Saraswati (Basara)

Basara (Basar) Saraswati Shakti Peetha stands on the banks of the Godavari river at Basara village in Nirmal district of Telangana, near the Maharashtra border. The goddess Gnana Saraswati (the Saraswati of Knowledge) is the presiding deity — this is one of only two temples in India where Saraswati is the primary goddess (the other being at Shringeri in Karnataka). The site is where Sati's right hand fell.

Basara is particularly significant in the Telugu tradition as the place where Vidyarambham — the initiation of children into learning — is performed. Thousands of families bring young children (aged 2–5) here to begin their first letter, written in a tray of rice by the child's hand guided by the temple priest. This Aksharabhyasam ceremony draws pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra year-round. The ancient temple complex has both the Saraswati shrine and a Mahakali shrine. The Godavari riverbank setting is tranquil and beautiful.

Sati's right hand fell here on the Godavari bank. The hand — the instrument of action, of writing, of the transmission of knowledge — fell into the river of sacred speech (the Godavari is called the Dakshin Ganga, the Ganges of the south). Saraswati arose at the point where the hand of the divine mother touched the earth of learning's great river. Saraswati is the river-goddess of sacred speech (the original Saraswati was a Vedic river); here she is manifest on the bank of the Godavari.