The Burning of Kama

The demon Taraka had driven the gods out of heaven, and Brahma had told them the only cure: a son of Shiva would kill him. But Shiva sat on the Himalaya with his eyes closed, as he had sat since Sati died, and the daughter of the mountain, Parvati, came every day to sweep his ground and lay flowers there, and he did not look at her.

So Indra sent for Kama, the god of love.

"You have a bow of flowers," said Indra, "and no one has ever stood against it. Go to the mountain and make Shiva want her. It is for the good of the three worlds."

"I will go," said Kama. He did not ask what would happen to him afterwards.

He went with his wife Rati and his friend Vasanta, the Spring. Wherever they walked, it was suddenly spring on the frozen mountain. The trees came into flower out of season, the bees came after them, the cuckoos sang and a warm wind blew from the south. Every creature on the mountain felt it. Only Shiva did not move.

Then Parvati came with her flowers, as she did every day. Kama stood behind a tree with his sugar cane bow strung with bees, and when she bent to lay her offering at Shiva's feet, he shot.

For one moment Shiva's mind stirred. He opened his eyes and saw Parvati, and wondered at her face.

Then he caught himself. "I am master of myself," he thought. "Who has done this to me?" He looked round in every direction, and on his left he saw Kama, with the bow still drawn back to his ear and another arrow on the string.

Kama knew at once that it had failed. He was afraid, and he called on Indra and all the gods, and they came and began to praise Shiva and beg him to be calm.

They were too late. While they were still praising him, a flame burst from the eye in the middle of Shiva's forehead, a fire like the fire at the end of the world. It leaped into the sky and fell on Kama, and before anyone could say "Forgive him", Kama was ash.

The gods cried out. Rati fell to the ground as if she were dead herself. When she came to, she beat the earth with her hands and pulled at her hair.

"What shall I do? Where can I go?" she cried. "The gods called him here for their work, and they have had him killed. My husband, my dear, what has happened to you?"

The gods came to her and consoled her, and then they went to Shiva and begged him for Kama's life. Shiva's anger had cooled.

"He will live," Shiva said, "but without a body, until Vishnu is born on earth as Krishna and marries Rukmini. Then Kama will be born as their son, and Rati will find him again. Until then he will go everywhere unseen."

Rati went away to wait. Shiva went back into the mountain, and Parvati went home and began the penance that would bring him to her in the end.

In the villages of Tamil Nadu the night Kama burned is the night of the Phalguna full moon, which the Tamil months call Masi or Panguni. The festival is Kaman Pandigai, the festival of Kama, or Kama Dahanam, the burning of Kama.

Some days before the full moon a pole or a branch of castor is set up in the open ground of the village as Kama's flag, and every evening people gather round it. Pictures of Kama and Rati are painted and worshipped. Singers tell the story night after night, Kama's wedding to Rati first, then his journey to the mountain, then his death.

The songs people wait for are Rati's. She sings to Shiva over her husband's ashes. She begs him for her husband's life. She reminds him that his own wife's penance would have come to nothing without the arrow, and she asks what kind of justice burns the one who did the gods' work for them.

In many villages the singers split into two sides and argue it out in verse. One side says Kama burned. The other says he cannot have burned, because people go on falling in love. The argument runs late into the night.

On the full moon the flag is burned, and Kama with it. Sandal paste is offered for his burns. Then comes the news that Shiva has relented: Kama lives again, without a body, seen only by Rati. The mourning turns to feasting.