The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c18.s4.9

v1.c18.s4.9

In the Rigveda in Sarasvatī we need not see anything more than a river goddess somewhat strongly anthropomorphized in certain details who inspires prayers of devotion. But in the Brāhmaṇas she is connected with speech, perhaps because Vedic culture and poetry flourished specially there, and in the post-Vedic literature she is the goddess of eloquence and the wife of Brahman. The nearest approach to this is the statement of the Yajurveda⁵ that, when Indra was ill, Sarasvatī by speech communicated vigour to him, where speech is merely her instrument, not her nature, and her healing power must rather be deemed to be due to her nature as the purifying water.