Benzaiten and the five-headed dragon of Enoshima

The great goddess Sarasvati sets her robe over one shoulder, kneels on her right knee and bows to the Tathagata. She vows to give eloquence, dharani and the great illumination of knowledge to the monk who teaches the Dharma; if he forgets a word or a letter of the sutra she will restore it, and by her dharani the sutra will not vanish from Jambudvipa; those who hear it will gain sharp wisdom, long life, merit and skill in the arts. She teaches a bathing rite with thirty herbs (sweet flag, gorochana, shirisha, sandal, saffron, nagakesara), mixed under the Pushya star and consecrated with a mantra, a circle of cow dung and flowers, honey in gold and silver vessels, four armoured guards and four maids, incense, music, banners, mirrors, arrows and spears, the bath taken behind an image of the Buddha; it quiets the planets, shooting stars, nightmares, Vinayaka and sorcerers. She promises to come with the gods to the bathing place and eliminate all disease, and to lengthen the lives of those who hold the sutra. The brahmin Kaundinya praises her: worthy of worship, a great mine of virtue, standing on one foot in a garment of grass, adorned with eight arms, the finest lioness, honoured by gods and asuras. The Buddha says: Excellent, great goddess Sarasvati.

Koshigoe suffered roughly a thousand years of terror from the dragon, who in one grim tradition ate the village's children. Violent storms and earthquakes struck; an island rose from the sea and the goddess came down from the sky to live on it; the dragon saw her and loved her and asked for her hand; she refused unless he reformed and protected the people he had harmed; he agreed and became the guardian of the region, which prospered under both. When he died his body lay from Fukazawa to the site of the temple Ryuko-ji, and the hills between Kamakura and Enoshima are said to trace its shape; the Ryuko-myojin shrine enshrines him. The shrine on the island is said by tradition to have been founded in 552 at the cave, under Emperor Kinmei.

Saraswati Day closes the 210-day Balinese year. The old Balinese sign for her was the gecko; since the mid-twentieth century the Indian image is used, a woman with four hands on a white swan among water lilies, holding a palm-leaf book, a chain and an instrument. Books and lontar manuscripts receive offerings of fruit, flowers and holy water and may not be used that day; rice effigies of two geckos are made; schools fill with students in ceremonial dress with their books piled and blessed. The day sits on the myth of Watugunung, the king set to guard the calendar's last week, with Saraswati's day as the knowledge that parts one cycle from the next. No narrative of the goddess herself was found.