Saraswati with sitar

Resin statuette of Saraswati, goddess of music, poetry, rhetoric, and the sciences. She is usually depicted holding a vina, a stringed instrument much like a sitar. In the strings arise the vibrations of all creation, which expand around her like waves. Since the Sanskrit language also consists of these vibrations, she carries a palm leaf manuscript as a representation of the Vedas – one of the oldest texts ever written.