Saraswati

Saraswati

Goddess of knowledge, music, arts, wisdom, and nature, Saraswati is worshiped by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains throughout South and South-east Asia, and by Buddhists in China, Korea, and Japan.

Clay images like this one made by a Dhaka artist are worshiped and then immersed in a nearby river to carry her blessings to the whole world. In this clay image she is traveling by horse-drawn chariot. Why a swan traveling alongside the chariot?

In more traditional Hindu iconography, Saraswati is depicted riding on a white swan.

In this clay image from a Durga puja pandal at Jahangirnagar University, she plays the Vina the musical instrument that is her most important symbol for identification, and her swan waits anxiously to take her to her next concert event.

But this sculpture of Saraswati in the Varendra Research Museum is more likely to have been created for Buddhists and installed at the entrance to a Buddhist Vihara. Look carefully to discover the vehicle under her lotus throne.

 Where you might expect to find a swan, a Tibetan Argali [wild sheep] waits to take her on a journey. This iconography is unique and suggests that Saraswati entered the pantheon of Buddhist deities in Bangladesh via Tibetan monks teaching at one of the great Buddhist Universities in Bangladesh. Many of the Hindu and Buddhist sculptures in the Varendra Research Museum have iconographic details that are unique to the art of Bangladesh and will require years of study of this collection by leading scholars to reveal to the world Bangladesh’s contribution to the history of art.

Last updated by admin at 11 September, 2020