In Praise of the Glorious Goddess Sarasvatī

Sarasvatī is a female deity prominent in the pantheons of South Asia’s diverse religious communities, including those of the Buddhist, Brahmanical, and Jain traditions.1 In Praise of the Glorious Goddess Sarasvatī extols the qualities for which the goddess is widely renowned in those communities: unimpeded mastery of speech, memory, and knowledge, physical majesty, and a compassionate nature. While praising Sarasvatī for these qualities, the text also petitions Sarasvatī to grant her devotee a level of eloquence and learning equal to that of the goddess herself. The praises and petitions articulated in the text are situated in the broader context of the Mahāyāna, which is apparent from its sustained orientation toward the benefit of all beings.

Among the praises to Sarasvatī preserved in Buddhist literature, In Praise of the Glorious Goddess Sarasvatī is unique for being classified by the compilers of the Tibetan canon as the word of the Buddha (buddhavacana) and thus included in the Kangyur, rather than as the work of human authors such as are compiled in the Tengyur. The other praises to Sarasvatī in the Tibetan canon are all preserved in the Tengyur, and include Śrīdhara’s Vajra­sarasvatī­stotra (Toh 1925) and the Sarasvatīstotra attributed to Kālidāsa (Toh 3704). Sarasvatī is also the subject of a substantial collection of Indic practice manuals (sādhana), which are preserved in the Tengyur as well. In the Tibetan tradition, Sarasvatī holds a position of importance as a patron goddess of both spoken and written eloquence, as is exemplified in Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa’s (1357–1419) celebrated Verses in Praise of the Goddess Sarasvatī (sgra dbyangs lha mo dbyangs can ma la bstod pa’i tshigs su bcad pa). Despite Sarasvatī’s popularity in Tibet, In Praise of the Glorious Goddess Sarasvatī does not appear to have been widely studied or quoted in Tibetan literature.

In Praise of the Glorious Goddess Sarasvatī lacks a Sanskrit title and is not otherwise available in a Sanskrit witness, making it challenging to determine the history of the text in India. The Tibetan translation of the text is preserved twice in the Kangyur‍—in the Action Tantra (Skt. kriyātantra; Tib. bya ba’i rgyud) section and in the Compendium of Dhāraṇīs2 (Tib. gzungs ’dus)‍—with only minor variations between the two versions.3 The translation is not recorded in the Denkarma or Phangthangma catalogs, the two extant records of texts translated during the Imperial Period (btsan po’i skabs; 629–842), nor does it appear in the Dunhuang collections, suggesting that the praise was either translated or compiled in the Period of Fragmentation (sil bu’i dus; ca. mid-eighth to late-tenth centuries) or during the subsequent period of Buddhism’s spread in Tibet (bstan pa’i phyi dar). With no colophon that includes information about the team of translators, it is difficult to precisely determine the history of the text’s transmission and translation in Tibet.

The English translation offered here is based on the version preserved in the Degé Kangyur with reference to variant readings from eight Kangyurs as noted in the Comparative Edition Kangyur (dpe bsdur ma), as well as the version preserved in the Stok Palace Kangyur.