Indian Knowledge Systems are being discussed across schools in India. But they do not include India’s vast exploration of erotic pleasure: the story of Kama.
Everyone mentions Krishna’s Bhagavad Gita from the Mahabharata, but no one talks about Kama Gita also found in the Mahabharata. To appreciate Kama Gita, we need to explore India’s long tryst with kama, spelt in English both without and with capitalisation.
Kama of Kama-sutra and Kama-shastra can be both a common noun and a proper noun.
Kama of Kama-sutra and Kama-shastra can be both a common noun and a proper noun.
- As the common noun kama (spelt without capitalization) refers to desire, both romantic and erotic, which eventually leads to fertility. This is the driving force of life, known as ‘eros’ in English. The word is used in this sense in the Vedic corpus composed between 1500 BC and 500 BC.
- As a proper noun, Kama (spelt with capitalization) refers to a god who arouses the body, fills it with heat of passion. He has two consort: the more popular Rati, goddess of sex, and the less known Priti, goddess of romance. Kama became the enemy of hermits from Buddhist times, and eventually a friend of householders, in Puranic lore, who has to be regulated carefully to ensure there is order in the world.