Reading Notes: Week 13 Reading Part A

Saraswati: Stories of the Goddess of Wisdom [Comic on Reserve]

Saraswati Comic Cover Page. Source: Indian Epics Blog

POV: Third person
Summary:
      The Birth of Saraswati

• In the first story, the birth of Saraswati is told; she is born of Brahma's mind just after her is finished creating the three worlds and is seated on his lotus in mediation
• Brahma is so captivated by her beauty that he cannot avert his gaze, and she tries to move to avoid it but he grows a head in every direction to look at her
• In order to stop this distraction, Shiva destroys the fifth head that appears, and Brahma apologises to Saraswati and asks her to teach him better; she tells him the vedas which he chants
• They are married, as Saraswati is his shakti

      Saraswati Becomes a River

• In the second story, Saraswati must become a river in order to stop the vadavagni (all consuming fire), and cleanse the people who drink from the river's waters of their sins
• During a war between two clans, the Vadavagni is born and the gods fear it will ravage and destroy the world; they go to Shiva, who tells them that Saraswati must take on the task to become a river to stop it
• When they go to Saraswati, she tells them they must ask Brahma first, because she is directly tied to him, and when they go to him, he then comes back to Saraswati and tells her she should go; Saraswati speaks to other goddesses before she leaves, and Ganga offers to help her transform into a river, but she denies (it is her task she says)
• Saraswati meets Shiva who gives her the Vadavagni to consume when she becomes the river and goes on her journey; she comes out of the Plaksha tree and this becomes the origin of the river
• From her origin, she flows west where she comes to be known as the Nanda river; here they tell the story of how she became called Nanda:
• A king in those parts shoots a deer who was feeding her child, and the deer curses him to roam as a tiger until her meets Nanda, a cow in 100 years;
• Sure enough, Nanda comes with her herd to graze in the field, and the tiger encounters her (but does not know she is Nanda); Nanda begs him to allow her to 'make arrangments' for her child and he does; Nanda actually returns and upon hearing her name, the tiger turned king turns back into a human; 
• Yama grants Nanda a boon for her honesty and she asked that the river in those parts, Saraswati, be named after her.
• From there, Saraswati flows northward to her final destination, where she can finally release the flames of vadavagni; the gods watch as she completes her task and saves the universe

      The River of Blood

• A sage curses Saraswati after she refuses to aid him in hurting another sage when he is unarmed and unprepared; he curses her rivers to turn to blood 
• Because of the blood, Saraswati is left abandoned until another set of sages pass by and help cleanse her of the blood
• The gods shower her with flowers and people continue to pray to her again; however, in the last scene, Saraswati is seen walking away as if towards heaven, seemingly disturbed by how she was unjustly punished

Saraswati in print art. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Reference: Saraswati: Stories of the Goddess of Wisdom Amar Chitra Katha. [Printed Comic]