Kāmadeva

Kāmadeva is the deva of kāma (desire and love). He is also called Manmatha, Madana, Smara, Kandarpa and Ananga. At the request of the devas he aimed his flower-arrow at Bhagavān Śiva, who was meditating, and Bhagavān Śiva burned him to ash with his third eye. After that he was called Ananga, “the bodiless one”. He was born again as Pradyumna, son of Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, and was united once more with his wife Ratī.

Who he is

The name Manmatha means “he who churns the mind”. He stands for kāma: desire, love, and the pull that ties beings to each other and to the world. The Kaumārika Khaṇḍa and the Kedāra Khaṇḍa both describe him as very beautiful. His bow is made of sugarcane and its string is a line of bees. His flower-arrows each cause a different kind of love’s madness in the one they strike. He is joined by his wife Ratī (Pleasure) and his friend Vasanta (Spring). Vasanta makes the heady air of blooming gardens and warm winds that makes the arrows stronger. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 23)

Manmatha’s doubts

The Kaumārika Khaṇḍa tells more than the Kedāra Khaṇḍa about how Manmatha came to accept the task. Nārada told Indra that the match for Pārvatī was arranged, and said: “Call Manmatha now. His part must come next.” Indra called Manmatha, who came with Vasanta and Ratī.

Manmatha hesitated. He said: “Indra, king of the devas, this seems wrong. Mahādeva is in tapas (austerity). Who can join two fires without being asked? The Vedānta texts often speak ill of me and say, ‘Kāma is the great pāpa (sin), like a fire that eats up knowledge.’ How can Maheśvara, the teacher of the world, be pleased with me, a great pāpin (sinner)? It would be like pleasing a person with a drunkard.”

Indra answered by naming three kinds of Manmatha’s desire: tāmasa, rājasa and sāttvika. He said that it was Manmatha’s sāttvika nature that would be used in this task, and not his lower forms. The need of the devas came first. Manmatha agreed in the end, but unwillingly, and knowing well that acting against the tapas of Maheśvara was very dangerous. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 23)

Arrival at the āśrama of Bhagavān Śiva

Manmatha set out with Vasanta and Ratī for the slopes of Himavān, where the tapovana (forest of tapas) of Bhagavān Śiva lay. As they came near, Vasanta’s presence changed the place. Trees bloomed out of season, bees gathered, fragrant winds rose and birds called. Spring came into the forest of Bhagavān Śiva. At the gate stood Vīraka, the doorkeeper of Bhagavān Śiva, with many gaṇas (his attendants) nearby.

Manmatha looked inside and saw Bhagavān Maheśvara. He sat on a vedi (raised seat) under a tree in perfect meditation posture, with his gaze fixed on the tip of his nose (nāsāgraṃ dṛṣṭiṃ nilapitvā). All outer objects of the senses were fully withdrawn, and he was completely still, a treasure of tapas (tāpo-nidhi) in perfect balance. Manmatha saw at once that no flower-arrow from outside could pierce such steadiness. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 23)

Entering the mind of Bhagavān Śiva

Manmatha chose another way. Using a bumblebee’s humming as his excuse, he slipped through the sound and entered the manas (mind) of Bhagavān Śiva directly.

At that moment the eyes of Bhagavān Śiva opened, and for a short time he thought of Pārvatī with anurāga (affection). Vīraka said: “Pārvatī came as usual and has now gone, my lord.” In the same instant Bhagavān Śiva looked within and saw his own mind becoming attached. He noticed this feeling rising, looked back over his shoulder, and saw Manmatha standing there with his flower-arrow drawn on the bowstring. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 23)

The chase through the three worlds

Bhagavān Śiva got up and left his āśrama, but Manmatha followed him without a pause. Bhagavān Śiva crossed rivers, mountains, āśramas and sacred lakes, the whole length of the three worlds. Wherever he went, Manmatha followed with his arrow still aimed. Bhagavān Śiva could find no place free of Manmatha. At last he went back to his own āśrama, and even there Manmatha stood close behind him. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 23)

