Sarasvati - Riverine Goddess of Knowledge (393p) [Anomolous].pdf

Sarasvati - Riverine Goddess of Knowledge (393p) [Anomolous].pdf

Brill, 2007
ISBN: 978 90 04 15814 6

The goddess of knowledge Sarasvati, to whom this book is dedicated, has been my steadfast companion for more than a decade, from the writ- ing of my dissertation at the University of Toronto to the completion of the present volume. The goddess's hymns and images have inspired and informed my work, and much preoccupied my mind.

This study traces the development of Sarasvati from her riverine ori- gins as depicted in the earliest textual source on the goddess, the Rg Veda composed sometime after 1750 B.C.E., through to her establish- ment as the deity of all forms of knowledge in epic and early Puranic sources (up to the seventh century C.E.), as well as in the oldest surviv- ing Hindu, Jain, and possibly Buddhist images (third to seventh cen- tury), to the goddess's depiction in the most significant Buddhist source on Sarasvati, the Sutra ofGolden Light, whose earliest extant redaction is from the beginning of the fifth century.