Kamadeva is the Hindu god of human love or desire. He is the son of the Hindu goddess Sri.
Puranas: In some Kamadeva arises from the mind of the creator god, Brahma: in others he is the son of Sri. Kamadeva is sometimes portrayed as being at the service of Indra: one of his names is “obedient to Indra”.
One of the principal myths regarding Kama is that of his incineration by Shiva. It occurs in its most developed form in the Matsya Purana (verses 227-255) but is also repeated with variants in the Shaiva Purana and other Puranas.
According to the text Shiva Purana, Kamadeva is a son or a creation of Brahma, while according to other sources including the Skanda Purana, Kamadeva is a brother of Prasuti; they are both the children of Shatarupa, a creation of Brahma. Later interpolations consider him the son of Vishnu Kamadeva is wed to Ratī, the daughter of Daksha, created from his sweat.
Iconography: Kāmadeva is represented as a young, handsome winged man with green skin who wields a bow and arrows. His bow is made of sugarcane with a string of honeybees, and his arrows are decorated with five kinds of fragrant flowers.
Etymology: Kāmadeva (Sanskrit in Devanagari: कामदेव), (Bengali: কামদেব), also called Māra. The name Kama-deva (IAST kāma-deva) can be translated as ‘god of love’. Deva means heavenly or divine. Kama (IAST kāma) meaning “desire” or “longing”, especially as in sensual or sexual love.
Other names for him include:
Manmathudu (Telugu: మన్మథుడు)
Atanu (Telugu: అతను) (one without a body),
Ragavrinta (stalk of passion),
Ananga (incorporeal),
Kandarpa (inflamer even of a god),
Madan “Manmatha” मन्मथ
Manmadha (churner of hearts),
Manasija {he who is born of mind}, a contraction of the Sanskrit phrase Sah Manasah jāta),
Madana (intoxicating),
Ratikānta (lord of Rati),
Pushpavān,
Pushpadhanva,
Kusumashara कुसुमशर (one with arrow of flowers)
or just Kāma (longing).”
“Kāmadeva (कामदेव) is the name of a Buddha under whom Śākyamuni (or Gautama, ‘the historical Buddha’) acquired merit along the first through nine bhūmis, according to the Mahāvastu. There are in total ten bhūmis representing the ten stages of the Bodhisattva’s path towards enlightenment.
Kāmadeva is but one among the 500 Buddhas enumerated in the Mahāvastu during a conversation between Mahākātyāyana and Mahākāśyapa, both principle disciples of Gautama Buddha. The Mahāvastu is an important text of the Lokottaravāda school of buddhism, dating from the 2nd century BCE.”
