It Was Only Apt That They Named The Galactic Supercluster

Saraswati

By Aravindan Neelakandan

The young Indian astronomers who discovered a galactic supercluster four billion light years
away have named it Saraswati. Giving Hindu names to an astronomical object or phenomenon
instead of names derived from Western mythology is not something that validates Hindu
mythology scientifically. It only shows that Indian science is increasingly cementing its place in
the global scientific community.

Bound by the speed of light, the astronomers see Saraswati supercluster only as it was 4,000
million years ago.

The celestial Saraswati fondly invokes some interconnected thoughts for a student of Indian
culture and spiritual traditions.

Saraswati: Goddess of Sacred Geography

Saraswati in Rigveda is a mighty river goddess. She is the best of mothers, best of rivers and
best of the goddesses. She stands distinctly majestic among the other mighty rivers, faster in
her charge than others. She is the mother of all rivers. With three hymns for her, which are sung
in 80 different places, she who from the mountains goes to the ocean made sacred the
geography, the Sapta Sindhu the land of seven rivers, as was experienced by the Vedic
seers.

From the colonial times, her identity has been searched for by explorers, geologists and
archeologists. Dried river beds of Ghaggar-Hakra had been identified with Saraswati by many of
them. The paleo-channels, six to eight kilometres wide in the Landsat MSS2 image, as identified
by eminent physicist Yash Pal in 1980, would later emerge as iconic of the terrestrial Saraswati
river.

Her Vedic description and identity with respect to the sacred geography of India have been
challenged by a school of scholars who usually also ascribe to the colonial Aryan migration
model. For example, Harvard Sankritist Professor Michael Witzel considers the Vedic
description of the river as hyperbole. However, the geologists who studied the paleo-river
channels discovered a perennial monsoonal-fed Sarasvati river system with benign floods
along its course which, to them, was a testament to the acuity of the Rig Veda composers who
transmitted to us across millennia such an incredibly accurate description of a grand river!

There are three goddesses (tisro devih , Rigveda, 1:13:9) who are invoked together in the
Vedas. They are Saraswati, Ila and Bhrati. In Atharvaveda, all three are given the name
Saraswati (tisrah Sarasvatih). Another Vedic goddess of interest is Vc. In the Vjasaneyi
Samhit of Yajurveda, Saraswati bestows Vc on Indra; she is the controller of Vc and she
herself is the Vc. In Satapathabrhmana, Vc and Saraswati are declared as one. Bhrati is
also identified with Vc. In Brhaddevat, first compiled in 400 BCE and revised during early
Puranic period, Vc united with Bhrati.

Celestial and Terrestrial Milk of Saraswati

Saraswati is not just the flowing riverine goddess but also the celestial one. She is identified with
Milky Way, the river of heaven. She is also associated with the cosmic tree which connects the
celestial worlds with earth. Vedic scholar David Frawley sees in her cosmic symbolism her
higher status. He considers her the stream of consciousness.

Aitareya Brahmana of the Rigveda reveals a very interesting dimension of Saraswati. She is not
only the celestial river, the river of this earth and the flow of consciousness; she is also the
stream of justice. Sadashiv Ambadas Dange, author of Encyclopaedia of Puranic Beliefs and
Practices, opines that they were trying assiduously, in a probable drought, for the gain of
water. They expelled Kavasha because he was son of a Dsi, a non-Brahmin and a gambler.
Humiliated and driven to the desert, there he was inspired and saw the famous 'Aponaptriya',
the child of the waters. He abided in her affection, says the text, and Saraswati started flowing
all around him. The dramatic contrast between the arrogant ritualists calling him 'Dsiputra' and
their shaming by Kavasha becoming the seer of the child of the waters as well as the
significance of the anecdote in rejecting the socially stagnant abuse of a person with a slur
against his maternal lineage, pitting such slur against the Divine Feminine cannot be lost on
any careful student of Hindu history.
Rigveda speaks of rivers as mothers of Saraswati, the seventh river. Saraswati herself is said to
be Sudughdh, yielding good milk. And this sacred geography gets mapped into the inner
realms as well. In Rigveda (1.164.49), the seer asks Saraswati to allow him to suckle her
breasts. Dr Catherine Ludvik insightfully observes: Her milk, in this stanza, represents all
valuable things, which she gives in full from her abundant breast, wealth in the widest sense.
For the poet, as a poet, however, there is one treasure above all inspired thought (Dhi). Thus if
one were to apply this stanza directly to the poet, one might say that he wishes to suck Dhi
directly from its source so that inspired thoughts might flow from him in the form of words.

