![]() Sarasvati is personified jñānam ज्ञानम् knowing, understanding, becoming acquainted with, proficiency सांख्यस्य योगस्य च ज्ञानम् Māl.1.7. In Bharatam, even today, two annual festivals are held for Devi Sarasvati: Vasanta Panchami and Ayudha Puja Day during Dusserah in celebration of the river, arts, technology, crafts and knowledge. ![]() The s'ankha bangle is thus a signifier of the role of women in the family as an abiding cultural institution for millennia. Such cultural markers are defining statements of the weltanschauung, a particular philosophy or view of life the world view of an individual or group. ![]() The wearing of such a s'ankha bangle is a tradition among married women of Bengal and Orissa even today. Of great significance is the wide-bangle of s'ankha (turbinella pyrum) found in the burial of a woman in Mehergarh dated to 6500 BCE. An indicator of the disciplined family wife with the central role played by the mother is the evidence of two terracotta toys discovered in Mehergarh, wearing sindhur at the parting of the hair, a tradition which continues even today among Hindu women as signifiers of the importance of the family. The mother is ambitame Sarasvati which was the navigable channel, the highway which transported the seafaring vessels on the river channels and across the Rann of Kutch through the Persian Gulf, the Tigris-Euphrates Doab and the Mediterranean coastline of Ancient Near East. I had also suggested that the message conveyed by the artifact as a representation of smiths' guild, an artists' rendering of the extended family traveling on the bull-boat, a veneration of the ancestors - of the family -, led by the great mother: cf. Emanuela Sibilia for a scintillting pictorial essay intimating the Adhyatmika framework which governed the peoples' lives of 3rd millennium BCE. I had complimented Massimo Vidale and Dr. See: Lady of the spiked throne (Massimo Vidale 2011). These indicators of respect for women are a continuum in Vedic and Hindu traditions. Facets of the civilization in relation to culture, religion and temple in Sarasvati civilization have been presented in: These facets are complemented by the veneration of 'mother divinities': Mehrgarh: Terracotta figurines from Fourth period (period VII, courtesy: Jarrige) Mohenjo-daro bronze figurine of a lady holding a deepam. Ganesha signifies tri-dhAtu and Kubera signifies wealth in the early phases of the Bronze Age Revolution exemplified by Indus Script Corpora as metalwork catalogues, artefacts of Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization from 8th millennium BCE and the metaphors of chandas in vedic texts resonant with knowledge systems. Benzaiten also known as Benten-sama (Hindu equivalent: Sarasvati), is seen in association with Kangiten (Ganesha) and Bishamonten (Kubera). It is a stunning, awe-inspiring cultural syncretism that Benzaiten of China-Japan is a synonym of Vedic Sarasvati and has ALL the attributes of Sarasvati defined in an ancient text, Rigveda. Veda is the quintessence of ज्ञानम्, an unceasing inquiry, a process of knowing cosmic and consciousness phenomena - manifest, unmanifest, being and becoming. This phenomenon is a tribute to ज्ञानम्, 'knowledge system' held in high esteem in the pilgrimage of civilizations. A breath-taking phenomenon unparalleled in the story of human civilization is the veneration of Benzaiten as Sarasvati (Rigveda), Arədvī Sūrā Anāhitā (Avestan), spanning millennia and also a vast geographical space of Eurasia.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |