Lakṣmī & Sarasvatī

On Deepavali night the door is left open and a lamp burns on the step, so that Lakṣmī may come in. On the ninth night of Navaratri the children’s schoolbooks are stacked before Sarasvatī, and no one studies until she gives them back. Tamil tradition names the three great goddesses in a rhyme — மலைமகள், அலைமகள், கலைமகள்: Malaimakaḷ, the mountain’s daughter (Pārvatī); Alaimakaḷ, the daughter of the waves (Lakṣmī); and Kalaimakaḷ, the daughter of the arts (Sarasvatī). This page is about the last two. For the three together, see The Tridevi; for the Goddess as supreme, Devī.

The two at a glance

Śrī in the Vedas

The word śrī means radiance, beauty, prosperity — the glow of a thriving life, of a king, of a good harvest. In the Vedic hymns it is mostly a quality; by the Brāhmaṇas it becomes a goddess. The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa tells how Śrī emerged, shining, from the creator Prajāpati, and the gods each took a share of her splendour.

Her great hymn is the Śrī Sūkta, a khila or supplementary hymn handed down with the Ṛgveda and attached to its fifth book. It is recited in pūjās to this day, and asks Agni, the god of fire, to bring the goddess:

Later verses of the same hymn picture her seated on a lotus, delighting in the trumpeting of elephants, and pray that misfortune and want be driven from the home. Historians note that Śrī-Lakṣmī was worshipped widely before she was firmly joined to Vishnu: the image of a goddess on a lotus bathed by two elephants appears on early coins and on Buddhist monuments such as Bharhut and Sanchi, centuries before the Purāṇas.

Born from the ocean

The best-loved story of her coming is the churning of the ocean. The gods and demons, using the mountain Mandara as a churning rod and the serpent Vāsuki as a rope, churned the ocean of milk for the nectar of immortality. Among the treasures that rose — the moon, the wish-granting tree, the poison that Shiva drank — was Lakṣmī, seated on a lotus. She chose Vishnu as her husband. The story is told in the Mahābhārata and in Purāṇas such as the Viṣṇu (book 1) and the Bhāgavata (book 8); on its link to Deepavali, see Deepavali.

Wherever Vishnu goes, she goes. When he takes birth as Rama she is Sītā; as Krishna, Rukmiṇī. The Viṣṇu Purāṇa puts it simply:

The mediator of grace

Śrīvaiṣṇava view In the Śrīvaiṣṇava tradition of Ramanuja (see Vishishtadvaita), Lakṣmī is far more than a goddess of wealth. She is the Lord’s inseparable partner — the tradition is named after her — and its central mantra, the dvaya, begins with her: śrīman nārāyaṇa caraṇau śaraṇaṃ prapadye, “I take refuge at the feet of Nārāyaṇa, who is with Śrī.” She is the puruṣakāra, the one who intercedes: like a mother who speaks to a stern father for an erring child, she turns the Lord’s attention to the soul and his justice into mercy. The soul approaches him through her when it makes its surrender (prapatti).

The two Śrīvaiṣṇava branches differ on her nature: the Vaḍakalai teach that she is, with Vishnu, a giver of liberation herself; the Teṉkalai that she mediates but the Lord alone saves. In the Rāmāyaṇa, Śrīvaiṣṇavas see the model of her mercy in Sītā, who protected even the demonesses who had tormented her.

The eight Lakṣmīs

A widely loved later scheme, the Aṣṭalakṣmī, honours eight forms of Lakṣmī, one for each kind of good fortune. Popular tradition It is sung in the modern Aṣṭalakṣmī Stotram and has its own temples, such as the one by the sea at Besant Nagar in Chennai. Names and order vary between lists. Tap each:

• 1आदिĀdi LakṣmīThe primal Lakṣmī — the goddess herself, source of all the others.
• 2धनDhana LakṣmīWealth: money, gold — and the means to live and to give.
• 3धान्यDhānya LakṣmīGrain: food, harvest and nourishment.
• 4गजGaja LakṣmīLakṣmī with elephants: power, royalty and abundant rain.
• 5सन्तानSantāna LakṣmīChildren and family; often shown holding a child.
• 6धैर्यDhairya LakṣmīCourage (also Vīra Lakṣmī): strength to face hardship.
• 7विजयVijaya LakṣmīVictory and success in every undertaking.
• 8विद्याVidyā LakṣmīKnowledge — showing that wealth and wisdom are not truly rivals.

Some lists include Aiśvarya (sovereignty) or Saubhāgya (good fortune) Lakṣmī in place of one of these.

Reading Lakṣmī’s image

Her lotus grows from mud yet is unstained by it: wealth and beauty that do not soil the one who holds them. The gold coins falling from her hand are prosperity flowing outwards — fortune meant to circulate, not to be hoarded. The elephants pouring water over her (Gaja-Lakṣmī) are rain clouds and royal power, the fertility of the land. Her owl, in Bengal and the east, is sometimes read as a warning: wealth sought blindly makes one foolish. Popular reading The tradition is clear that she is cañcalā, fickle: she stays where there is diligence, cleanliness, generosity and dharma, and leaves where there is idleness and quarrelling.