The burning and the name Ananga

Bhagavān Śiva drew a deep, long breath (niḥśvāsa) of great force. From his third eye (ūrdhva-netra) a great fire came out. It was the fire of his yogic concentration, pressed into flame. The devas, in distress, cried out “Hā! Hā!” as the fire burned Manmatha in an instant. He was turned to ash (bhasma). From this comes his name Ananga, “the bodiless one”, because his bodily form was wholly destroyed. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 24)

How the fire of kāma was shared out

The fire that burned Manmatha did not go out. It blazed up in every direction and began to scorch the whole world. To protect creation, Bhagavān Parameśvara took the fire and spread it through the world:

• Into Candra (the Moon), so that moonlight stirs longing
• Into flowers (puṣpa), so that blossoms wake desire
• Into songs (gīta), so that music moves hearts
• Into bees (bhrāmara), so that their humming is the voice of longing
• Into the throat of the cuckoo (kokila), so that the koel’s call pierces the heart
• Into sensuous pleasure (vihāra), so that every pleasure carries the warmth of the kāma-fire

The text says that it is this fire, received by these things, that fills the hearts of lovers (kāminī) with tenderness (snehārdra). The fire is hard to resist, brings pain and always burns, and it flows through the world in these forms without growing less. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 24)

Ratī’s grief and the promise of Pradyumna

Ratī saw her husband burn and wept without comfort. Vasanta tried to console her. Bhagavān Śiva heard her cry and looked on her with compassion. He said: “Amba! Even without a visible form (rūpa), your husband will be able to do what you need of him at the right time, without doubt. When Vāsudeva (Viṣṇu) is born as a human being, the son born to him will be your husband again. This is certain.”

Comforted, and knowing that Manmatha would be born as Pradyumna, the son of Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, Ratī bowed in thanks and left with Vasanta. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 24)

After this, in her time of weakness, the asura Śambara came and carried Ratī off. He put her in his house under the name Māyāvatī, as a kitchen worker. She stayed there until Pradyumna, born to Kṛṣṇa and Rukmiṇī, was taken as a baby by Śambara and thrown into the sea. A fish swallowed the child. The fish was caught and brought to Śambara’s kitchen. When it was cut open, Ratī, as Māyāvatī, found the baby inside and raised him in secret. In time Pradyumna grew up, killed Śambara and won back his wife. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 21)

The Kāmagīta in the Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva (Chapter 13)

The Aśvamedhika Parva of the Mahābhārata keeps a different account of Kāma. It is the Kāmagīta, an old song attributed to the tattva-vids (knowers of the truth) of old. In it Kāma speaks in his own voice and says why no single outer means can destroy him. Kṛṣṇa recites this song to Yudhiṣṭhira as the high point of his comfort to him after the war. He does so just after teaching him the doctrine of the Ātmayuddha (the war within the self).

In this account Kāma says that he is born again inside the very act meant to destroy him. He is born in the pride of one who thinks himself the best performer of yajña (fire ritual). He is born in the faint trace of desire that remains even among those who recite the Vedas that establish Vedānta. He is born in the abhimāna (pride) of one who trusts his own dhṛti (firmness) in battle or in hardship. He is born in the longing for the worlds of wealth that tapas itself brings. And, most strangely, he is born in the very wish for mokṣa (liberation), when mokṣa is grasped as a thing to be gained and not known as the eternal nature of the ātman (self). Kāma says: “In his very kāmanā for mokṣa I dance, I laugh.” Kāma also says that when a sannyāsī (renunciant) cuts off the world by the rule of śmaśāna-vairāgya (the dispassion felt at a cremation ground), Kāma is simply born again in that same mind. This is why careless renunciants, whose minds are turned outward, become greedy and quarrelsome.

