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Sarasvati is the goddess of learning and music. She is referred to in the Rgveda as a river, on the banks of which Vedic learning developed. She is also identified with speech ('Vag vai Sarasvati'). In the popular Hindu mythology she is known as Vagdevi (the goddess of speech). The Puranas gave her an iconographical form. In the later mythology, she is sometimes connected with Brahma (both as his daughter and as his wife) and at other times with Vism as Pusti. As is stated above in the description of the image of Brahma, both the Agni and the Matsya Purana mention that the image of Sarasvati and Savitri should be respectively at the left and right sides of the Brahma's image. According to Matsya Purana Chapter 261. 24, Brahmani should be made like Brahma

(Brahmani Brahma sadrsi). 221 Therefore like Brahma, she should have four faces. Agni Purana (49. 16 - 17) says that the image of goddess Sarasvati should carry in her hands a book, a rosary, a lute and a water vessel. In the Skanda Purana (VI, 46. 16 - 19) it is said that King Ambuvici, with great regard for the great powers of Sarasvati, took the clay out of the river Sarasvati and made an earthen image of her. That image is shown to have four hands with a lotus, rosary, watervessel and a book in the respective hands. The Vismudharmottara Puarana (III Khanda) depicts only Savitri in the left lap of Branma. In Chapter 44 she is described as four-armed holding a pustaka (book), and an aksamala (rosary) in her right hands and Vina (Musical instrument) and amandalu (water vessel) in her left hands. She is decked with many ornaments and has a face like that of the Moon. The Musical instrument was one of the oldest emblems associated with Sarasvati. It represents a kind of achievement or proficiency (Siddhi). Her four hands represent the four Vedas and book represents all sastras. The water is fundamentally necessary for the creation of the universe. Hence she holds a water vessel. It also suggests her watery form i.e. Sarasvati as a river. The dual image of Brahma and Sarasvati is found in the Mathura sculpture. In the Dacca Museum, Sarasvati is shown as four-armed seated on a double petalled lotus, playing on a Vina with her two front hands and holding a rosary and a book in her 48 rear right and left hands respectively. Her four-armed image

- 222 49 with these emblems is in the provincial Museum, Lucknow, but she is shown as seated on a peacock as her vehicle.