Vasant Panchami 1900: Jaipur, Rajasthan

Vasanta Pañcamī (the 5th day of the bright fortnight of Māgha) announces the arrival of spring and is dedicated to Goddess Sarasvatī, the deity of knowledge, music, arts, and eloquence. The word vasanta means spring, and pañcamī means the fifth lunar day. On this day, the fields of northern India turn golden with blooming mustard flowers, and the colour yellow pervades everything: clothing, food, flowers, and even the powder used in worship. Yellow is the colour of Sarasvatī's grace, of ripe knowledge, of the spring sun and the fragrant mustard in bloom.

According to the Purāṇas, Brahmā created the universe but found it silent and colourless. He sprinkled water from his kamaṇḍalu (water pot), and from that act Sarasvatī emerged: seated on a white lotus, holding a vīṇā in two of her four hands, a book of scriptures in another, and a mālā (rosary) in the fourth. She spoke, and the universe gained sound. She played, and the world gained melody. This is why she is invoked at every beginning of learning: she is literally the sound that gave shape to creation.

Vasanta Pañcamī is the most auspicious day of the year for the Akṣarābhyāsam ceremony, in which young children (typically aged two to five) are formally initiated into learning for the first time. The child's hand is guided by a parent or guru to write the first letters in a tray of rice grains or sand, accompanied by the chanting of Sarasvatī's name. Students across India and Bangladesh leave their notebooks, instruments, and art supplies at Sarasvatī's feet overnight for the goddess to bless. In Bengal and Odisha, elaborately decorated pandals (marquees) house clay images of Sarasvatī for a full day of pūjā before visarjana (immersion) the following morning.