another class assignment, 4,000ish words. I warn you.
KAMAthe biggest skank ever. also described as ‘easy’. Likely to have sipphilus.
i.e. That girl kama has slep with every guy in Georgia.
Tags: slut skank whore tramp hoe. (www.urbandictionary.com).
I once read a book about linguistics that claimed “Words do not have any ‘real’ meaning as opposed to other, ‘false’ meanings. Any meaning people give to a word is automatically its ‘real’ meaning under those circumstances,” (Hall, Robert A.) Personally, I put full stock in this idea. So I shall embrace this particular definition of the word. However, I have chosen to dedicate myself to a more widely accepted and utilized province of the lexeme. Just as I also chose to contribute to the website by- how should I say? - editing, its former definition
Kama sounds like Comma, and looks like Karma. More testing of my patience than the annoyance of having to repeat myself three times after being asked what my word is, and whereupon recognition of the word is finally reached, having to defend myself against unspoken low opinions regarding my propriety, was the frustration of overcoming a language barrier in finding certain pieces of the puzzle of writing this paper. Kama is Sanskrit, which to my uneducated eyes, looked at first something like Arabic, a language defined by as “n. An ancient Indic language of Hinduism and the Vedas and is the classical literary language of India [sanskrta- perfect, refined :sam=together + karoti=he makes, see,]” (Webster’s). The fact that the word kama is not exactly English lent to all sorts of complications- surprisingly, Shakespeare hasn’t been translated into Sanskrit! Luckily for me, all of the Vedas- loosely, the equivalent of the Bible to Christianity, but divided into four books and told in a manner similar to Greek mythology- in print had the Sanskrit text, the literal translation of each word, a sentence structured English translation, and an analysis with suggestions for interpretation to go with each and every single verse. I thought I might bypass the hazards of investigation, as it would no doubt require me to do an awful lot of page turning, with the use of a friendly web-sit,e Wikipedia. I realized quickly that going through all of the links (
Kama, a Hindu god, the God of Love, son of Lakshmi; Kama, the Sanskrit and Pali word for “sensuality”; the kama River, a tributary of the Volga river, in Russia; Kama, Fukuoka, a city in Japan; Kama(weapon), sickle-like weapons, often wielded in both hands, that evolved from tools used ofr cutting weeds in Japan; Kama, name of straight bladed, double edged daggers in Turkey; Kama, Estonian food; Charles Wright, Wrestler who performed as Kama; Kama, iron pots used to heat water in Japanese tea ceremonies; Kama Tarkham, legendary leader of the Huns; and Panzertruppenschule Kama, a secret Soviet-German military research training facility) would be even less enjoyable, and more likely less reliable than old-fashioned book sifting. This made for extremely tedious research and many paper cuts, but much more knowledge gained about my religion-of-choice.
The search for the perfect definition yielded some interesting results, as can be seen if you reread the introduction. The better definitions were the following: Kama is, in the Rig-Veda (x.129), “the personification of that feeling which leads and propels to creation. He was the first movement that stirred in the One, after its manifestation from the purely abstract principle, to create. ‘Desire first arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind; and which sages, searching with their intellect, have discovered to be the bond which connects Entity with Non-Entity;’” and The Sanskrit Documents website pseudo-definition,
kAma m. wish, desire, longing(Pa1n2.3-3, 153); desire for, longing after,; love affection ,object of desire or of love or of pleasure(RV., VS., TS., AV. MBh., R.); pleasure, enjoyment; love, especially love or sensuality; Love or Desire personified(AV. Ix; xii; xix(RV. x.129.4); N. of the god of desire(AV. iii.25.1) represented as the son of Dharma and husband of Rati(MBh.1,2596), or as a son of Brahma, or sometimes of Samkalpa(BHm.i.6.10); cf. KamaDeva; N. of Agni(SV.ii.8.2/19.3, AV., TS.) of Vishnu, of Baladeva. L. a stake in gambling; a species of mango tree; N. of a metre consisiting of four lines of two long syllables each; a kind of bean; L. a particular form of temple cat; N. of several men; of a daughter of Prithusrava and wife of Ayutanayin(MBh.i, 3774); N. object of desire; L. semen virile; N. of a Tirtha(MBh.iii,5047); ind. out of affection or love for; according to desire, agreeably to the wishes of, out of love for(RV., AV., TS.); ind. for one’s own pleasure, of one’s free will, of one’s own accord, willingly, intentionally(R.); wishing, desiring(RV.ix.113.11); desirous if, desiring, having a desire or intention; frequently with; enjoyment of the body, desire for bodily pleasure; all such desires that come across in the life of us, the whole range of desires.
