Brahma Deva and Saraswati Devi (Continued)

TEMPLES

Of the very few temples that exist with Brahma as the main deity, the main temple is at Pushkar, Rajasthan considered to be about two thousand years old. It revers Brahma and Gayatri Devi and during the festival of ‘Kartik Poornima’, a large number of worshippers gather at this temple to pray to Brahma. 

The temple of Lord Brahma in Carambolim, Goa  also known as Brmhakarmali houses a very ancient idol sculpted in stone with a beard on the front facing head resembling sages and the human progeny.  This is said to be dated from the 11^th century. Uttamar Kovil near Srirangam, Tamil Nadu is another famous temple.  In Khedbrahma, Gujarat is a temple of Brahma considered to be founded in the 11th or 12th century situated in a location steeped in religious history and significance.

A most famous temple of goddess Saraswati is located in Basara, Andhra Pradesh. In the Puranic ages it is said that Sage Vyasa settled on banks of river Godawari and made the idol of Saraswati out of sand as well as two other goddesses Lakshmi and Shakti. This gave him the inspiration to write some say the Mahabharata, while others say the Purana itself. Children go to this temple to get their books and tools for gaining knowledge blessed by Devi Saraswati as the goddess of learning.

The Saraswati temples in in Srungeri, Karnataka and Kuthanur, Tamil Nadu are also ancient popular temples. The Sharadamba Temple at Shrungeri  was founded by Sri Adi Shankaracharya. Later the Vijayanagara rulers and Sri Vidyaranya  replaced the original sandalwood murti with a gold idol of Sri Shardamba in the 14th century. In Koothanur, the poet Ottakoothar is credited with having built the temple for the goddess thanking her for giving him the gift of poetry which impressed the King Vikrama Chola. Temples of Maha Saraswati at Kaleswaram in Andhra Pradesh and Prouda Saraswati at Saradavanam in Kashmir also revere the Goddess as the main deity.

FESTIVALS

The festival of 'Vasant Panchami' celebrates Saraswati's birthday. There is a belief that Goddess Saraswati appeared on this day and to celebrate her brithday, her devotees perform her pooja usually occurring sometime in January/February. Celebrations are with yellow flowers, sweet and food in this period. The kit festival also occurs around this time in some regions. 

This is also the time when Saraswati puja is celebrated in eastern India such as in Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Assam. After Saraswati Puja on morning of 6th date, Magh Shukla Panchami, Saraswati is worshipped. In the evening the Goddess is greeted and then immersed in the water.

In most other parts of south and west India, Saraswati puja is celebrated on Vijayadashmi along with Dussera celebrations at the end of Sharad Navrati which comes around October time.  Students keep their books and artists keep their instruments symbolically representing their pursuit of knowledge or musical art, in the puja to be blessed by Devi Saraswati.