Sarasvati. From Central India. 10th-11th Century. London, British Museum.
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Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham
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Sarasvati (or Mahasaravati [sic]) is the fourth of the Four Great Divine Mothers, who were saktis to the greater gods in the Hindu pantheon. The fourth aspect that Sarasvati represents is the secret and penetrative capacity for intimate knowledge, for careful and faultless work, and for calm, precise perfection in all things. Sarasvati is also the consort of Brahma - the Creator force - and the patron goddess of the river Sarasvati. In one of her hands she holds the rosary, in another a bowl and, in front of her, the staff
all suggest the symbols of death, renunciation and the spiritual path of devotion by which man is saved. We may begin to understand the conception of this Divine Mother through the prayer of a worshipper, Shankara-charya: Who art thou, O Fairest One! Auspicious One! You whose hands hold both: delight and pain? Both: the shade of death and the elixir of immortality, Are thy grace, O Mother! In style, the Sarasvati is an outgrowth of the revival of the Andhra figure types in the Classicistic sense, for her limbs are long and tubular, her face soft and serene as appropriate to the conception of female divinities. There is also the suggestion of the emergence of the form from the stone itself, which is typical of this period.
all suggest the symbols of death, renunciation and the spiritual path of devotion by which man is saved. We may begin to understand the conception of this Divine Mother through the prayer of a worshipper, Shankara-charya: Who art thou, O Fairest One! Auspicious One! You whose hands hold both: delight and pain? Both: the shade of death and the elixir of immortality, Are thy grace, O Mother! In style, the Sarasvati is an outgrowth of the revival of the Andhra figure types in the Classicistic sense, for her limbs are long and tubular, her face soft and serene as appropriate to the conception of female divinities. There is also the suggestion of the emergence of the form from the stone itself, which is typical of this period.
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Basham Collection
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circa 1970s
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This item is provided for research purposes. Contact the Australian National University Archives at butlin.archives@anu.edu.au for permission to use.
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