The Hindu deity Sarasvati playing the lute, with attendants and peacock

Images of Sarasvati tend to emphasize her associations with knowledge and the arts. In this sculpture, for example, the goddess holds a stringed musical instrument known as a vina with two of her four hands; in her lower-left hand is a palm leaf manuscript and in her upper-right hand a rosary. The book and the rosary indicate Sarasvati's close relationship to secular as well as sacred knowledge. The vina is a prominent reminder that this goddess is an inspiration for all kinds of artistic achievement.

In the earliest Hindu religious texts, which are nearly three thousand years old, Sarasvati was identified with a mighty river flowing down from the heavens to purify and endow the earth with life. As time went on, texts increasingly associated this goddess with speech and sound, which are considered potent phenomena in several South Asian religions. The recitation of texts and the repetition of mantras (sacred verses or syllables), for instance, is an important feature of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain rituals. Because speech makes possible the transmission of ideas and thoughts, Sarasvati became known among followers of all three faiths as the patron goddess of knowledge, learning, science, literature, and the arts. She is widely revered today as the embodiment of culture itself, and images of her are installed in schools and homes throughout India.