Chap. 11. j
HINDOO MYTHOLOGY.
39
for martial exploits fulfilled the great end of his creation by slaying Tarika. ad. — When his character of god of war is considered, he might have been expected to take a prominent part in all the wars in which the gods figure as allies or Cartikeia. auxiliaries. In genei'al, however, only a secondary place is assigned to him, and it almost appears as if his merits had been purposely obscm-ed by rivals jealous of his fame. For this apparent injustice he has some compensation in the number of his worshippers, and more especially in the honours paid to him during his annual festival. On that occasion images of him, to the number, in Calcutta alone, of 5,000, some of them of gigantic stature, are set up for worship, and at the conclusion of it thrown into the river. These images usually exhibit him as a young man of warlike appearance, situated very incon- gruously on a peacock, and holding a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. Sometimes the peacock is treading on a serpent, and two additional hands are given him, in which he holds a spear and a trident.
Kama, called also Kamadeva or Camdeo, the god of love, is the subject of k^^i- many pleasing fictions, and occupies a prominent place in ancient tales, poems, and dramas. Singular enough, notwithstanding the sway which he is described as possessing over gods and men, he cannot boast of possessing a single temple, or of being the object of any distinct and formal worship. Being thus more of an historical than an actually recognized divinity, little more need be said of him. The fables give him a double birth. By the first he is a son of Brahma, by tlie second a son of Vishnu and Lakshmi, durino' their avatars as Krishna and Rukmini. In both births the illusive prevailed over the i-eal, and he is therefore designated the son of Maya, or illusion. His father Brahma, having promised that his dominion should not be con- fined to the hearts of the inhabitants of the world, but be felt even by the members of the triad, the youth was malicious enough to test his power by letting fly an arrow, which pierced
Brahma's own bosom. He appears to have been equally successful with Vishnu. Not so with Siva. This god, when it was desired that he might become the father of a son destined to slay Tarika, was hving retired in the practice of religious austerities. Kama, notwithstanding, presumed to send a shaft at him. It took effect, but Siva, incensed at the interruption given to his devotion, turned his third eye upon the infatuated archer, and with it burned him to ashes. After his second birth a demon carried him off", and threw him into the sea, where he was swallowed by a fish. From this living tomb he was afterwards rescued, and delivered as an infant to the care of the demon's wife. She, by some
Kama or Kamadeva.
From Moore's Hindoo Pantheon.
