This universal deity through all ages and all climes is the object of the hero's, the blockhead's, and the wise man's invocation ; has been repre sented as Anteros with his leaden arrow, as the beauteous Eros with his golden dart, as the Egyptian Horns with the wings of the Etesian winds, as the Hindu-adored Kamdeo with bee strung bow and flower-tipped arrow, as the son of Jupiter, of Mars and Venus ; of Porus, the god of counsel, and Penis, the goddess of poverty ; of Ccelus and Terra, of Zephyrus and Flora ; as the son of Brahma, of Vishnu or Krishna, and of Maya or illusion.
As with all Hindu deities, Kama's genealogy is traced upwards to the sun, who is Brahm. Lakshmi, in a divine and mortal view, both as Maya and Rukmeni, is his mother ; she is Vishnu's wife and sakti or energy. Vishnu, or Krishna, Kama's father, is the sun, the source, literally and figuratively, of warmth and union, affection and love.
The Makara which Kama bears on his banner is an aquatic monster something like the sign of the zodiac Capricornus.
The Champa, Michelia champaca, is of two sorts, white and yellow, small, and in its foliage like an expanded rosebud. Gardeners make and expose in the shops chaplets and long strings of the blossoms, with which the Hindu women decorate their hair and wear round their necks ; its potency is, however, so great, that nerves unaccustomed to it can scarcely bear its odour within doors. Another flower, commonly called mogri, is of the same description, and may, perhaps, be one of these named in the classic hymn. The fragrance of the Champs is so very strong that bees refuse to extract honey from it, a circumstance that could not escape the keen eye of the Hindu poets, and they accordingly feign the Champs to bo sadly mortified at this neglect. They have, how
ever, afforded it consolation, dedicating it to Krishna, the black deity, as they, contrary to some European poetical naturalists, consider the union of yellow and black peculiarly beautiful. The Champa is further consoled by the preferenco it has obtained in bedecking the glossy locks of black-haired damsels, also in the following stanza, literally translated from the Sanskrit :—' That thou art not honoured by the ill-disposed bee, why, 0 Champs! lost thou so heavily lament ? The locks of lotus-eyed damsels, resembling the fresh dark clouds adorning the sky, lot these embellish thee.' The Amer, mentioned in the extract from the hymn, is also called Amra and Amla, and is said by some to be the mango flower. Dry Nagkeser is also called Kesara; it is a handsome flower, with yellow and white petals. The Bela is a beautiful species of jasmine. The last days of spring are dedicated to Kamdeva, the Hindu god of love. There is no city in the east where the adorations of the sex to Kamdeva are more fervent than in Udaipur, the city of the rising sun.' On the 13th and 14th of Cheyt they sing handed down by the sacred bards : Hail, god of the flowery bow ! hail, warrior with a fish on thy banner ! hail, powerful divinity, who causeth the firmness of the sage to forsake him I Glory to Madana, to Kama, the god of gods ; to him by whom Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, and Indra are filled with rapture.'—Tod's Rajasthan, i. p. 255 ; As. Miscel. ii. ; Sir W. Jones' Hymn to Camdeo, p. 237 ; As. Res. i. p. 221; Moor, p. 437 ; Hind. Theat. ii. p. 84.