Manmatha

Manmatha is the deva of kāma, which means desire and love. He is also called Kāmadeva, Madana and Smara. The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa says he came into being at the time of the first creation, together with his wife Rati. He is the power that moves all beings towards union, so that life goes on.

His story is told in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa and the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa. The texts tell of his arrows, of how Bhagavān Śiva burned him to ash, and of how he was brought back.

Origin at the time of creation

At the start of sṛṣṭi (creation), Sāvitrī came out of the tongue of Kṛṣṇa. At the same time Manmatha (Kāmadeva) and his wife Rati also appeared. They stand for kāma, the first urge towards union, which is needed for created life to go on (Brahma Khaṇḍa, Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa).

Manmatha and the account of Viśvakarmā and Ghṛtācī

Chapter 10 of the Brahma Khaṇḍa tells an event that names Manmatha. The apsarā Ghṛtācī turned away the advances of Viśvakarmā at Puṣkara-tīrtha. She said that on that day, which was Manmatha’s own day, she “belonged to Manmatha”. Viśvakarmā answered that then she was guru-patnī-tulya (like the wife of a guru) to him, and he gave her a śāpa (a curse). The account shows that certain days were set apart for Manmatha in the calendar of pūjā.

Relation with Kṛṣṇa

In the stotras of the Brahma Khaṇḍa, Śrī Kṛṣṇa is praised again and again as having the beauty of koṭi-Manmatha, ten million Manmathas. This is the highest praise of the form of Kṛṣṇa used through the text.

In the Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janana Khaṇḍa

The full set of arrows, Chapter 32

In Chapter 32, Manmatha uses all his weapons against Brahmā to fill him with desire for the apsarā Mohinī. The arrows include the usual pañca-bāṇas (five arrows) and seven more arrows beyond the usual list.

  1. Sammoha: enchantment, confusion of the mind.
  2. Samudvega: shaking of the mind, restlessness within.
  3. Sṛṣṭibīja: seed of creation, the first urge to bring forth children.
  4. Stambhana: stunning, the stopping of clear judgment.
  5. Unmatta: madness, loss of reason.
  6. Jvalada: burning, the fierce heat of desire.
  7. Caitanya-haraṇa: stealing of awareness, the full hiding of higher awareness.

These seven are used in addition to the usual set of five arrows, or as a longer form of it. For a moment Brahmā lost his calm, but he recovered through his devotion to Kṛṣṇa.

The burning of Manmatha and the grief of Rati, Chapters 38–39

This event comes in the account of the tapas of Pārvatī. Indra was worried. The tapas of Bhagavān Śiva was unbroken, and so Skanda could not be born. Skanda was to lead the armies of the devas and was the only one who could kill the asura Tārakāsura. Indra sent Manmatha to disturb the meditation of Bhagavān Śiva. The plan was that if Manmatha stirred desire in Bhagavān Śiva, he would turn to Pārvatī, and from their union Skanda would be born.

Manmatha came near Bhagavān Śiva in his tapas and shot his arrow of love. The third eye of Bhagavān Śiva, the eye of fire, opened at once. A terrible jet of flame came out of it and struck Manmatha, and he was turned to ash at once.

The grief of Rati had no comfort. She was his wife, and she had come with him and seen it all. She fell down in grief, unable to bear the loss of her husband. Her crying is told as heart-breaking, and it shook even the devas who watched.

The pride of Pārvatī was broken. She had been counting on Manmatha to do her work for her. When she saw him burned to ash, the very tool she had trusted, her pride was broken. She understood that she would have to do tapas herself if she wished to have Bhagavān Śiva as her husband.

Manmatha brought back at the wedding of Pārvatī, Chapter 45

At the wedding of Bhagavān Śiva and Pārvatī, told in Chapter 45, Rati threw herself down before Bhagavān Śiva, Brahmā and Nārāyaṇa. In deep sorrow she begged them to give her husband back. Nārāyaṇa also spoke for Rati, adding the weight of the mercy of Bhagavān Viṣṇu to her plea.

Bhagavān Śiva was moved by the devotion and grief of Rati, and by the joy of the occasion, his own marriage. He turned a kṛpā-dṛṣṭi (a glance of mercy and grace) on the ash of Manmatha. This glance gave Manmatha life again. He rose whole and alive and was joined again with his beloved Rati.

The birth of Bhaṇḍāsura from the ashes of Manmatha, Brahmāṇḍa account

The Lalitopākhyāna of the Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa (Chapter 11) tells that Bhaṇḍāsura was born from the ashes of Manmatha through the divine play (līlā) of Bhagavān Gaṇeśa. After Bhagavān Śiva had burned Manmatha to ash, Bhagavān Gaṇeśa shaped the ash into the figure of a man. This man did japa of the Śatarudrīya and received vara (boons) from Bhagavān Śiva. Brahmā named him Bhaṇḍa, and Śukrācārya crowned him king of Śoṇitapura. He had been born from Manmatha, the deva of desire, in his burned form. Under the rule of Bhaṇḍa, desire left the worlds and the work of creation began to fail.

This led to the appearance (prādurbhāva) of Lalitā Mahātripurasundarī. The Lalitopākhyāna says that when the Mahāpāśupatāstra of Lalitādevī destroyed Bhaṇḍa completely, Manmatha was brought back to life at the same moment. With Bhaṇḍa, who was born from the ash, gone, Manmatha could return to his first state.

The Gaṇeśa Purāṇa account: tapas at Janasthāna and rebirth as Pradyumna

The Upāsanā Khaṇḍa of the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa (Chapters 88–89) tells what happened to Manmatha after Bhagavān Śiva burned him. In the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Bhagavān Śiva brings Manmatha back by a glance of mercy at his wedding.

In the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Bhagavān Śiva comforted Ratī with the promise that Manmatha would be born again as Pradyumna. Ratī kept asking for a quicker answer. Manmatha now had no body and lived only as mind-energy, as Manobhava. Bhagavān Śiva told him to do ārādhanā of Bhagavān Gaṇeśa with the Ekākṣarī mantra, at Janasthāna in the forest of Daṇḍakāraṇya.

Manmatha went to Janasthāna without a body, with Ratī beside him. For a hundred years he did tapas with the Ekākṣarī Gaṇeśa mantra, from within his state of pure mind-energy. At the end, Bhagavān Gaṇeśa appeared in a ten-armed form, blazing with light. Manmatha gave himself fully to him and received four varas.

  1. Rebirth as Pradyumna, son of Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa and Rukmiṇī.
  2. Honour in all worlds as the lord of desire and beauty.
  3. Five weapons from nature: the scent of flowers, moonlight, music, the scent of sandalwood, and the sound of water.
  4. The lasting nearness of Bhagavān Gaṇeśa.

Manmatha then installed the image of Bhagavān Gaṇeśa at Janasthāna under the name Mahōtkaṭa, “the supremely great”. The place became a famous tīrtha.

Sources

  • Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, including Chapter 10
  • Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapters 32, 38–39 and 45
  • Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Lalitopākhyāna, Chapter 11
  • Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Upāsanā Khaṇḍa, Chapters 88–89