Interestingly, two of South Indias greatest poet-seers would seek and get the same from a
goddess, though not from Saraswati but Prvati, who is the daughter of the mountains.

According to tradition, seventh-century child prodigy and Saivaite saint Thiru Gnana
Sambandar, who revived Saivism in South India, was given milk by Prvati when he cried as an
infant. Adi Sankara, around early eighth century, in his work Saundarya Lahari makes the
Vedic-Sarasvati connection explicit. He describes the milk of her breast as an ocean of milk
flowing like the waters of Sarasvati. Having drunk this milk, says Sankara, the Dravida Sisu
(Dravidian infant) became poet among all great poets. It is interesting that the Vedic imagery of
the flowing river becomes linked to the poetic greatness of the South Indian seer. In the context
of Tamil Saivism, the distinction between Saraswati and Prvati does not matter at all.
Thirumanthiram is a fifth-century canonical Saivaite text written by Tamil mystic seer
Thirumoolar, who identifies Saraswati emphatically with Prvati:

She that holds the Book of Knowledge in her hand divine

She our mother, of eyes three,

She of crystal form, She of comely white lotus,

She chants the Vedas, She is Parvati. (Tantra 4:5:22, 1067)

Sarasvati Anththi, a Tamil devotional work of 30 verses sung in praise of Saraswati,

traditionally attributed to famous Kambar (twelfth century) but probably a later work, hails her
having given the milk of knowledge of all art from her mountainous breasts.

Goddess of the Battlefield

Both Vc and Saraswati are also goddesses who can fight. Saraswati is compared to Indra, and
her assistance is requested in the battlefields. She is the only goddess addressed as the slayer
of Vtra-Vtragni. The epithet in its masculine form that is used to address Indra 106 times is
used only once in feminine form and that is to address Saraswati. In Yajurveda, Saraswati is
invoked with Rudras to help people.

Vc Sukta is interesting because this hymn is attributed to the human daughter, Vc, of sage
Ambna. Seized with an altered state of consciousness merging with the archetypal Divine
Feminine, she identifies herself with the goddess. She declares herself to be roaming the land
with Rudras (invoked with Saraswati), Adityas (invoked with Bhrati) and Vasus (invoked with
Ila). Thus, she embodies in her all the three goddesses. Then she says that she fights for the
people. She reveals herself as Rashtri the embodiment of the nation. She says that she
strings the bow of the Rudras and fights for the people. A comparable poetic manifestation of
this Vedic hymn would arise centuries later in the worship of goddess expressed in
Chilapathikaram (dated variously between second to fifth century CE) in South India. We have
here the primordial surfacing of Bharat mata, combining both her traits as the giver of
knowledge and the fighting warrior goddess.

A Goddess of Buddhist Dhamma with Vedic roots

Dr Ludvik, professor of religion at Kyoto Sangyo University, in her detailed study points out that
in Suvaraprabh Stra, or the Stra of Golden Light, Saraswati becomes a multi-armed
fighting goddess for Dharma. She ponders:

Would the Sutra of Golden Light, in the extant Sanskrit and in the versions represented by the
Chinese translations of Yasogupta/Jnanagupta and Yijing-over two thousand years removed in
time from the Rg Veda-have drawn on an aspect of the goddess that amongst the Hindus had
been left behind, seemingly forgotten? Would the Buddhists have been studying the Rg Veda
and its complex language so closely? (Dr Catherine Ludvik, 2007, p 199)

She rejects such a scenario, though. To Dr Ludvik, the Sutra simply combines distinct
goddesses: the original wisdom goddess Saraswati and the later battle goddesses merging
them with Saraswati. Saraswati takes the form of an eight-armed battle goddess for Dharma in
the Sutra and reaches Japan through China, though this form is more related to
'Kausiki-Vindhyavasini' and 'Mahissuramardini'.
It may be that Dr Ludwik could have overlooked a connection between Vc and
Mahishsuramardini. For this, a birds eye view of the way Mahishsuramardini has evolved
along the time stream may provide some clues.

