ORIGIN: Hindu (Puranic)
TYPE: God of carnal love
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP: Circa 1000 BCE, and probably earlier, until present.
SYNONYMS: Kama; Manmatha; Ananga
CENTER(S) OF CULT: Various
ART REFERENCES: stone and metal sculptures, reliefs.
LITERARY SOURCES: Ramayana Epic and various Puranic texts.
INFORMATION: As god of love Kamadeva stimulates physical desire. The son of Visnu and Laksmi, or of their reincarnations Krsna and Rukmini, in which instance he is titled Kama. An alternative legendary beginning accounts that he rose from the heart of the creator god Brahma. His chief ally is the god of spring, Vasanta, his principal consort is the goddess of affection, Rati, and he is attended by a band of nymphs, the Apsaras. Kamadeva is depicted as a youthful god with green or red skin, decked with ornaments and flowers, armed with a bow of sugar cane, strung with a line of honey bees, and arrows tipped with a flower. He may be three-eyed and three-headed and frequently rides on a parrot.
The consorts of Kamadeva are the goddesses Rati and Priti. Legend accounts the Kamadeva met his death at the hands of Siva, who incinerated him with flames from his middle eye. Kamadeva had inadvertantly wounded the meditating god with one of his shafts of desire and had caused him to fall in love with Parvati. The epithet Ananga (bodiless) is applied to Kamadeva in this context. Kamadeva is reincarnated as Pradyumna, the son of Krsna. The god it invoked particularly when a bride-to-be departs from her family home.