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See the Pura?iic version under " Sanjna." SARASWATA. i. In the Maha-bharata the J?/shi Saraswata is represented as being the son of the personified river SaraswatT. In a time of great drought he was fed with fish by his mother, and so was enabled to keep up his knowledge of the Vedas, while other Brahmans were reduced to such straits for the means of subsistence that study was neglected and the Vedas were lost. When the drought was over, the Brahmans flocked to 284 SARASWATI. him for instruction, and 60,000 acquired a knowledge of the Vedas from him. " This legend," says Wilson, " appears to indicate the revival, or, more probably, the introduction of the Hindu ritual by the race of Brahmans, or the people called Saras wata," who dwelt near the Saraswati river. Saraswata Brahmans still dwell in the Panjab, and are met with in many other parts. 2. The country about the Saraswati river. 3. A great national division of the Brahman caste. SAEASAVATl. '"Watery, elegant.' In the Vedas, Saras- wati is primarily a river, but is celebrated in the hymns both as a river and a deity. The Saraswati river was one boundary of Brahmavartta, the home of the early Aryans, and was to them, in all likelihood, a sacred river, as the Ganges has long been to their descendants. As a river goddess, Saraswati is lauded for the fertilising and purifying powers of her waters, and as the bestower of fertility, fatness, and wealth. Her position as Vach, the goddess of speech, finds no mention in the J?ig-veda, but is recognised by the BrahmaTias and the Maha-bharata. Dr. Muir endeavours to account for her acquisition of this character. He say, " Allien once the river had acquired a divine character, it was quite natural that she should be regarded as the patroness of the ceremonies which were celebrated on the margin of her holy waters, and that her direction and blessing should be in- voked as essential to their proper performance and success. The connection into which she was thus brouglit wuth sacred rites may have led to the further step of imagining her to have an influence on the composition of the hymns which formed so important a part of the proceedings, and of identifying her with Vach, the goddess of speech." In later times Saraswati is the wife of Brahma, the goddess of speech and learning, inventress of the Sansk?7't language and Deva-nagari letters, and patroness of the arts and sciences. " She is represented as of a white colour, without any superfluity of limbs, and not unfrequently of a graceful figure, wearing a slender crescent on her brow and sitting on a lotus." — Wilson. The same authority states that " the VaishTiavas of Bengal have a popular legend that she was the wife of Vishmi, as were also Lakshmi and Ganga. The ladies dis- agreed ; Saraswati, like the otlier prototype of learned ladies, IMinerva, being something of a termagant, and Vish?m finding that one wife was as much as he could manage, transferred SARAS W A TI—SA TA-DHAKU. 285 Saraswati to Brahma and Ganga to /S'iva, and contented liimself with Lakshmi alone. [See Vach.) Other names of Saraswati are Bharatl, Brahml, Piit-kari, ^Sarada, Vagiswari. The river is now called Sarsuti. It falls from the Himfdayas and is lost in the sands of the desert. In ancient times it flowed on to the sea. A passage in the i?/g-veda says of it, " She who goes on pure from the mountains as far as the sea." — Max Muller, Veda, 45. According to the Maha-bharata it was dried up by the curse of the sage Utathya (q.v.). See Sapta-sindhava. SAKASWATI KAiVmABHARAA^A. A treatise on poeti- cal and rhetorical composition generally ascribed to Bhoja Raja. SARAYU. The Sarju river or Gogra. SARMISHTHA. Daughter of Y?-ishaparvan the Danava, second wife of Yayati and mother of Purii. See Devayanl. >S'ARXGA. The bow of Knsh?za. SARYA, /S'ARVA. A Vedic deity ; the destroyer. After- wards a name of ^iva and of one of the Rudras. See Rudra. SARYA-DAR^AATA SANGRAHA. A work by Madhava- charya which gives an account of the DarsaT^as or schools of philosophy, whether orthodox or heretical. It has been printed. ^SARVARl. A woman of low caste, who was very devout and looked for the coming of Rama until she had grown old. In reward of her piety a sage raised her from her low caste, and when she had seen Rama she burnt herself on a funeral pile. She ascended from the pile in a chariot to the heaven of Vish?m. SARYA-SARA. I^ame of an Upanishad. aS'A/S'ADA. 