Goddess Saraswati is the Goddess of learning, music, knowledge and wisdom, who represents the free flow of wisdom and consciousness. She is the divine consort of Lord Brahma. She is worshipped by all persons interested in knowledge, especially students, teachers, scholars and scientists. Lord Brahma created the universe, since knowledge is required for creation, Saraswati signifies the creative power of Brahma. The creation of Brahma became profitable with the knowledge provided by Goddess Saraswati. She wears neither jewels or paints herself with bright colors. The white sari she adorns reflects essential purity and her rejection of all that is materialistic.

Goddess Saraswati is usually depicted with four arms, wearing a white sari and seated on a white lotus. The white lotus denotes supreme knowledge and four arms denote her omnipresence and omnipotence. Her vehicle (vahan), the swan, personifies pure knowledge and her herald, the peacock, is the symbol of the arts. She holds a book and a rosary in her two hands, while the other two hands are engaged in the playing a lute (veena). She is considered the mother of the Vedas which sprang from her heads. As Brahma's wife she provides the power to execute what Brahma has conceived with his creative intelligence. She is goddess of all the creative arts. She is often represented as a graceful woman with a lute. In the Vedas Saraswati was a water goddess of a river of the same name which flowed west from the Himalayas.

Saraswati has a arrogant nature and is disputatious. One myth tells that she was originally the wife of Vishnu, along with Lakshmi and Ganga. But Vishnu could not endure their quarrelling, therefore he gave Saraswati to Brahma and Ganga to Shiva. On another occasion Saraswati was too idle to arrive on time for a sacrifice to be performed by Brahma in which his wife had to take part. Brahma sent a messenger to fetch her, but she sent back the message that she was still at her toilet and that he should wait. Brahma was incensed at this reply. He asked the assembled gods to provide him with another wife. Gayatri, the daughter of a sage, was offered to him, and he married her immediately and completed the sacrifice. When Saraswati eventually arrived on the scene, she in turn displayed her anger and cursed Brahma to be worshipped no more than once a year. Thus she had to accept the presence of Gayatri, but was mollified by the latter's promise to remain always in second place. All paintings are courtesy of Art of Legend India.