Rati And Kama Poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

Rati and Kama


1. Indian Cupid^

God of love in the Vedic Mythology
Is known as Kama(desire) , Anaga (formless) , Madana (intoxicating) ,
Manmata (heart churner) , or Kusumashara (having flowered arrows) ,
Ever young and handsome, he wields a bow made
of sugarcane, with arrows decorated
With flowers of five kinds. With Him go Spring
A cuckoo, a parrot and bees and breeze.
The Holy is held as his valentine day.

2. Sources
Kamadeva is known from Shiva purana
And Skanda purana with traces found
In the Rig Veda and the Atharva Veda.
Kamadeva was married to Ratī,
The daughter of Daksha, made of his sweat.
Kama was ordered to spread love in the world
By shooting his flower-arrows and Prajapati
Daksha is requested to present a wife to Kama.

3. Rati's birth
Sandhya (dawn/dusk)was daughter of Brahma
And irresistible in her alure.
No wonder, Brahma and Prajapati fell for her
Incestuously and perspired at the sight
Of Siva. From the sweat of Daksha rose
A beautiful woman, who was named Rati,
Whom Daksha gifted to Kama as his wife.
She is Sandhya, reborn after suicide.

4. Purpose
Once Lord Shiva was in deep meditation,
The world needed a son of Shiva
To eliminate Demon Taraka
Shiva should marry, for which was Kama
Sent to break his trance to love Parvati.
Kama shot at Shiva arrows of lust.
Angered, his third eye burnt him to ashes.
However, Kama was let to live formless.

5. Rati
Rati personifies sexual passion
Amorous enjoyment and love-pleasure.
Her birth being from the desire ridden
Sweat to the bodily fluid produced,
She is the respondent of the pleasure
In the course of the sexual intercourse.
Kama pierces man to desire women.
Rati carries it to woman's passion.

6. Kama for moksha
Handsome Kamadeva and gorgeous Rati Devi
Attracted each other, and partners-in-crime
They are in all the case of arousal
Between lovers, couples and one side love.
They cannot be destroyed by any creature
As they are the seed for every creature.
They will lough and dance at the intentness
Of one to attain moksha at their cost.

7. Literature
Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana,
Rati Rahasya of Kokkoka,
Ananga Ranga of Kalyanamalla,
The Ratiratnapradipika of Praudha-Devaraja,
Rati Manjari of Jayadeva
And the anonymous Manmatha Samhita
Are some of books written in different times
Centuries back on sex, corporal and mental.

8. Victims
Pairs of Shakuntala-Dushyant, Rama-
Sita, Nala-Damayanti, Covalan-
Madavi, Menaka -Viswamitra
And Andal - Vishnu were his love victims.
Rati is adorned with Solah shringara, (16 jewels)
And rated as the most beautiful woman,
Over riding all asparas in the heaven
Thanks to Goddess Lakshmi's benevolence
10.10,2020





9. From - Manmadin, the Indian Cupid, floating down the Ganges

……………..
Wafting thee, young MANMADIN!
Pillowed on a lotus flower,
Gathered in a summer hour,
Rides he o'er the mountain wave
Which would be a tall ship's grave!
At his back his bow is slung,
Sugar-cane, with wild bees strung, —
Bees born with the buds of spring,
Yet with each a deadly sting; —

……………………..
All these bloom-clad darts are meant
But for a short-lived content! —
Yet one arrow has a power
Lasting till life's latest hour—
Earth below and heaven above
Well may bend to thee, oh Love

…………………..
Well may storm be on the sky,
And the waters roll on high,
When MANMADIN passes by.
Earth below and heaven above
Well may bend to thee, oh Love!

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1822)


10. From Andal's Nachiyar's Thirumoli


O Kama, look, I have shown on that wall
Your ancestry and flags of fish,
Horses, women and white fly—whisks,
And a bow made of sugarcane.
From childhood I have dedicated
My surging breasts ever fond of him
To the Lord of Dwaraka alone—
Join my destiny quickly with his.

Know, Manmatha, I will not live
If, as an offering set apart
By pious Brahmins in a sacrifice
And meant for the gods who dwell in heaven
May by a forest jackal be seized
Which smells it, paws it and desecrates,
My broad breasts surging, set apart
For that great God with discus and conch,
Are noised about as meant for a man.

O Manmatha, I worship you
With tender rice and sugarcane
Cooked with candy and beaten rice
To sacred mantras chanted right.
Grant that I get fame on earth
As the one whose splendid belly and breasts
Were caressed with love by the great Lord
Who thrice Victorious measured the world.
10.10.2020