Hindu mythology, Vedic and Purānic . out one-fifth of the Hindus of Bengal are fol-lowers of this teacher. Immoral women generally pro-fess to be his disciples. By their conduct they haveexcommunicated themselves from orthodox Hindusociety, and being outcasts cannot secure the properperformance of their funeral rites. As members of thiscasteless sect these rites are not refused them. Kamadeva. Kamadeva, the Indian Cupid, is generally regarded as the son of Vishnu and Lakshmi, under the forms of Krishna and Rukmini, but he is also described in some places as a son of Brahma. The latter account
Hindu mythology, Vedic and Purānic . out one-fifth of the Hindus of Bengal are fol-lowers of this teacher. Immoral women generally pro-fess to be his disciples. By their conduct they haveexcommunicated themselves from orthodox Hindusociety, and being outcasts cannot secure the properperformance of their funeral rites. As members of thiscasteless sect these rites are not refused them. Kamadeva. Kamadeva, the Indian Cupid, is generally regarded as the son of Vishnu and Lakshmi, under the forms of Krishna and Rukmini, but he is also described in some places as a son of Brahma. The latter account of his KAMADEVA. 263 In the Rig- origin arises probably from the ,* Kama is described as the first movementthat arose in the One, after it had come into life throughthe power of fervour or abstraction. In the Atharva-Veda, this Kama or desire, not of sexual enjoy-ment, but of good in general, is celebrated as a greatpower superior to all the gods, and is supplicated fordeliverance from enemies. According to one hymn in. KAMADEVA. the Rig-Veda, Kama is worshipped and said to beunequalled by the gods ; according to another, he isthe god of sexual love, like Eros of the Greeks, andCupid of the Latins. In the latter aspect he is thusaddressed: May Kama, having well directed thearrow, which is winged with pain, barbed with longing,and has desire for its shaft, pierce thee in the is in this character that he appears in the is known in Hindu mythology as a victim ofSivas anger. A demon named Taraka, having greatly * Muir, O. S. T., v, 402. 264 THE PURANIC DEITIES. distressed the gods, they wished to destroy him. Butonly a son of Siva could accomplish this. In conse-quence of his intense grief at the loss of his wife Sati,Siva had unfortunately become insensible to gods therefore instigated Kama to assist by wound-ing him with his arrows. At last he was successful,just as Parvati (Sati in a new form) was near, who at gsHT
Size: 1530px × 1634px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishercalcu, bookyear1913
