She Who Fills the Realm of Earth

Question: I've read that there is a version of the Vritra myth where Sarasvati kills Vritra. What do you think of the idea?

This is a fun one. Actually, there's not an alternate version of the myth, really; anywhere the myth of Vritra's slaying is retold, you will almost always see it attributed to Indra. However, there is a single mention in the Rigveda, in a hymn specifically dedicated to Sarasvati, that suggests that she might have killed Vritra. Griffith's translation of the lines says:

May the divine Sarasvatī, rich in her wealth, protect us well,
Furthering all our thoughts with might
Whoso, divine Sarasvatī, invokes thee where the prize is set,
Like Indra when he smites the foe.
Aid us, divine Sarasvad, thou who art strong in wealth and power
Like Pūṣan, give us opulence.
Yea, this divine Sarasvatī, terrible with her golden path,
Foe-slayer, claims our eulogy.

Sarasvati is here directly compared to Indra and his prowess at smiting enemies, and in the verse where she is called in this (embarrassingly poor) translation "foe-slayer", the actual word used for her is vritragni, which translates more literally as slayer of Vritra and is a cognate to Indra's traditional title of vritrahan.

So what we really have is a single line in a single hymn that calls Sarasvati by the title Vritra-Slayer, or thereabouts. To our knowledge, however, there is no alternative version of the myth that actually describes Sarasvati slaying Vritra, nor rewrites that story to make it about her exploits rather than Indra's. So in that case, the question is really why that epithet is given to her here, and what it might mean.

There are tons of possible philosophical interpretations. For example, the hymn is here praising Sarasvati's powers over wealth and good fortune, so it may be calling her the slayer of Vritra symbolically; as it says in earlier lines, he who calls upon Sarasvati to succeed smites his foe like Indra in battle, so it might be viewed as Sarasvati granting her supplicants this symbolic power to succeed. It might also be suggesting that she lent her divine aid, in a symbolic or spiritual sense, to Indra himself, and that this in part enabled him to succeed in slaying Vritra. It might be referring to the fact that Sarasvati is the goddess of the river that bears her name, and that as a water goddess she symbolically defeats Vritra, bringer of drought, with her life-giving waters. Or it might be a purely metaphorical title, with nothing to do with Vritra himself at all, that is intended to showcase Sarasvati's great spiritual might and how important she is to her worshipers.

But if you guys would follow me down the rabbit hole of comparative mythology for a second, here's an interesting tidbit: this myth is actually one of the many places where Persian and Hindu mythology intersect and probably share common roots. Vritragni is exceptionally close to verethragna, which happens to be the ancient Avestan term for "slayer of the dragon" or "slayer of the evil" and the major epithet of the god Vahram, the warrior and god of victory among the Yazata. And, just as we see among the Deva, while there's one major god who bears the name vritrahan/verethragna, there is also one major goddess who is referred to as the slayer of the dragon in a single other instance. In the Persians' case, it is Anahita - like Sarasvati, a goddess of waters and a benevolent figure who responds to the requests of her worshipers for wisdom and aid - who grants to the hero Thraetaona her own magical power so that he will be able to successfully defeat Azhi Dahaka, the great dragon of Persian mythology.

Of course, Sarasvati and Anahita aren't the same person; their pantheons have been separated (violently and with great dislike for one another) for thousands of years, and the two of them, even if they might have shared some common roots or influences in the past, are clearly no longer even remotely the same figure. But we still may be seeing an echo of both cultures telling the same incredibly ancient story, still lingering on after century upon century of retelling with new cultural additions and interpretations. In Anahita's case, she clearly did not go fight the dragon; she bestowed a boon of victory on a supplicant who offered her the proper praise and sacrifices, and he went out and actually did the deed. In Sarasvati's case, we have no reason to think she ever fought Vritra herself, and plenty of evidence that Indra did, but it wouldn't be a stretch at all to think that she might have granted Indra her support, just as the Vedic hymn above calls upon her to grant it to others who offer her their devotion.

So, we doubt, in this case, that Sarasvati was ever actually believed to be the dragon-slayer instead of Indra. But that doesn't mean she's any less amazing or powerful, simply that she chooses to manifest that power in a less direct manner.