सरस्वती स्वधावती

Finally, we come to the analogs of the goddess on the Attic amphora. While, the Iranic daenA & Persephone are not exact cognates, they, nevertheless, indicate the presence of a goddess in the passage to the nether realm. Who is their equivalent in the H tradition? Whereas in a functional sense we could say that the hell-goddess nirR^iti overlaps with Persephone the match is not exact & she is never in the “picture” in this context. Instead, the funerary ritual of Arya-s indicates the equivalent goddess in this context is sarasvatI svadhAvati

Thus, after pUShan, sarasvatI is invoked to give a good state to those who had performed good actions in life:

सर॑स्वतीं देव॒यन्तो॑ हवन्ते॒ सर॑स्वतीमध्व॒रे ता॒यमा॑ने ।
सर॑स्वतीं सु॒कृतो॑ अह्वयन्त॒ सर॑स्वती दा॒शुषे॒ वार्यं॑ दात् ॥

Those who seek the gods invoke her

सर॑स्वति॒ या स॒रथं॑ य॒याथ॑ स्व॒धाभि॑र्देवि पि॒तृभि॒र्मद॑न्ती ।
आ॒सद्या॒स्मिन्ब॒र्हिषि॑ मादयस्वानमी॒वा इष॒ आ धे॑ह्य॒स्मे ॥

sarasvatI comes to the funerary ritual pleased by svadhA offerings, giving a ride to the ancestors in her chariot to take a seat at the grass in the funeral.

सर॑स्वतीं॒ यां पि॒तरो॒ हव॑न्ते दक्षि॒णा य॒ज्ञम॑भि॒नक्ष॑माणाः ।
स॒ह॒स्रा॒र्घमि॒ळो अत्र॑ भा॒गं रा॒यस्पोषं॒ यज॑मानेषु धेहि ॥

Here sarasvatI is said to come from the southern direction with the ancestors & even as she arrives they invoke her. She’s called upon to give goodies among the living ritualists. Thus, sarasvatI svadhAvati who receives the funerary oblations may be seen as sarasvatI with Persephonian characteristics.

Similarly, in Plato’s Cratylus we get a hint of the sarasvatian characteristics of Persephone as he says:

“…all things are in motion and she [Persephone] in her wisdom moves with them, and the wise God Hades consorts with her – there is nothing very terrible in this, any more than in her other appellation Persephone, which is also significant of her wisdom (sophe).+++(5)+++”

Thus, in Plato’s brAhmaNa-style etymologies we get a hint of Persephone’s wisdom connections quite like those of sarasvatI in the Arya world (Above transl from Jowett.

(Image of A Greek funerary fresco showing Persphone coming in her chariot with Hades; reminding one of sarasvatI coming with the pitR^i-s)