On Saraswati Puja

Though Saraswati Puja falls during different times in different parts of India, the ninth day of Dusshera is traditionally the day reserved for Saraswati in the south.

My attitude to religion and ritual is fairly laissez faire but aspects of it do interest in. I have a shrine at home largely full of my mother’s idols/paintings; I light a lamp once in awhile. I like the feeling of being in an old temple, the odour of past obeisances so to speak. But there is plenty else that I have little interest in, including festivals.

In many ways my interest in religion and ritual is tied to my interest in the past. I like books on mythology even if they are tinged with the wildly fantastic, e.g. Joseph Campbell’s books. Campbell in one of his books writes of the Hindu concept of the ishta devata in terms not merely of idol worship but what the devata symbolises. He relates this to his own belief in Saraswati because wisdom and knowledge were not merely the tools of his trade but what he valued most.

Saraswati as everyone knows is a neglected goddess with few temples dedicated to her. Even in the shops cluttered with idols of every description, she would be hard put to locate. In a way Saraswati flows underground through Indian life much like the myth of the river from which her goddess cult stems. Maybe it is this neglect and her elusive nature that makes her interesting to me but I am being facetious, like with Campbell she is my ishta devata because she represents what I value most in life.

Of course you do not need a goddess to personify the feeling or thought that the getting of wisdom is important. But there is something simple and sweet in reserving a day for it, in the act of placement of the books that matter to you, covering them with a new cloth and placing a few flowers.

So I plan to do that tomorrow. For some reason, choosing the books for the puja has always been the most exciting part of the day since my childhood so I will give it some thought over the next few hours :-)

PostScript: Though, as with every other goddess, it’s the Ravi Varma painting of Saraswati that is ubiquitous, the kalamkari versions (as in the pic for this post) remain the more elegant representation of the goddess.