The worser definition was belonging to Foreign Words and Phrases with: kama (kahma) Sanskrit [love] noun love.
Undeniably better in the aid of understanding a word, I believe, is the consultation of a thesaurus. My favourite had this to say about kama as a lowercased, regular noun:
(seven principles of man. Theosophy) spirit, atman; mind, manas; soul, buddhi; life principle, vital force, prana; astral body, lingra sharira; physical or dense or gross body, sthula sharira; principle of desire, kama. (Roget’s).
When capitalized, kama became Kama;
(Hindu deities) Aditi, Agni, Aryaman, Asapurna, Avokolita or Avalokitesvara, Bhaga, Bhairava, Brahma, Brihaspati, Chitagupta, Daksha, Devaki, Dharma, Dyaus, Ganesa or Ganesha or Ganapati, Garuda, Himavat, Hanuman, Indra, Ka, Kala, Kama, Kamsa, Kartikkeyea, Marut, Mitra, Parjaynam, Pushan, Rahu, Rhibhusm Rudra, Savitar, Shiva, Sita, Soma, Surya, Vaja, Varuna, Varuni, vayu, Vibhu, Vishnu, Yama, Dharti Mai, Bhudevi; Devi, Bhairavi, chandi, Durga, Gauri, Jjaganmati, Kali, Parvati, Uma; Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Ushas,; Asvins.(Roget’s).
(gods) Love, Cupid, Amor, Eros, Kama; (goddesses) Venus, Aphrodite, Astarte, Freya.(Roget’s).
While Roget’s International Thesaurus provided related words and such, actual synonyms were only to be found from an online source. Kama-Deva, as the personification of the word, has a great many nicknames it seems. I have deigned to only write the meanings of these monikers, and they are: self-existent, beautiful, wanton, eager, water-born, inciting, diverting, love-god, satisfier, appeaser, enslaving, son of Krishna, desirous, happy, flower-armed, drunk(with love), destroyer, crocodile-banner, agitator, mind-produced, honey-lamp, bewildered, crackling(like a fire), dalliance passion-stalk, lover of women, gladdener, ender of peace, rememberer, fire, and handsome(Benjamin Walker.)
It became apparent after hours of research that the meaning of kama has some serious religious upbringing. Scriptures of Hinduism have shaped the way the word is used crucially. During my voyage to éclaircissement, use of Sruti (collective term for all of the Vedas. Also, Samhita.) has rendered the books to be quite like fantastic oars across the sea of interpretation… ackhem. First and foremost among the texts revered in Hinduism is the Rig-Veda (RV.) because it was the earliest and the others are more or less based upon it. There are four altogether, however, following the Rig-Veda chronologically is the Yajur-Veda (YV.), the Sama-Veda (SV.), and the Atharva-Veda (AV.) Next in importance are texts Brahmanas (BHm.) and the Upanishads (U.). These are often thought of as commentary to Sruti. This verse(AV.xix.52):
Sraddhalur mat-kathah srnvan
Su-bhadra loka-pavanih
Gayann anusmaran karma
Janma cabhinayan muhuh //
//Mad-arthe dharma-kamarthan
Acaran mad-apasrayah
Labhate niscalam bhaktim
May addhava sanatane
translates literally to:
a faithful person narrations about Me hearing
Which are all-auspicious the entire world
Purifying singing remembering constantly My activities
My birth also reliving through dramatical performances, etc. again and again//
//For My pleasure religious activities sense activities and commercial activities
Performing in Me having one’s shelter
One obtains without deviation devotional service
To Me O Uddhava dedicated to my eternal form.
With grammar:
My dear Uddhava, narrations of My pastimes and qualities are all-auspicious and purify the entire universe. A faithful person who constantly hears, glorifies and remembers such transcendental activities, who through dramatic performances relives My pastimes, beginning with My appearance, and who takes full shelter of Me, dedicating his religious, sensual, and occupational activities for My satisfaction, certainly obtains unflinching devotional service to Me, the eternal Personality of Godhead.
Not to fear though, each and every one of
the twenty something volumes of the Vedas in the rolling shelves of the deep, dark FLITE[the university library] basement also has a purport. About the use of kama in this context it says quite simply, “The word kama indicates that one should satisfy one’s desires with the transcendental paraphernalia of the Lord,” and it goes on to list what is considered acceptable, remedies, etc.
Another verse (AV.ix.2) says this about kama, which is in its driest form, sense activities.
