Ananga Trayodaśī 1908

Ananga Trayodaśī honours Lord Kāmadeva, the god of love, under his name Ananga (“the bodiless one”), a name he carries after Lord Śiva reduced his physical form to ash. The observance is kept on Chaitra Śukla Trayodaśī.

According to the Puranic legend, the Devas, threatened by the demon Tārakāsura (who could only be defeated by a son born of Lord Śiva), sent Kāmadeva to rouse Śiva from his deep meditation in the Himalayas so that he might turn toward Pārvatī. Kāmadeva took aim and loosed his flower-arrow at Śiva. Śiva, disturbed in his tapas, opened his third eye in anger, and its fire reduced Kāmadeva's physical body to ash on the spot, hence his name Ananga, “without a body.”

Kāmadeva's wife Rati was left grief-stricken, and through her devotion and penance, sought Śiva's mercy. Moved by her sorrow, Śiva granted that Kāma would continue to exist, formless, pervading the world as the very force of love and desire, even without a physical body. Ananga Trayodaśī's worship of Kāmadeva and Rati in this bodiless form is traditionally associated with marital harmony and conjugal happiness.