Mention of Saraswathi river in Buddhist scriptures
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I could find the following references to the Sarasvati River in the Pali Canon:
Now at that time the brahmin Sundarika Bhāradvāja was sitting not far from the Buddha. He said to the Buddha, “But does Master Gotama go to the river Bāhuka to bathe?”
“Brahmin, why go to the river Bāhuka? What can the river Bāhuka do?”
“Many people agree that the river Bāhuka bestows cleanliness and merit. And many people wash off their bad deeds in the river Bāhuka.”
Then the Buddha addressed Sundarika in verse:
The Bāhuka and the Adhikakka,
the Gaya and the Sundarika too,
Sarasvatī and Payāga,
and the river Bāhumati:
a fool can constantly plunge into them
but it won’t purify their dark deeds.What can the Sundarika do?
What the Payāga or the Bāhuka?
They can’t cleanse a cruel and criminal person
from their bad deeds.For the pure in heart it’s always
the spring festival or the sabbath.
For the pure in heart and clean of deed,
their vows will always be fulfilled.
It’s here alone that you should bathe, brahmin,
making yourself a sanctuary for all creatures.And if you speak no lies,
nor harm any living creature,
nor steal anything not given,
and you’re faithful and not stingy:
what’s the point of going to Gaya?
For any well may be your Gaya!”
Majjhima Nikaya 7
Oh, when will I cross the Ganges, Yamunā,
and Sarasvatī rivers, the Pātāla country,
and the dangerous Baḷavāmukha sea,
by psychic power unimpeded? When will it be?
Theragatha 19.1
And again, O king, just as there are five hundred rivers which flow down from the Himālayas, but of these ten only are reckoned in enumerations of rivers—the Ganges, the Jumna, the Aciravatī, the Sarabhū, the Mahī, the Indus, the Sarasvatī, the Vetravatī, the Vītaṁsā, and the Candabhāgā—the others not being included in the catalogue because of their intermittent flow of water.
Milindapanha 5.1.4
The Indus, and the Sarasvatī
are rivers, like the Candabhāgā,
the Ganges and the Yamuna
the Sarabhu and the Mahī too.
Thera Apadana 3
There's another mention of this river in this Chinese Mahayana Sutra:
Nāgasena asked the king, “Would those who have never seen the great ocean, know that the ocean is great? There are five great rivers, and to each of them, there are also five hundred small tributaries. The five great rivers are: (1) the Ganges, (2) the Sindhu, (3) the Sita, (4) the Oxus and (5) the Sarasvati. The waters of these five great rivers flow to the ocean day and night, but the water in the ocean neither increases nor decreases.”
T 1670B Nāgasena Bhikṣu Sūtra 2.46
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