Kṛṣṇa ends on behalf of Kāma. Kāma cannot be pulled up by any single act. He can only be tamed by nirmamatva (freedom from “mine-ness”) and steady yogābhyāsa (practice of yoga). The right course for a king is to place Kāma within dharma itself, through yajñas rich in dakṣiṇā (gifts to the priests), performed without personal craving, and not to try to destroy him outright. This is the direct reason for Kṛṣṇa’s instruction to Yudhiṣṭhira to perform the Aśvamedha. (Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 13)

The burning and the Baḍabāgni in the Śiva Purāṇa

The Pārvatī Khaṇḍa gives its own account of the burning of Manmatha and what followed. Here the setting is Tārakāsura’s conquest of the three worlds. The devas could not bear his cruelty, and Brahmā declared that only a son of Bhagavān Śiva could kill him. For a son of Bhagavān Śiva to be born, he had to be brought out of his state of nirguṇa tapas (tapas beyond all qualities) into union with Pārvatī. The only way was Manmatha’s task.

Manmatha set out with his wife Ratī, with the deva Vasanta and with all the beauty of spring. He found Bhagavān Śiva in deep samādhi (absorption). From a brief inner disturbance of Bhagavān Śiva, Manmatha could be found. Bhagavān Śiva opened his eye and the fire of his third eye came out. Manmatha was burned to ash (bhasma).

From the ash of Manmatha a cosmic fire arose that threatened all creation. Brahmā held this fire and placed it in the ocean. There it became the Baḍabāgni, the submarine fire. It burns without end at the bottom of the ocean and will rise at the time of pralaya (dissolution) to burn up all that remains.

Bhagavān Śiva promised Ratī that Manmatha would be born again as Pradyumna, son of the human avatāra of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. He made this promise out of compassion at the sight of Ratī’s great grief. (Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Pārvatī Khaṇḍa, Chapters 16–19)

Manmatha is brought back to life (Pārvatī Khaṇḍa)

At the wedding feast of Bhagavān Śiva and Pārvatī (Chapter 51), Ratī came to Bhagavān Śiva carrying the wrapped ashes of Manmatha. She wept before him and begged him to give her husband back. Fourteen divine women, among them Sarasvatī and Lakṣmī, joined her prayer together.

Bhagavān Śiva was moved by compassion. He cast his amṛta-dṛṣṭi (immortal gaze) on the ashes. Manmatha rose from them alive and shining, in the very same form as before the burning. He carried his sugarcane bow and five flower-arrows, and his age, looks and every mark were unchanged.

Manmatha and Ratī together praised Bhagavān Śiva. Manmatha bowed down and asked forgiveness for the offence he had done before. Bhagavān Śiva smiled and said: “I am pleased with you, Manmatha. You are very wise. Do not be afraid.” He then gave a clear order: “Go to Viṣṇu. Stay away from this house. Do not stay here.” Manmatha accepted the blessing, walked round Bhagavān Śiva in pradakṣiṇā (a respectful circuit), and left to live with Bhagavān Viṣṇu. (Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Pārvatī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 51)

Rebirth as Pradyumna

The promise of Pradyumna was given by Bhagavān Śiva in the Kaumārika Khaṇḍa and is also mentioned in the Pārvatī Khaṇḍa. It came true when Manmatha was born as Pradyumna to Kṛṣṇa and Rukmiṇī. The asura Śambara knew that the child was Manmatha born again and so was his destined destroyer. He carried off the baby and threw him into the sea. A fish swallowed the infant, the fish was caught, and it was brought to Śambara’s kitchen. When the fish was cut open, Ratī, who was living as Māyāvatī in Śambara’s house, found the child and knew him. She raised Pradyumna in secret until he came of age. He killed Śambara and won back his wife. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 21)

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapters 23–24
• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 21
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Pārvatī Khaṇḍa, Chapters 16–19 and 51
• Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 13