By Swami Harshananda
Rati literally means ‘one who gives enjoyment or pleasure’.
One of the specialties or peculiarities of the religion is that every aspect of life, good or not-so-good, is deified or has a presiding deity or spirit. If kāma or desire in general and sexual love in particular has been deified as Kāmadeva,[1] his feminine counterpart or consort is Rati.
The purāṇas describe her as one of the daughters of Dakṣa-prajāpati and married to Kāma, son of another Prajāpati, called Dharma. Prīti is her co-wife. In sculptures and paintings, she is shown in the company of Kāma or Manmatha. When sculptured independently she is shown as exceedingly beautiful, bedecked with several jewels and ornaments and in a dancing pose. She may also be shown as riding a parrot, holding in her two hands the sugarcane stalk as the bow and five kinds of flower-darts. Other objects shown in her hands are:
- Vīṇā - lute
- Daṇḍa - staff
- Akṣasutra - rosary
According to the Bhāgavata[2] and the Viṣṇupurāṇa,[3] she was reborn as Māyāvatī, a wife of the demon Sambara but was reunited with her husband Manmatha, now reborn as Pradyumna, the son of Kṛṣṇa and Rukmiṇī.
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore