Maha Saraswati Temple, Basara

The temple of Shri Saraswati Devi is located in Basar Village on the left bank of river Godavari situated in Adilabad Dist. of Andhra Pradesh is having pouranik importance. This is the only one and unique temple of Shris Saraswati in South India. The history of the temple goes back to the times of Mahabharat which is nearly five thousand years old. Shri Saraswati is known for initiation of ‘Aksharabhyasa’ and is also called as ShriDnyanaSaraswati.The temple was built by VedVyas.

Legend : VedVyas after the epic war of Mahabharatha traveled to south from north. He reached Dandakaranya,Basara A.P. region and performed penanceon the banks of holy river Godavari to please ShriSaraswati. Daily he used to wake up by Brahma Muhurtha (early morning) and go to Godavari for sacred bath and return to his meditation place and engage in his meditation till the sun set. There is a cave in this region where VedVyas sat for penance. It is called as Kumarchala due to the meditation performed by Kumaraswamiji. He used to pray to Shri Saraswatias ‘Paramashanthi Pradayini’and ‘Adrushyaroopini’. Because of VedVyas’s meditation this region called as Tapobhoomi. After severe penance VedVyas obtained darshan and blessings of ShriSaraswati.

During meditation period he got a dream, in which Shri Saraswati ordered VedVyas that every day before meditation he has to bring a fistful of sand from Godavari to the cave and keep it in three heaps. After some time, from three heaps there appeared three deities, based on the sheer power of Ved Vyas’s penance and meditation. They are –

1. Maha Saraswati 2. Maha Laxmi 3. Maha Kali

For these three deities Veda Vyasa made Prana Prasthista. As he stayed here for a long time this place was named ‘Vasara’ in due course of time it became ‘Baasar’.