2-982-225 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Indian Deities - Suraswati, the Hindoo Goddess of Learning, Music and Poetry, 1858. 'She is always invoked at the marriage ceremonies of the Brahmins. She was the wife of Brahma, the Creator…She is also called Vachi, Lepita, Vani, Brahmi, or Brahmani…When a Hindoo lies or commits perjury (two very common occurrences) he makes an oblation to this goddess, and conceives that he will be held blameless in consequence. In the sacred books of the Hindoos, telling falsehoods and the bearing of false evidence are recommended as virtues. The very gods of the Hindoos are represented as liars. Suraswati is the Minerva of the Greeks. The following particulars respecting the goddess Suraswati are from Stocqueler's "Oriental Interpreter": "She is also called Bharadi, the Goddess of History. She is sometimes seen as a white woman standing on a lotus, or water-lily, holding a lute (or vina) in her hand, to show that she is also the Goddess of Music; at others, riding on a peacock, with the same emblem in her hand...[During] the annual festival of Suraswati...she is worshipped with offerings of perfumes, flowers, and rice; and the Hindoos abstain from either reading or writing, as they ascribe the power of doing both to be derivable from the goddess".' From "Illustrated London News", 1858.