Sārasvata Ṛshi
Sārasvata, simply known as Sarasvata, Sanskrit: सारस्वत, Telugu: సారస్వతుడు, Hindi: सारस्वत.
Sārasvata was a famous Vedic ṛshi, the son of Dadhīca and of Sarasvatī, the river and devī. He is known for keeping the Vedic tradition alive in a twelve-year drought. All the other ṛshis had scattered, and hunger and hardship made them lose their recitation of the Vedas. Sārasvata alone kept his svādhyāya (daily study and recitation) unbroken, fed by the fish his mother gave him. After the drought he taught the Vedas to sixty thousand ṛshis and so restored the tradition.
His birth
The Mahābhārata tells how Sārasvata was born in an unusual way. The ṛshi Dadhīca was performing tapas (austerity) and offering tarpaṇa (water offerings) to the devas at the river Sarasvatī. Indra feared the growing power of Dadhīca. He sent the beautiful apsarā Ālambushā to disturb him. When Dadhīca saw her, his seed fell from him without his will. He gathered it in a cup made of a leaf.
The river Sarasvatī was moved by her devotion to this great ṛshi. She took the seed and carried it in her womb. In time she came out of the river with the newborn child and brought him to Dadhīca in an assembly of ṛshis.
Dadhīca named the child Sārasvata, “son of Sarasvatī”, and blessed the river. Then he went back to his own practices and left Sārasvata to grow up by the river.
The twelve-year drought
A terrible drought of twelve years fell on the land. All the ṛshis scattered. They travelled far to look for food and lived wherever they could find it. In the hardship of those years, even the greatest ṛshis lost their command of the Vedas, because their daily svādhyāya was broken.
Sārasvata did not leave. His mother Sarasvatī gave him fish (matsya) every day through the whole drought. Fed by this gift, he never broke his daily Vedic recitation. For all twelve years his svādhyāya went on without the break of a single day.
He teaches the sixty thousand ṛshis
When the drought ended and the ṛshis began to return, they found with dismay that they had forgotten the Vedas. A ṛshi who met Sārasvata learned that this young man, a child by human count, had kept his knowledge of the Vedas whole. The news spread.
Sixty thousand ṛshis came to Sārasvata and begged him to teach them. The elders hesitated for a moment. He was a child, and they were great ṛshis. How could they accept him as their teacher?
Sārasvata answered with firmness and fine words. Dharma asks for the proper form. Teaching and learning outside the set bond of guru and śishya (teacher and student) harms both. What makes a guru is knowledge and the proper handing on of it, not age, wealth or rank. He said: “Among ṛshis, years are not the measure. What counts is what was achieved. Dharma comes through tradition, and tradition is highest.”
The sixty thousand agreed. They brought kuśa grass, the traditional sign of becoming a student. Sārasvata taught them the Vedas, and the unbroken tradition was restored through him.
The Sārasvata-tīrtha
The tīrtha (holy place) on the Sarasvatī that bears his name keeps alive the memory of Sārasvata’s great deed. Balarāma visited this tīrtha on his tīrtha-yātrā (journey to holy places) along the Sarasvatī and heard the whole account.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Śalya Parva, Chapter 51