'Hare-eater.' A name given to Yikukshi (q.v.). aS'A^I, aS'A/S'IN. The moon, so called from the marks on the moon being considered to resemble a hare (sasa). ySASTRA. 'A rule, book, treatise.' Any book of divme or recognised authority, but more especially the law-books. /SATA-DHAjSTU. a king who had a virtuous and discreet wife named iS'aibya. They were both worshippers of Yislmu. One day they met a heretic, with whom ^S^ata-dhanu conversed ; but the wife " turned away from him and cast her eyes up to the sun." After a time ^ata-dhanu died and his wife ascended his funeral pile. The wife was born again as a princess with a knowledge of her previous existence, but the husband received the form of a dog. She recognised him in this form and placed 286 SA TA-DHANWAN—SA TA-RUPA. the bridal garland on his neck. Then she reminded him of his previous existence and of the fault wliich had caused his degra- dation. He was greatly humiliated and died from a broken sj^irit. After that, he was born successively as a jackal, a wolf, a crow, and a peacock. In each form his wife recognised him, reminded liim of his sin, and urged him to make efforts for restoration to his former dignity. At length " he was born as the son of a person of distinction," and >S'aibya then elected him as her bridegroom ; and having " again invested him with the character of her husband, they lived happily together." "WHien he died she again followed him in death, and both " ascended beyond the sphere of Indra to the regions where all desires are for ever gratified." "This legend," says Wilson, "is peculiar to the Yish?2-u PurfiTia, although the doctrine it inculcates is to be found elsewhere. ^ATA-DHAXWAX, .SATA-DHAXUS. ' Having a hundred bows.' A Yadava and son of Hridika. He killed Satrajit, father of Satya-bhama, the wife of Ivn'sh?ia, in his sleep, and was himself killed in revenge by K?7'sh??a, who struck off his head with his discus. ^ATA-DKU. 'Flowing in a hundred (channels).' The name of the river Sutlej, the Zaradrus of Ptolemy, the Hesudrus of Pliny. aSATA-GHNI. ' Slaying hundreds.' A missile weapon used by Krishna. It is described in the Maha-bharata as a stone set round with iron spikes, but many have supposed it to be a rocket or other fiery weapon. 6^ATA-KEATU. ' The god of a hundred rites ; ' Indra. /SATAPATHA-BRAHMAYA. A celebrated Brahmarza at- tached to the White Yajur-veda, and ascribed to the i?ishi Yajnawalkya. It is found in two Sakhas, the Madhyandina and the Kamva. This is the most complete and systematic as weU as the most important of all the Brahma/^as. It has been edited by Weber. ^ATA-RUPA. 'The hundred-formed.' The first woman. According to one account she was the daughter of Brahma, and from their incestuous intercourse the first Manu, named Swayam- bhuva, was born. Another account makes her the wife, not the mother, of IManu. The account given by Manu is that Brahma divided himself into two parts, male and female, and SAtATAPA—SATYAKI. 287 from tliem sprang Manu. She is also called Savitrl. See Yiraj and Brahma. aS'ATATAPA. An old writer on law. iS'ATA-VAHAISrA. A name by which iS'ali-vahana is some- times called. SATI. A daughter of Daksha and wife of Kudra, i.e., Siva,. The Vishmi Piirawa states that she " abandoned her body in consequence of the anger of Daksha. She then became the daughter of Himavat and Mena; and the divine Bhava again married Uma, who was identical with his (AS'iva's) former spouse." The authorities generally agree that she died or killed herself in consequence of the quarrel between her husband and father ; and the Kasi lQ.ia7ich, a modern work, represents that she entered the fire and became a Sati. See Pi/ha-sthana. SATRAJIT, SATRAJITA. Son of Nighna. In return for praise rendered to the sun he beheld the luminary in his projDer form, and received from him the wonderful Syamantaka gem. He lost the gem, but it was recovered and restored to him by IvWsh?za. In return he presented 'Krishna, with his daughter Satya-bhama to wife.