The buffalo-slaying Divine can be traced to the Harappan period itself. Archeologist Jonathan
Kenoyer while discussing the Harappan terracotta tablet which shows the ritual slaying of a
water buffalo in front of a deity seated in yogic position while a crocodile crawls above the
scene, points out that these aspects are in Hinduism associated with the deity Durga. During
the period of second urbanisation, which in South India coincides with Sangham age, the
goddess who slays a buffalo demon has emerged in literature. She had won a battle and is the
mother of Murugan. Uma is also the mother of Murugan in the same layer of literature. She is
depicted as armed with a trident in battlefields and has three eyes. When vermillion is applied to
a maiden, she is said to look like Kottravai, the battle goddess. She dwells in the forest.
Chilapathikaram clearly establishes her identity as Mahissuramardini and also a tribal deity
who is also hailed as the goddess at the summit of Upanishads. Here, she is also identified with
another goddess of Indian sacred geography Kumari (Kanyakumari). Meanwhile in North
India, in Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and the Nagar region of Rajasthan, Mahissuramardini
images have been obtained archeologically, attested to the end of first century BCE.

Devi Mhtmiya, a fifth century CE work (part of Markandeya Purana), provides an interesting, if
not clinching, link connecting Mahissuramardini and Vc. Mhtmiya describes in detail the
weapons of the goddess and the deities who provided them. It were the Maruts or the Rudras
(sons of Rudra) who gave her the bow. In Vc Sukta, it is the bow of Rudra that she strings for
the people. When one sees the depictions of her in the reliefs and sculptures holding the bow
and fighting Mahishsura, as in the case of the famous Mahabalipuram shore temples of
Pallavs (seventh century), one can relate the imagery to Vc Sukta of Rigveda.

Thus, the connectivity between the goddess of knowledge and the multi-armed goddess who
battles is never forgotten in the flow of history in the land of seven rivers, India. Vande Mataram
brought it out when Bankim Chandra Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay manifested those lines in
our national song.

TvaM hi Durgaa dashapraharaNadhaariNii

kamalaa kamaladala vihaariNii

vaaNii vidyaadaayinii namaami tvaaM

Perhaps the right place to end this article is with the message A P J Abdul Kalam conveyed to
the students of Bharathiyar University on 06 July 2005. After asking the students to recite and
remember the Saraswati Vandana that Tamil poet Bhrathi had composed in his epic poem,
The Vow of Pnchli, he translated the verses for the students.

If perpetual motion be the nature of all systems, (electrons in the atoms to stars in the galaxies)
around, O! Goddess of Learning! Kindly bless my mind also to work ceaselessly in acquisition of
knowledge. I think it is an important message for all of us, for continued acquisition of
knowledge, work and continued prosperity.

By naming a galactic supercluster after Saraswati, the young scientists have given her another
dimension in human beings quest for knowledge, of whose embodiment she is.

REFERENCES, ADDITIONAL NOTES

For Rigvedic description precisely befitting Saraswati: Liviu Giosan et al, Sarasvati - II,
Current Science, Vol 105, No 7, 2013: For a lucid odyssey into historical and scientific
quest for the lost river, see The Lost River: On the Trial of Saraswati (Penguin 2010) by
Michel Danino. For a more updated presentation on Saraswati river, see the monograph:
Prehistoric River Saraswati, Western India Geological Appraisal and Social Aspects
(Springer 2017) by K S Valdiya of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific
Research. While Giosan et al consider the river to be monsoon-fed, Valdiya holds that
the river is of Himalayan origin. Yet they both agree that the Rigvedic description of the
river fits well with the imagery of it that emerges from the scientific studies. Valdiyas
monograph presents a geological history of river that is now represented by an
extraordinarily wide and waterless channel snaking through the vast floodplain in
northwestern Haryn and adjoining Rjasthn.

