सरस्वती

अप्सम्बन्धः, प्राचीनता च

The river is textually identified with the aquatic deity of the Indo-Aryans, sarasvatI who is widely worshiped in the R^igveda and persists to this date in the modern Hindu religions as a consort of brahmA. …

One of the important themes that emerges from the aponaptrIya ritual is the intimate connection between sarasvati and Agni as worshipped as the son of the waters or apAM napAta. This fiery entity hidden with the water is of ancient IE provenance as is evidenced by the word naptha meaning a fiery substance and the same time bearing a relationship to the word naptar or relative, suggesting that it was essentially derived from the ancestral state ApAM napAt. The connection between the water deity and apAM napAt (who is described as being surrounded) by water nymphs (another ancient IE concept) can be demonstrated in a number of IE myths.

The point to note here is that ardvi sura anAhitA is a perfect cognate of sarasvati and not a physical river as has been often claimed for the sarasvatI. She is generically as well as specifically associated with several rivers: Vitanghuhaiti on whose bank the Naotaras worshipped her, river Rangha homologous to R^igvedic Rasa (also mentioned in the Jaiminiya brAhmaNa) or the great river flowing down from Hukriya down to the Vouru kasha. Thus Anahita and sarasvatI are archetypal water goddesses, who were worshiped with much intensity by the IEans and who may get associated with physical rivers as well as apAM napat.

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