Gaty-ukty-utsargopadanam
Ananda-sparsa-laksanam
Asvada-sruly-avadhranam
Aham sarvendriyendriyam
Which, slipping to the coherent translation, says:
I am the functions of the five working senses- the legs, speech, anus, hands and sex organs- as well as those of the five knowledge acquiring senses- touch, sight, taste, hearing, and smell. I am also the potency by which each of the senses experiences its particular sense object.
Because the Upanishads are inarguably the best commentary yet on the Vedas, I find these verses (U.I.iii.4-6) adequate supplements to the previous statement of The Lord’s Opulence:
The senses, they say, are the horses; the objects, the roads. The wise call the atman- united with the body, the senses, and the mind- the enjoyer.//
//The five organs of perception and the five organs of action are compared of horses because they draw the body hither and thither.//
//The natural tendency of a horse is to run wild; but it can be trained and brought under the charioteer’s control through reins firmly held with his hands. The senses, too, are naturally impetuous; but they can be trained and controlled by the discriminating buddhi through a one-pointed mind.
Taken together, the Atharva-Veda and Upanishad advocate kama as more than just ‘desire’ or ‘love,’ but the means by which desire is fulfilled and love is sought.
Among the texts of the Atharva-Veda is the avow that “just as in its cosmic activities and relations, kama is both a superior and inferior activity; indeed, it may be said to be divine in its higher aspects, just as it is physical in its lowest fields of action,”(www.experiencefestival.org.) Therefore, in one context kama may mean only sexual passion, but in another context it will mean all desire for the satisfaction of the self, including the desire for nirvana, and Godhead (Krsnadasa Kaviraja). When dealing with satisfaction, and the desire of it, there is a sort of antonym to kama, that is, prema. Prema entails desires to satisfying another, perhaps a lover or Brahma, while kama is the desire for the satisfaction of one’s own self. Often, I have found, kama is looked upon negatively, as being a selfish wish, and prema as being pure and more natural. In this way, kama and prema are distinctions between the higher and lower activities of all that kama encompasses.
“It is love rather than sexual lust or unbridled sexuality if, in addition to the need or want involved, there is also some impulse to give pleasure to the persons thus loved and not merely to use them for one’s own selfish pleasure.” – Mortimer Adler. The man of the matter was an illustrious Aristotelian philosopher from New York, New York. Well, maybe illustrious is a bit of a stretch as I’ve never heard of him, but I don’t think it really matters in this case. I couldn’t have hoped to find a better example of the aforementioned kama/prema idea. Here, Adler has, perhaps unknowingly, defined the two in layman’s terms. I’m not sure if I can discern any grandiloquence from that quote, as it is quite comprehensible as anything could ever be, which makes for a startlingly short paragraph compared to the others!
Oh, but that is not at all it! There is a god, as was mentioned somewhere above, that stands as the personification of kama, called Kama-Deva, or just Kama. The Rig-Veda says that upon the birth of the universe, desire was the first feeling born in it. The Atharva-Veda embellishes it as Kama-Deva, the creator. He is the son of Dharma and of Sraddha, or sometimes the son of Lakshmi, or of Brahma, or born of water. In any and all cases he is the wife of Rati(passion), who holds the mirror of wantonness. Kama-Deva is depicted riding a cuckoo bird or parrot while surrounded by celestial nymphs. He holds a bow of sugar cane with a string of honeybees and he shoots flower-arrows, usually five to signify the five senses, that will penetrate any heart, and fill the punctured organ with love and desire.
Déjà-vu? Probably. I contribute the dilapidation of the word to the proper noun’s uncanny resemblance to Cupid. It’s a shame, really. It felt like, for all I was worth, I could not find anything- don’t get me started on poetry!- that didn’t use kama in a steamy, romantic, often graphic manner. It is my idea that to only use kama in the romantic, graphic sense is superficial and a little stupid. Kama is a multi-faceted gem of a word! Surely, a writer would take the time to know that before using it, instead of throwing it in the mix because it fits the exotic/erotic tone of their…piece. Not to be outdone, however, I did flit across a rather, how should I say, open-minded poetry website to find a beautiful, shockingly non-amateur, poem that isn’t exactly a poem by one W.B. Yeats. The poem/duet acting scene in question is entitled Anashuya and Vijaya. Imagine my joy at having discovered something written by a credible author! The poem is the dialogue of a jealous young priestess, Anashuya, and her lover, Vijaya, who meet in a temple and discover their…compatibility. In short they converse and at one point Vijaya says:
The hour when Kama, full of sleepy laughter,
Rises, and showers abroad his fragrant arrows,
Peircing the twilight with their murmuring barbs.
