kamadeva doctoral dissertation review

The name Kama-deva (IAST kāma-deva) can be translated as ‘divine love’ or ‘god of love’.

Kamadeva is also a name of Vishnu in Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata (SB 5.18.15).

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It is also sometimes used as name of Shiva and the name of author of Sanskrit work Prayaschita padyata.

Kamadeva is one of the names and epithets used for Krishna.

Deva means heavenly or divine. Kama (IAST kāma) can be literary translated as wish, desire or longing, especially as in sensual love or sexuality. Kama is also a name used for Agni. The name is also used in Rig Veda (RV 9, 113. 11).[5]

REVIEW

OF
A study of Kamadeva in Indian Study Literature
CATHERINE BENTON’S DOCTORAL DISSERTATION Columbia University Libraries Academic Commons

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Due to paucity of time I am plucking just one story of handsome King Yeyati from Catherine’s dissertation to elaborate my review findings of the entire dissertation.

Cahterine has narrated the story of handsome King Yeyati and his penchant for sexual gratification with Devyani.

COMPLIMENTS TO STUDENT AND TEACHER

I wish to congratulate Catherine Benton and her teacher for understanding the essence behind the romantic, carnal story of handsome King Yeyati and Devyani.

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THE STUDY ON DESIRE

What could be better example of ‘desire’ than ‘sexual desire’?
Here Sexual Desire is symbolic of any and all desires for this is the way Rishis, the scientists, Masters of Vedanta taught life and living.

DISSATISFACTION DESPITE SEX UNLIMITED

How desires can never be satiated even if your desired object is gifted to you and with it you are also given healthy constitution and long life of scores of hundreds of years to savor the object of desire is clearly elaborated in this dissertation of Catherine Benton on Kama deva.

Sexual desire unlimited and means to gratify having been given to handsome King Yeyati; the Indian Masters of Upanishadic Philosophy have poetically sketched comparison between sensual pleasures and enlightenment.

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEX PLEASURE AND LOVE DIVINE

If you see through the eyes of Yeyati you will see as clearly as sunny day the essential difference between the
mirage of sensuous gratification,
comfort,
convenience,
luxury (CHARVAK Philosopy)
and
the eternal bliss of Divine Love.

If the God of Desire KAMDEV fulfills your desires?

Wow! Awesome. What if I had the boon of gratification of desire the way King Yeyati had? – is what you would be tempted to dream.
Gifted literary scholars have crafted bestsellers based on the story of handsome King Yeayati. One such example is Shri V. S. Khandekar’s book in Marathi titled ‘Yeyatii’.

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WHAT ARE PURANAS?

Highest teachings have been told in the form of stories in Purana so that common person is delighted to hear the story, identifies easily with the characters and comes to know the necessity and Supreme Beauty of the highest ladder of evolution, Self Realization or God Realization.

DON’T MISS THE JOY ULTIMATE

This art of Self Realization is blessing of the scientists of yore, the These scientists are called in India as Rishis, many of whom cared not to sign or take credit for their work. Purana is treasure house of stories that are mystical, use symbolisms. Puranas are delightful to the naive and deeply revealing to the erudite. DON’T MISS THE JOY ULTIMATE in this journey of life is what the Masters of Vedanta tell us.

In her doctoral dissertation Catherine Benton of Columbia University gives background references from Indian Puranas, as well as the Vedas, notably, the Rig Veda and the Atharvaveda.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Title

A study of Ka̲madeva in Indian story literature

Author(s): Benton, Catherine
Title: A study of Ka̲madeva in Indian story literature
Physical Description: iv, 289 leaves.
Issue Date: 1991
Description: “91-27,814.”
Thesis (Ph. D.)–Columbia University, 1991.
Publication No. AAT9127814
The following is verbatim copy of abstract of her dissertation.

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This dissertation traces the images and stories involving the god of desire from the earliest hymns in the Rg Veda and Atharva Veda through the better known and lesser known tales in the Puranas, to the practices described for the worship of the deity. Finally, the study looks at an Indian Buddhist image of Kamadeva, an early tantric form of the bodhisattva Manjusri.

The best known form of the god, the handsome deity who excites erotic passion in the hearts of those struck by the flower arrows he releases from his sugarcane bow, is most graphically described in the puranic stories which delight in recounting the tug-of-war between Kama and the great ascetic, Siva. However, Kama also appears in other stories and even becomes the object of certain devotional rituals for those seeking health, physical beauty, husbands, wives, and sons. In one story Kama himself succumbs to desire, and must then worship his lover in order to be released from this passion and its curse.

In two other guises Kamadeva is said to take incarnation as Pradyumna, the son of Krsna, and is known as a form of Manjusri called Vajrananga. Although little attention is given to the Pradyumna story in Vaisnava literature, this story presents the incarnate Kama as the husband of Mayavati, Mistress of Illusion. In the Buddhist tradition, Manjusri-Vagrananga carries the sugarcane bow and flower arrows while displaying the srngara rasa. The reasons for these two forms of the deity are explored in the last two chapters.

The thesis presents a monograph of the Indian god of desire and a picture of the way the katha literature perceives and treats the integral human force of “desire.”
by Catherine Benton

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Source: Doctoral dissertation of Catherine Benton. Columbia University Libraries Academic Commons