Maa Saraswati Temples

Saraswati Puja is a popularly celebrated festival in India. It is a popular belief that if the Goddess is worshipped on Vasant Panchami, the devotee attains the highest level of knowledge and becomes successful in life. “Aksharabhyasam” is a ritual observed on the day of worship of Saraswati deity. That means, young boys and girls are made to write alphabets in front of the Goddess as it is a popular belief that by doing this young children achieve good education and have successful careers in future. On this day devotees throng to the Maa Saraswati Temples especially in South India and offer their prayers to the Goddess.

Some Popular Maa Saraswati Temples Are:

The devotees worship the Goddess in the form of Gnana Saraswati in the Basara Temple. There is a Hindu myth that says while Vyasa was trying to write the sacred holy book the Bramhanda Puranam, he could not write about Shakthi. Hence he started meditating but that was of no use. Then he sat down at the bank of River Godavari to mediate and Goddess Saraswati appeared in front of him for few seconds which he could sense with his sixth sense. He believed that as the earth was full of sin, the deity could not appear in her entire form. Thus, after completing meditation he brought a handful of sand daily and placed it on the ground and after few days that sand transformed into idols of Kali, Lakshmi and Saraswati and in order to infuse life into those idols Saraswati appeared in front of Vyasa and taught him the required mantras and is popularly believed that now she is getting those prayers back in the form of Gnana Saraswati.

This is one of the popular Maa Saraswati Temples situated in the vicinity of the Kaleswara temple in the place called Kaleswaram, the devotees offer their prayers to the Goddess, who is in the Maha Saraswati form.

The Prouda Saraswati Temple is situated in Kashmir. Goddess Saraswati used to appear in front of Matanga Maha Muni’s son Shandilya in a place called Saradavanam in West Kashmir. Thus here the popular Prouda Saraswati Temple has been erected.

This is among the famous Maa Saraswati Temples situated in Wargal. Here, Goddess Saraswati has been seen as Hamsa Vahini. Another temple has been built in the Medak District in Wargal whose construction work completed in 1980 and here the Goddess is worshipped as Vidya Saraswati.

The Sringeri Vidya Peeth is a popular temple for Goddess Saraswati and is situated in the district of Karnataka. The legendary Adi Shankaracharya used to see that a snake is giving shelter to a pregnant frog, which is in labour pain. This made him think deeply and he decided to build a Peetham here. This is known as Sringeri Peetham. Here the Goddess is constructed out of sandalwood and later on this idol has been transformed to gold by Vidyaranyulu.

The Saraswati Temple Kuthanur is among the popular Maa Saraswati Temples situated in Tamilnadu. Devotees believe that Goddess Saraswati, who is the incarnations of the Aadi Parashakti in Kolkata is formed as Saraswati in Kuthanur and Sree Mahalaxmi in the state of Maharashtra. The Goddess sits on a white lotus and has a symbol in one of her hands and has Amruta Kalasam, Aksharamala and Talapatra Grandham in her three other hands. Special prayer sessions are arranged every year on Vijayadasami eve.

This is a popular Saraswati temple situated in Kerala at Panachikkad and is called Dakshina Mookambika Temple. This temple at Kollur is known as the Mookambika Temple. It houses the deity, Lord Vishnu, who is worshipped before Goddess Saraswati. The primary festival of the temple is the Saraswati puja which is held in the September-October months. This temple is a rich historical place that is thousands of years old and the popular Navarathri festival celebration takes place here with a lot of pomp and fervor.

This temple situated at Pushkar in Rajasthan exhibits brilliant workmanship and Hindu pattern of architecture. It lures tourists from all over the world and devotees from every nook and corner in India offer prayers to the Goddess of intellect, wisdom, art, music, culture and knowledge.

This temple of the deity Saraswati is situated in the Medak district of Andhra Pradesh at a place called Ananthasagar of the Siddipet Division. This temple was built by Astakala Narasimha Rama Sharma between the years 1980 and 1990.

The BITS Pilani campus is home to the popular Birla Mandir and this houses Goddess Saraswati. This ethereal marble temple in white is erected on a 7 foot high foundation. About 70 pillars offer support to this temple constructed by the industrialists, Birla following the Indo-Aryan Nagara rules of temple construction. This temple has five divisions, the Pradakshinapatha, Garbha-Griha, the Mandapam the Antarala, and the Ardha Mandapa. The temple displays outstanding craftsmanship and is decorated by eye-catching designs and figures of philosophers, saints and scientists. It is a fusion of the religious and the spiritual spheres with the scientific and modern world.