Then a flock of ancient flamingos come by and steal Anashuya’s rice and she asks Vijaya to chase him away. He does, and when he leaves Anashuya appeals to Kama-Deva to send Vijaya in sleep dreams of her. Yeats has done his research, the fact that the temple is located very closely to running water is highly symbolic if one accepts that Kama is water-born. There is also the fact that the temple in the poem is a temple of Brahma, who is in other legends, the father of Kama.
Back to my loathing of persons who talk and employ words that which they do not know the meaning of! I suppose I cannot be all that hateful, I do realize that not everyone has done such a lengthy research of the word. Just because these people do not know the scope of delitescence kama includes does not mean their lexicon should be deprived of it. Who could blame them at any rate? If one is at all familiar with the word kama, I am willing to bet it is due to their quasi-exposure to the famous, or infamous if you rather, Kama Sutra. True, the bulk of the book is a detailed account of instructions on how to be an effective lover, but more importantly, the Kama Sutra is a priority. The original Kama Sutra was translated by Sir Richard Francis Burton, with the help of his collaborator, Aruthnot. It was published by The Kama Shastra Society in 1883, meant for private circulation, only it was leaked and published in Paris and Brussels soon after (Edward Rice). This can be seen as both fortunate and unfortunate, for without the pirating the world may never have been introduced to the work, but also unfortunate in that many versions of the Kama Sutra were then made, some omitting the foreword and other parts, only publishing pictures and descriptions, etc. The intended purpose of the Kama Sutra was not to be a book of more effectual techniques of sex, but to be a guide in living one’s life. There is firmness in the importance of fore and after play, kissing, marking, and all those little things that are just as important in lovemaking as the actual act of fornication. Interestingly, and perhaps a little rebelliously- feminists take note- the Kama Sutra stated that men and women were equal in love, quite revolutionary for the times. On the other hand, inarguably most imperative in the text is the constant credence. In Hinduism, there are four main “goals” of the soul. Collectively, they are called Purusharthas. The first is Dharma, meaning virtuous living; the second is Artha, which is material prosperity; the third is Kama, being aesthetic and erotic pleasure; the fourth is Moksha, or liberation of the cycle of rebirth (www.hinduwebsite.com). The Kama Sutra plainly states:
Kama is the enjoyment of appropriate objects by the five senses of hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting and smelling, assisted by the mind together with the soul. The ingredient in this is a peculiar contact between the organ of sense and its object, and the consciousness of pleasure which arises from that contact is called Kama. Kama is to be learnt from the Kama Sutra (aphorisms on love) and from the practice of citizens. When all three, Dharma, Artha and Kama, come together, the former is better than the one which follows it, i.e. Dharma is better than Artha, and Artha is better than Kama…
(It should be mentioned that it is my belief that the Kama Sutra is and inspiring spiritual text, because the truth about love and lovemaking is that it is, and has been, a worldwide spiritual phenomenon. Seen the Dead Poets Society, anyone? For this reason, I have chosen to use the Kama Sutra as one of my eight sources in place of The Oxford English Dictionary, as unfortunately, my word was not there.)
Which- are you still reading this? Good (you know you’re flirting with lunacy when you start addressing your readers directly in the paper.)- brings me to an article from The Independent; of Sunday, May 7th, 2006, by Ray Smith.
The Kama Sutra can be read, first, as an antidote to shame. It celebrates carnality, making it a part of life to be seen in the clear light of day… Sex is unadulterated pleasure when you enter the world of the Kama Sutra. The sexual organs are called ‘the organs of pleasure.’ As such they are not considered shameful, any more than the tongue is shameful because it brings the delights of eating.
I have to restrain myself now, because I want to just copy the whole article for the reader’s reading. I shant. I shall bestow another snippet of the article on the paper.
The whole history of the romantic novel is written in those few observations. If you smile at the notion that sexual desire can make someone grow sick and die, you may be correct medically, but millions have wept over the death of Catherine Earnshaw pining for Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, not to mention a thousand nights languishing for love in medieval romances.
