Godess Saraswati

Author(s): Unknown
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

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Jaina pantheon." B.C.Bhattacharya observes "she
(Sarasvati) seems to be at the head of collective body of body of sixteen Vidya-devis" and her worship is prior to that of other subordinate deities. However U.P.Shah refutes the view of Bhattacharya and remarks that Sarasvati is
unmistakably the goddess of learning and is no-way connected with the Sixteen Vidya-devis of the Jaina pantheon." Further the inference of Bhattacharya making Sarasvati the "head of the collective body of the sixteen Vidyadevis" is not supported by any Jaina tradition.
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The Goddess Sarasvati was paid homage by the Tirthankaras even. In this Jaina pantheon, the twelve anga texts are described as the different limbs of the śrutadevată
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and the fourteen Purva texts are said to be her ornaments. According to Jainism, knowledge is five-fold: Mati-Jana (Orinary knowledge), śruta-Jñana (knowledge from scriptures), Avadhi-Jñana (supernatural cognition), Manaḥparyāya Jana (knowledge derived from perception of the thoughts of others) and Kevala-Jñāna (omniscience).54 Sarasvati is invoked for dispelling the darkness of ignorance and for removing the infatuation caused by the Jñānāvarniya Karma (i.e. the Karma Matter Covering right knowledge). In Jainism, the goddess of learning is named variously as Sarasvati, śrutadevatā, sārada, Bharati, Bhāṣa, Vāk, Vāk-devatā, vāgisvarī, Vägvādini, vāṇi and Brahmi.55 However as compared to the Brahmanic pantheon, where in Sarasvati is the goddess of both learning and fine