Kamadeva
Kāmadeva ( Sanskrit कामदेव kāmadeva ) or just Kama ( काम kāma "love") is in Hinduism the god of erotic love and personification of the term Kama (desire, worldly enjoyment). Mostly he is considered the son of Lakshmi , goddess of wealth and beauty, as well as Vishnu , in the Hindu trinity of keepers. Other traditions see him as the son of the Creator Brahma .
iconography
Kamadeva , depicted as fair-skinned, the eternal youth, constantly blown by a gentle breeze, is the most beautiful of the Devas . Together with the heavenly nymphs, the Apsaras , he walks through the blooming nature. Its most important attribute, the bow, is made from sugar cane, and a row of buzzing bees make up the tendon. This bow shoots arrows of desire with five blossoms. The wife of God of love is Rati , the passion, and as a friend he is always accompanied by Vasanta , the spring, who carefully selects suitable arrows for the future sacrifices. A cuckoo or a parrot also belongs to his companions ( Vahana ), as does a Makara (crocodile-like hybrid creature). Nobody, neither men nor gods, is safe from his arrows.
Kamadeva shows clear parallels to the Greek Eros and the Roman Cupid .
Legend
A well-known legend tells how the divine Shiva once burned the god of love to ashes with his third eye in anger. At the request of the young Parvati he had shot his arrow at the man who was lost in deep meditation so that he would finally heed her. Although punished Shiva the Kamadeva , but by the arrow he could not rest more, until he Parvati could marry. However, during the death of Kamadeva , all love disappeared from the earth. With Parvati help finally succeeded Rati , Shiva to propitiate and Kamadeva to bring them back to life. He is said to have been reborn as Pradyumna , son of Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu ) and his wife Rukmini .
Some traditions in India see this legend as the mythological background for the colorful spring festival Holi , which is celebrated in southern India as Kamadahan (burning of the kama).
Some of Kamadeva's nicknames are Kandarpa , Manmatha, and Ananga .
literature
- Anneliese Keilhauer, Peter Keilhauer: The visual language of Hinduism. The Indian world of gods and their symbolism . 3. Edition. Dumont Buchverlag, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7701-1347-0 ( DuMont pocket books 131).