In popular lore, Lakshmi and Saraswati hate each other. Where there is fortune, there is no respect for education, and where there is education, there is no value for wealth. The courtesan's house was the only place where the two lived together: she was well versed in music and dance and the arts, and was admired by the learned and the rich.

In festivals, the two goddesses are shown as daughters of Durga. Or, they sit on either side of Ganesha, identified as his two mothers, or his two sisters, or even his two wives, Riddhi (material growth) and Siddhi (intellectual growth). What is most interesting is that the earliest image of Lakshmi comes to us from Buddhist stupas, and the earliest image of Saraswati comes to us from Jain Mathura art, and both Buddhism and Jainism are monastic orders, that frown upon wealth as well as the performing arts.