Kama is miraculously conceived and born of a virgin. He is hidden in the river and adopted by ordinary people.
The chief of the Yadus, named Sura, had a son, Vasudeva, and a daughter, Prtha, whose beauty was matchless on earth. As had been promised,
Sura gave Prtha in adoption to his childless cousin and close friend, the high-souled Kuntibhoja. Hence she also came to be known as Kunti. In her adopted father’s house Kunti’s duties were to worship the family deities and s look after the guests.
One day, by her solicitude, she pleased the terrible and notoriously short-tempered sage Durvasa, who was learned in the mysteries. Through his foresight, Durvasa could see that Kunti would have difficulty in conceiving sons. He therefore taught her an invocatory spell, saying to her, lo “Through the radiance of those celestials whom you invoke by this spell, you will obtain progeny.”
After a while the virtuous Kunti out of curiosity tried the spell and invoked the sun god. That brilliant deity the Sun, who sees everything in the world, immediately appeared before her, and the beautiful Kunti was i5 overcome by astonishment at this wondrous sight. The light of the universe, the Sun, got her with child. Thus was born the hero of divine ancestry, known all over the world by the name of Kama, the foremost of warriors. He was born wearing armour and earrings. Thereafter the Sun restored Kunti’s maidenhood and returned to heaven. 20
Afraid of her friends and relatives, Kunti resolved to hide her transgression. She accordingly threw her handsome son into the river, from which he was rescued by a charioteer. He and his wife Radha brought up the infant as their own son, giving him the name of Vasusena, because he was endowed with wealth even at birth, namely armour and earrings. Vasusena 25 grew up to be very strong and energetic, and adept in the use of all weapons. He used to worship the Sun until the afternoon sun scorched his back. When he was thus engaged in worship, the heroic, truthful, and high-souled Vasusena would give away to the Brahmanas anything on earth which they requested of him. 30
Once Indra, the protector of all living things, came to him for alms, adopting the guise of a Brahmana, and asked him for his armour and the earrings. Perplexed though he was at Indra’s request, he cut off the armour from his body, and also his earrings from his ears, and gave them, dripping with blood, to Indra with joined hands. Greatly surprised at his generosity, 35 Indra gave him the Sakti weapon, saying, “Be your foe a celestial, asura, human being, Gandharva, Naga, or Raksasa, if you hurl this missile at him, it will certainly kill him.” The son of Surya, who till then was known by the name of Vasusena, came to be called Kama [the cutter] after this act of unequalled generosity. 40
(C. V. Narasimhan, trans.. The Mahabharata, VIII, pp. 19-20.)
World History
