Sarasvati (Saraswati) Puja

For the past month, I’ve watched as straw-clay-earthen statues were being created. I would pass shops with these headless female figures sitting outside. Perhaps the heads were left off to prevent theft, but about one week before the Sarasvati Puja, the statues all received heads. Then a few days before the puja, the statues were painted.

Sarasvati is a Hindu goddess of music and education. She sits on a lotus or swan and holds a ektara (guitar) or lute in one hand and sometimes a book in the other hand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saraswati

Sarasvati shrine near Nalanda Ruins

The day before the puja on February 8th, men and boys began buying the painted statues of Sarasvati. They covered the faces of Sarasvati with colorful cloths. Then the statues were carried back to their homes, schools, and villages on tongas (horse-drawn carts), bicycle rickshaws, bicycles or tractors. That same night, Sarasvati with her head covered, was placed in decorated shrines. Then the music started and continued throughout the night. A school across the lake from my guesthouse in the village of Kapati had huge speakers on its building and blasted the music nonstop. Any music will do…bollywood hits, techno-pop, classics, etc.

On the 8th, Sourabh, Praval’s 13 year old cousin (“brother”), took me to his school. Sarasvati was uncovered and food offerings, incense, and prayers were made (the puja). Then the food (Prasad)was offered to the people. Someone offered Sourabh and me two small white boxes, the Prasad. We left and I shared the Prasad with Praval and the other workers at his farm. The box contained red carrots, one little banana, one sweet (boonia?), and something that tasted like jicama but was called a sweet potato by Sourabh and Praval.

Shrine at Sourabh's public school

Later that evening, Sourabh took me around to all of the neighborhood shrines and I took pictures. One young man who I recognized as the man in charge of Budhiya Kabaddi team assignments, offered me Prasad after I had taken a picture of Sarasvati and the small children dancing in front of her statue.

Sourabh then invited me to his house and offered me dinner. His mother made “swadist khana,” a delicious meal of vegetable subji, vermicelli in hot milk, and puffed up roti(I forget what these are called).

School children taking the Sarasvati statue to the Sun Lake

On the 9th, I road a bicycle to the next village, Bergoan, and to the Sun Lake, where people were putting the Sarasvati statues into the lake. I was immediately surrounded by young children who all wanted their picture taken next to a Sarasvati statue. Incense was burned and more offerings of food. Someone offered me Prasad of some kind of floury substance, but I gently declined.

Sun Lake

Lighting incense

Remains of the statue

When darkness fell on the 9th, a tractor pulling a shrine of Sarasvati slowly made its way around Nalanda. The tractor, fitted with speakers, blasted music as young men and boys with painted faces danced in front of it. Every 5-10 minutes, the tractor would move forward. After about two hours, the Sarasvati statue would finally make its way to the Sun Lake!

 

Sarasvati statue and family on the back of the tractor