Kama

(2) Minor deity identified as the personification of kama (“desire”). Kama is
comparable to the Greek deity Eros and
carries similar responsibility for igniting
human sexual attraction and sensual
desire. Kama is represented as a young
man riding on a parrot, armed with a
bow and arrows. The bow is a stalk of
sugar cane, the bowstring a line of
buzzing bees; his five arrows are five different flowers, each bringing a different
emotional effect to the person it pierces.
The five flowers and emotions are: lotus,
infatuation; ashoka, intoxication (with
love); mango, exhaustion; jasmine, pining; blue lotus, paralysis. Kama’s iconography carries strong associations with
spring, and the spring season (personified as another minor deity, Vasant) is
perceived as Kama’s friend and ally in
awakening desire through the regeneration of the natural world and the showy
display of spring blossoms.
The most famous episode in Kama’s
mythology begins with the ascent to
power of a demon named Taraka, who
can only be killed by a son of Shiva.
Taraka seems impossible to defeat, since
Shiva has no sons and is in deep meditation, grieving over the death of his wife
Sati. The other gods ask Kama to shoot
Shiva with an arrow of desire so he will
marry the goddess Parvati and produce
a son. Kama creeps up on Shiva and
shoots him with an arrow. When Shiva
realizes who has disturbed his meditation, he releases a stream of fire from the
third eye in the middle of his forehead,
instantly burning Kama to ashes.
Through Shiva’s grace, Kama is eventually brought back to life. One of Kama’s
epithets or alternate names is Ananga,
or “bodiless,” because of the loss of his
340
Kalpeshvar
body (and the fact that desire seems to
strike in unseen ways). Despite being
destroyed by Shiva and seemingly foiled,
in the end Kama achieves his goal. His
attempt to draw Shiva out of his meditation succeeds, and eventually Shiva
marries Parvati. For more information
on the interplay between Shiva and
Kama, see Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty,
Siva, 1981.