The story of Damana and Madana is among the most defining, crucial, and insightful in all our story systems–and yet we all only know one part of it, from the Kamadahana. The part we don’t know has a little plant playing a protagonist’s role: this is damana, colloquially called davanam, மரிக்கொழுந்து (marikozhunthu), or “tender shoot,” with the spell-binding fragrance of old oranges. This is Artemisia Pallens in the South, though in other regions different Artemisia species are classed as “damana.”

This video puts the rest of the story together from 11th century paddhatis (which made a festival called the “Damanotsavam” popular in its day) and several other text sources. In Saiva tellings, Damana is a Bhairava who burns Kamadeva, and becomes damana, the plant. The Vaishnavakhanda of the Skandapurana has a water demon called Damanaka caught by Vishnu as Matsya, brought to shore and there thrashed to a grass. But then: भगवत्करसंपर्कात्सुगंधिरभवत्तृणम्, through contact with the hands of the Blessed One, the blade of grass became fragrant. Vishnu fashions a garland of this grass, and places it on his chest, where it meets the other garlands of forest flowers–and where its scent can endure for as long as it there remains:

मालां कृत्वा हृत्प्रदेश मिलितं वनमालया ।

अचिंतयत्तस्य गंधं यावद्वस्तु चिरस्थितम् ॥

Those who know damana know how long its fragrance lingers, even after it is dried.

In Srividya traditions, a different demon emerges from Kamadeva’s ashes, Bhandasura, an egotistical, chaos-causing force of separation who must be vanquished by Lalita Tripurasundari. But even then Kamadeva is resurrected by Her “whose supreme sidelong glances are like a shower of nectar,” सुधासार-कटाक्ष-वीक्षण-परं, कामस्य सञ्जीवनम्।

The first video tells the stories, the next one reflects on their meaning. Wait for it.

The images used in this video are lithographs and paintings from the 1800s, and a few AI-generated ones to help us fill blanks.