Discussion on the form of Saraswati as the goddess of knowledge in Vedic literature to a

goddess fighting for Dharma in Buddhist Sutra, which is popular in both China and
Japan: Catherine Ludvik, Sarasvati Riverine Goddess of Knowledge: From the
Manuscript-carrying Vina-player to the Weapon-Wielding Defender of the Dharma, Brill
2007
 For a discussion on the spiritual inner symbolism of Saraswati in Vedic literature and
also her terrestrial dimensions: David Frawley, Gods, Sages and Kings: Vedic Secrets of
Ancient Civilization, Lotus Press, 2000

Archeologist Jonathan Kenoyer points out that on the side of the tablet (discovered in
1995) depicting a buffalo being killed is a female figure grasping two felines, probably
tigers and standing above an elephant (Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization,
Oxford University Press, 1998, p 114). Incidentally, in Devi Mhtmiya before the slaying
of Mahisha, the goddess battles with his various forms which include both lion and
elephant. (DM 3:30-32) For Mahissuramardini imagery in historical period from at least
first century BCE, see: R C Agrawala, A Terracotta Plaque of Mahishamardini from
Nagar, Lalit Kala, No 1-2, 1955-56: Upinder Singh, Cults and Shrines in Early Historical
Mathura (c 200 BCE - 200 CE) in The Idea of Ancient India: Essays on Religion,
Politics, and Archaeology, SAGE, 2016

For a brief but important discussion on the convergence of Kali, Bharati, etc, in the
context of South Indian medieval social dynamics, see S Ramachandran,
Valankaimalaiyyum Santor Samuthaya Seppedukalum (Tamil), International Institute of
Tamil Studies, 2004

For a compilation of the battle goddess in ancient Tamil literature, see: Professor M
Shanmuham Pillai, Sangha Tamizhar Vazhipadum Sadangukalum (Religious and Ritual
Practices of Sangham-age Tamils), International Institute of Tamil Studies, 1996

Tirumantiram, a Tamil scriptural classic by Tirumular, (Trans Dr B Natarajan, Ed N

Mahalingam), Sri Ramakrishna Mission, 1991: Also for an in-depth discussion that can
appeal to both the scholar and layperson, see Dr Pa Arunachalam, Thirumanthira
Kodpadu (Thirumanthira doctrine), Pari Nilayam

The book The Cygnus Mystery (Watkins Publishing, 2006) by Andrew Collins is based
on a speculation that will be greeted by mainstream scientists with extreme skepticism if
not hostility. Collins puts forward a hypothesis that humans during the paleolithic period
throughout the world were affected by cosmic radiations and the shamans somehow felt
this in their altered states of consciousness. And this, he contends, may be the basis for
incorporation of swan symbolism and mythological depiction of Cygnus as a gateway to
 heaven. There is no need to say that the author is clearly in the league of other
alternative theorists like Graham Hancock. Here is a detailed critical evaluation of his
book Cygnus Mystery from Jason Colavita, an author and sceptic. However, what is of
interest to the current topic are some of the facts he states with regard to Vedic
astronomy, which stand on their own without getting related to his questionable premise.
In his search for Cygnus in several Indian star charts, he came to the understanding
that this connection only came about through the influence of Greek and Babylonian
astronomy on Indian star lore. But that was disputed by the work of astrophysicist and
astronomer Dr. P. K. Kunte of Indias Space Physics Group who identifies Hamsa, and
thus Kalahamsa, with the stars of Cygnus, saying that this knowledge was known [a]
long time back though 'the swan-goose is no longer recognized as the basis for the star
group'. The association of Hamsa as the mount of Saraswati and Saraswati as Milky
Way naturally comes to mind. With the Cygnus fixation, Collins also suggests the bird
representing the witness-self in the famous two birds Vedic symbolism to be a swan.
Thirumanthiram (Tantra Seven: 27:2) does substitute swans for the tree birds and river
of life for the tree.

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