Kāmadeva and Aṅga Deśa
In the Bāla Kāṇḍa of the Rāmāyaṇa, Viśvāmitra tells Rāma and Lakshmaṇa how Bhagavān Śiva burned Kāmadeva, the deva of desire. This is a short upākhyāna (side narrative). From that moment Kāmadeva became Anaṅga, “the one without a body”. The same narrative gives the land of Aṅga Deśa its name.
Why Kāmadeva went to Śiva
After the departure of Satī, Bhagavān Śiva entered deep tapas (austerity). He withdrew from the world and was lost in yogic absorption. The devas were in great trouble. The great asura Tāraka could be slain only by a son of Śiva, but Śiva, in his grief, showed no wish to marry again.
The devas decided to use Kāmadeva, the deva of desire, to disturb Śiva’s tapas and make him turn to Pārvatī. Pārvatī had been born as the daughter of Himavān, and she was doing her own tapas in devotion to Śiva.
Kāmadeva knew how dangerous the task was. Still, he accepted it out of devotion to the cause of the devas. He came to the forest of Śiva’s tapas with his flower arrows and his companions. He chose a time when Pārvatī had come to serve Śiva, and he shot his blossom arrow to wake desire in Śiva’s heart. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells this in the Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 23.
Śiva’s wrath and the burning of Kāmadeva
The moment Śiva felt the stir of Kāmadeva’s arrow at the edge of his deep absorption, his third eye opened. A jet of fire blazed out of it and reduced Kāmadeva to ash at once. Kāmadeva had given form and strength to desire in all creation, yet Śiva’s wrath burned him in a single moment.
From then on Kāmadeva was Anaṅga, the one without a body. He moves through the world as an unseen, bodiless force.
How Aṅga Deśa got its name
The place where the burning happened is the place where the aṅgas (limbs, parts of the body) of Kāmadeva were scattered. That region came to be called Aṅga Deśa. The land that carries the name was made sacred by this event. This too is told in the Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 23.
Why Viśvāmitra told it
Viśvāmitra and the two princes were passing through the Aṅga region on their way to Mithilā. Viśvāmitra told them the narrative to explain the name of the land and its sacred history.
The story of Ṛśyaśṛṅga is set in the same region. Ṛśyaśṛṅga lived in and near Aṅga Deśa, and Romapāda was its king.
Sources
- Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 23