Introduction
Kama, "desire", is the Hindu god of love, attraction and desire. He is a beautiful youth who carries a bow of sugar cane, strung with a line of bees, and shoots arrows made of flowers. He is also called Kamadeva, Madana, Manmatha and Kandarpa, and in his bodiless state, Ananga, "the bodiless".
Family
- Wife: Rati
Kama in the Vedas
The Rigveda's hymn of creation (10.129) speaks of desire (kama) as the first seed of mind, which arose in the beginning from the One. In the Atharvaveda, there are hymns to Kama as a cosmic power, and as a god who is greater than the gods. In the classical tradition, kama, desire and pleasure, is one of the four aims of human life (purusharthas), along with dharma, artha and moksha. The Kamasutra, attributed to Vatsyayana around the third century CE, is a treatise on the arts of love and pleasure.
Iconography
Kama is depicted as a handsome youth, with a bow made of sugar cane and a string of bees, and five arrows of flowers: the white lotus, the ashoka, the mango blossom, the jasmine and the blue lotus. His banner has the makara, a sea creature. His vehicle is a parrot, and his friend is Vasanta, the spring. His wife is Rati.
The burning of Kama
In the Shiva Purana and Kalidasa's poem Kumarasambhava, the demon Taraka had been granted a boon that only a son of Shiva could kill him. Shiva was in deep meditation after the death of his wife Sati. The gods asked Kama to shoot him with an arrow of desire, so that he would fall in love with Parvati. Kama went with spring and Rati. As Shiva stirred, seeing Parvati, he saw Kama and his third eye opened, and Kama was reduced to ashes.
Rati pleaded with Shiva, who promised that Kama would be reborn. Since then, Kama is called Ananga, the bodiless one, and his power is in the minds of all beings.
Rebirth
According to the Bhagavata Purana and Harivamsha, Kama was reborn as Pradyumna, the son of Krishna and Rukmini. The demon Shambara, who had been told that the child would kill him, kidnapped the infant and threw him into the sea. A fish swallowed him, and he was found by Shambara's cook Mayavati, who was Rati in disguise. She raised him and later told him who he was. He killed Shambara and married her.
Festivals and places
- Vasant Panchami and Madanotsava: spring festivals in which Kama is honoured.
- Holi: in southern India, especially Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Holi is associated with the burning of Kama (Kama Dahana or Kaman Pandigai).
- Madan Kamdev: in Assam, the ruins of a temple complex dating to the tenth to twelfth centuries are called Madan Kamdev.
Comparisons
Kama has been compared to the Greek Eros and the Roman Cupid, gods of love with bows. In Buddhism, Mara, the tempter who tried to distract the Buddha before enlightenment, is often understood as related to Kama.
Meaning
Kama represents the power of desire that moves the world, and the difficulty of mastering it. The story of his burning is often understood as the victory of ascetic restraint, but his rebirth shows that desire cannot be destroyed.