Kamadeva and Rati: the Indian god of desire and his consort

In ancient India desire had a name and a face. Kama, a Sanskrit word meaning desire and pleasure, is at once a philosophical concept, one of the aims of human life, and a deity, Kamadeva, the god of love. Beside him stands Rati, his consort, whose name means delight or the pleasure of love. Their story runs through the Vedic hymns, the Puranas and the masterpieces of classical poetry.

From cosmic desire to the god with the bow

Already in the Rigveda, in the creation hymn of the tenth book, desire appears at the origin of everything: in the beginning, the text says, desire arose, the first seed of mind. In this form Kama is not yet a character but a cosmic force, like the Eros of Hesiod. Later Indian tradition counted it among the purusharthas, the aims of life, alongside dharma, artha and moksha; the Kamasutra attributed to Vatsyayana is devoted to it.

In later works Kamadeva takes on a precise appearance. He is a very handsome young man who holds a bow of sugarcane, with a string made of a line of bees, and shoots five arrows of flowers. He rides a parrot and his banner bears the makara, a mythical aquatic creature. He is often accompanied by Vasanta, Spring, because the season of flowers was considered the natural time of desire.

The eye of Shiva

The most famous myth about him is told in the Puranas and in the poem Kumarasambhava by Kalidasa, the great Sanskrit poet who probably lived between the fourth and fifth centuries AD. The gods, threatened by the demon Taraka, know that only a son of Shiva can defeat him. But Shiva is absorbed in deep meditation, indifferent to the young Parvati, daughter of the Himalaya, who serves him devotedly.

Kamadeva agrees to help the gods and shoots an arrow at Shiva. The god, disturbed, opens the third eye on his forehead and with a flame reduces the archer to ashes. From then on Kama is called Ananga, the bodiless: desire continues to act, but unseen. Parvati will win Shiva not through seduction but through asceticism, and from their union Kumara, also called Skanda or Kartikeya, will be born.

The lament of Rati

The fourth canto of the Kumarasambhava is entirely devoted to Rati's weeping over her husband's ashes, one of the most celebrated passages of classical Indian poetry. The goddess recalls Kama's lost beauty and resolves to follow him onto the pyre, but a divine voice holds her back, announcing that her husband will regain a body when Shiva has taken Parvati as his wife.

According to the Bhagavata Purana, Kama was reborn as Pradyumna, son of Krishna and Rukmini. Kidnapped at birth by the demon Shambara and thrown into the sea, he was swallowed by a fish and found in the demon's kitchen, where he was raised by Mayavati, who was in truth Rati. Grown to manhood, Pradyumna killed Shambara and returned with her to Dvaraka, the city of Krishna.

Kamadeva was honoured above all in spring festivals, linked in some regions to Holi and Vasant Panchami. His myth tells a truth on which Indian culture has never ceased to reflect: desire can be burned but not destroyed, and it goes on working even when it cannot be seen, like a bodiless archer who never stops drawing his flowering bow.