ABSTRACT
Sarasvati provides one significant example of a deity in both a cosmogonic and material sense, who relates to the process of creation as water and provides succour in the physical world through her various manifestations. Sarasvati emerges from this study as a unique deity in Hindu pantheon who has a marked presence in the Vedic, the Epic and the Puranic texts. Sarasvati presents herself as a unique deity as compared to other important female deities. In many of the Rig-Vedic hymns, she figures along with other gods such as Indra, Maruts, Asvins and Pusan. Identification of Sarasvati with speech during the period of the Brahmanas also reflected the importance of speech in the context of a qualitative change in the tenor of ritual practices which acquired much greater complexity and required trained priests, well-versed in intonation of hymns, to perform such rituals.
