vidya, Kalaivani — further names¹

Family

Consorts

Brahma

The Puranas differ on whether she is Brahma’s daughter, his creation or both; she is one of the Tridevi, and some Vaishnava traditions place her beside Lakshmi as Vishnu’s consort.¹

Origins

In the Rigveda she is mainly the goddess of the Sarasvati river; later Vedic texts merge her with Vac, speech, and she becomes the goddess of knowledge, learning and the arts.¹

She is white-clad, four-armed, holding a book, rosary, water pot and veena, seated on a white lotus with the swan or peacock as her mount.¹