Her worship is everywhere. Lakṣmī Pūjā on Deepavali’s new-moon evening, when many business families bless new account books; Varalakṣmī Vratam, kept by married women in South India on a Friday in Śrāvaṇa (July–August); Kojāgarī Lakṣmī Pūjā on the autumn full moon in Bengal. Community practice In many Tamil and Malaysian homes, Friday is her day: the house is cleaned, a kōlam drawn at the door and a lamp lit at dusk. Families differ, and all are authentic.

Sarasvatī: from river to Word

Sarasvatī began as a river — in the Ṛgveda the mightiest and holiest of rivers, flowing from the mountains to the sea, on whose banks the sacrifices were performed. She is praised as river, as mother and as goddess in a single breath:

Historians debate which river this was; many identify it with the now mostly dry Ghaggar-Hakra system in north-west India, while others link early references to rivers further west. Tradition says she still flows unseen, meeting the Gaṅgā and Yamunā at Prayāga.

Already in the Veda the river who purifies is linked with inspired speech, and by the Brāhmaṇas Sarasvatī is identified with Vāk, sacred Speech (whose own hymn is quoted on Devī). She becomes goddess of language, learning, music, the arts and all knowledge — and consort of Brahmā, the creator, since creation itself proceeds through the Word.

Reading Sarasvatī’s image

She is dressed in white, the colour of purity and clarity, seated on a white lotus or a rock beside water. The vīṇā stands for music and all the arts; the book for learning; the rosary for meditation and the inner knowledge of mantra; the water-pot for purifying the mind. Her swan, in a famous traditional image, can separate milk from water — the discernment (viveka) that tells the lasting from the passing.

Her festivals are the festivals of learning. In north and east India she is worshipped on Vasanta Pañcamī, the fifth day of the bright fortnight of Māgha (January–February), when people wear yellow for the mustard fields of spring and Bengali students place their pens before her. In the south she is honoured at Navaratri: on the ninth day, Sarasvatī Pūjā and Āyudha Pūjā rest books, instruments, tools and vehicles before the Goddess, and on Vijayadaśamī children begin to learn with Vidyārambham (see Navaratri). At that moment a verse like this is often said — a short prayer that many Hindu children also learn at school, to say before any study:

Community practice In Malaysia, many Tamil schools and temples hold Sarasvatī Pūjā during Navaratri, with pupils bringing their books to be blessed, and temples offer Vidyārambham to small children on Vijayadaśamī, writing their first letters in rice. Practice varies.

Beyond Hinduism

Sarasvatī is one of the few Hindu deities honoured across the Indian religions. Jains revere her as Śrutadevī, the goddess of sacred knowledge, and some of the most beautiful medieval Sarasvatī images are Jain. In Buddhism she appears in the Golden Light Sūtra (Suvarṇaprabhāsa) and is worshipped in Tibet and Nepal. Through that sūtra she travelled to East Asia: in Japan she became Benzaiten, goddess of water, music and eloquence, still shown holding a lute, and one of the Seven Gods of Fortune. Lakṣmī, too, appears on Jain and Buddhist monuments as the goddess of auspicious plenty.

A playful rivalry

Wealth and learning do not always live under one roof — and the stories know it. Popular tradition A common saying, especially in Bengal, holds that where Lakṣmī lives Sarasvatī will not stay, and where Sarasvatī lives Lakṣmī is scarce: the rich are often unlearned and scholars often poor. The Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa tells a Purāṇic version, in which Lakṣmī, Sarasvatī and Gaṅgā, all wives of Vishnu, quarrel and curse one another to be born as rivers on earth. The stories are told with a smile; their point is serious. The Aṣṭalakṣmī scheme answers it by placing Vidyā among the eight Lakṣmīs, and the Navaratri pattern of Durgā, Lakṣmī and Sarasvatī treats them as successive stages of one journey.

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Sources & further reading

• David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition (University of California Press, 1986) — chapters on Śrī-Lakṣmī and Sarasvatī.
• Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (trans.), The Rigveda (Oxford University Press, 2014) — the Sarasvatī hymns, 2.41.16.
• H. H. Wilson (trans.), The Vishnu Purana (1840; many reprints).
• Vasudha Narayanan, The Way and the Goal: Expressions of Devotion in the Early Śrī Vaiṣṇava Tradition (Institute for Vaishnava Studies, 1987).
• John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff (eds.), Devī: Goddesses of India (University of California Press, 1996).
• Catherine Ludvik, Sarasvatī, Riverine Goddess of Knowledge: From the Manuscript-carrying Vīṇā-player to the Weapon-wielding Defender of the Dharma (Brill, 2007).