All the Margazhi music season's a stage and all of the music and the fine arts showcased flow into a very special song of Saraswati. Here is a musico- cultural snippet to salute the Goddess Saraswati.
*Saraswati is the Goddess of wisdom; she is also revered as ‘Vak Devi’, the Goddess of speech
*The Vedas and Upanishads refer to her as a symbol of knowledge and as a river Goddess while the Puranas mention her as a consort of Lord Brahma.
*Ancient Tamil works such as the Manimekalai and Tiruvachakam, as well as Jain literary texts like the Bhagavati Sutra and Saraswati Kalpa extol her as the guiding deity of learning.
*The word ‘saras’ means, ‘to glide’ or ‘to move’. Be it the flow of words or water, this certainly explains the Goddess’ name.
*Key shrines dedicated to Saraswati are at Kootanur in Tamilnadu, Shringeri and Gadag in Karnataka and Basara in Andhra Pradesh. An ancient temple, referred to as the Sarvajna Peetha, is believed to have existed in Kashmir atop the Takht-i-Sulaiman hill.
*The worship of Saraswati extends beyond India’s borders to Tibet, Nepal, Indonesia and Japan, where she is known as Benzai- ten.
*Saraswati is a Carnatic raga which has been used in compositions by Saint Tyagaraja, Swati Tirunal, Muttaiah Bhagavatar and many others.
* >Muttuswami Dikshitar has composed numerous songs on Goddess Saraswati and her various forms including Sharavati, Kalavati, Bharati, Girvani and Vagdevi.
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Also see: >Animated explanations along with complete rendition and lyrics for songs on Goddess Sarasvati
