Kāma (Skt., kam, ‘desire’). Love, sexual pleasure, personified as the Hindu god of love. Kāma, erotic and aesthetic expression, is the third Hindu end of life (artha), traditionally categorized as preya (pleasant) rather than śreya (good); but in Mahābhārata 12. 167, kāma is the source of both artha and dharma, because without kāma, humans do not strive for anything. See also KĀMAŚĀSTRA.

In Buddhism, kāma is a major obstacle to progress toward enlightenment. It belongs to the lowest of the three domains (triloka), the domain of desire (kāmaloka). It is one of the five hindrances (nīvaraṇas) and one of the defilements, āsrava (see ĀSAVA).

Kama the Hindu god of love, typically represented as a youth with a bowl of sugar cane, a bowstring of bees, and arrows of flowers.

Kama See KAZANIAN.