Well said, Mr. Ray. I can attest to the legitimacy of this statement, because I am founder of the Dirty Romance Novel Club (questions, ask later.) I cannot count how many smut books I’ve read that have shown this to be spot on. In other articles; there was one from the Chicago Sun-Times, which was in essence a review, and not a happy one, I might add. It was a criticism of a musical called “Kama Sutra: The Musical.” Sorry as I am, I’m afraid I will not be elaborating on it, as it isn’t necessary and I’ve got other things to write about…
Like kama. Oh, good idea! Well, I wasn’t lying earlier when I said Shakespeare hasn’t been translated into Sanskrit. Seeing as that is how it is in the world, isn’t it lucky that the two largest epic poems in the world are both written in this elusive language? To give one an idea of the immensity of these, consider this: The Bible contains 35,000, The Odyssey and The Iliad combined contain only a meager 27,803 verses, while the Mahabharata contains 90,000 verses, and the Ramayana has 25,000. I love Shakespeare- “Something is rotten in the State of Denmark!”- But the Mahabharata and Ramayana make the lot of his work look scanty. It can be said that the Ramayana is The Iliad of India, respectively. It is a story of the wanderings and adventures of a prince banished from his country. I has been alleged of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata collectively that they “present us with the most graphic and lifelike picture that exists of the civilization and culture, the political and social life, the religion and thought of ancient India.”(Ramayana Epilogue.) The Purusharthas are significantly developed in the two epics, therefore it can be inferred that kama is a huge overtone in both of them. The Ramayana boasts a character of the name Kama, who appears alongside the hero, Rama. There are two prominent instances of the Purusharthas being defined in the Ramayana. The first is when Bharat came to a forest to meet Rama. Rama then asked him whether or not he followed the rules of the purusharthas properly. In the Ramayana, Rama defined them, roughly, in this manner: Artha should not interfere with Dharma and vice versa. Similarly Kama should not interfere with either Dharma or with Artha. Dharma means the duties and welfare one does for society. Artha means earnings (here it is advised that tax should not be more than 16% of a person’s income), Kama means pleasure. One is allowed to have pleasure, but without affecting the duties and earnings. The second instance of definition is when Kumbhakara, Ravana’s brother, advises Ravana that one should use Dharma in the morning, Artha in the daytime, and Kama at night. He further says to Ravana that he is busy with Kama all of the time and this will take him to destruction. Perhaps contradictorily, one of Ravana’s minister reprimands Kumbhakarna for not paying attention to proper balance of the Purusharthas, and to please his master says that a King may enjoy Kama at any time. Surely, one can perceive the likeness of the forward from the Kama Sutra.
So, with all that said, all sources contemplated, this is the part where I tell about how much writing this paper has enlightened me, how I am going to be an advocate for the proper use of language, how much I love doing MLA format research papers, how I’ve come to enjoy being in tight spaces with the constant threat of being squished, and how I know I will absolutely adore making thousands of tiny marks on this paper after I print it. In all seriousness, I did enjoy writing this paper. I started out with a vague idea of what I thought the word kama meant, and I have finished knowing what it can mean. Kama is the accumulation of the senses and the derivation of pleasure from them, kama is need and want and desire of pleasure. Kama is extraordinary in that it is shared between all bodily entities, the focus of humanity.
There was a man, W. Somerset Maugham, who said in his book, Of Human Bondage, “Men seek but one thing in life- their pleasure.” With kama in mind, I could not agree more. There was another man, Bertrand Russell, who said, “There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.”
And, with this paper in mind, well, obviously I agree with him too.
Works CitedBurton, Sir Richard F. Kama Sutra. Kama Shastra Society, 1876.
The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana. Dec.-Jan. 2007
.
Hall, Robert A. Linguistics and Your Language. 2nd ed. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1960. 6.
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"Kama." Roget's International Thesaurus. 4th ed. 1977.
"Kama." Urban Dictionary. 6 Dec. 2006. Dec.-Jan. 2007 http://www.urbandictionary.com.
Kaviraja, Krsnadasa. Caitanya Caitamrta of Krsnadasa Kaviraja. Vol. 56. Cambridge: Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University, 1999.
Kumar, Animesh, comp. "Acquiring Dharma, Artha, and Kama." Sanskrit Documents. 24 Mar. 2007. Dec.-Jan. 2007 .
Manser, Martin H. Foreign Words and Phrases. Facts on File, Inc., 2002. 212.
Niteowlneils. "Kama." Wikipedia. 26 Jan. 2005. Dec.-Jan. 2007 .
Rice, Edward. Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1990. 444-447.
Russel, Bertrand, and Somerset W. Maugham. "Quotation Search." Quotations Page. Dec.-Jan. 2007 .
V, Jayaram. "Purusharthas or the Four Aims of Life." Hindu Website. Dec.-Jan. 2007 .
Walker, Benjamin. Hindu World: an Encyclopedic Survey of Hinduism. Vol. 1. London: Allen & Unwin, 1913. 514-515.
Yeats, William B. "William Butler Yeats." Poetry Hunter. Dec.-Jan. 2007 .
