KALUGA, the chief town of the above government, situated on the left
bank of the Oka, 117 m. S.W. of Moscow by rail, in 54 deg. 31' N. and 36
deg. 6' E. Pop. (1870), 36,880; (1897) 49,728. It is the see of a Greek
Orthodox bishop. The public buildings include the cathedral of the
Trinity (rebuilt in the 19th century in place of an older edifice dating
from 1687), two monastic establishments, an ecclesiastical seminary, and
a lunatic asylum. The principal articles of industrial production are
leather, oil, bast mats, wax candles, starch and Kaluga cakes. The first
historical mention of Kaluga occurs in 1389; its incorporation with the
principality of Moscow took place in 1518. In 1607 it was held by the
second false Demetrius and vainly besieged for four months by the forces
of Shuisky, who had ascended the Russian throne as Basil IV. on the
death of the first false Demetrius. In 1619 Kaluga fell into the hands
of the hetman or chief of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. Later two-thirds of
its inhabitants were carried off by a plague; and in 1622 the whole
place was laid waste by a conflagration. It recovered, however, in spite
of several other conflagrations (especially in 1742 and 1754). On
several occasions Kaluga was the residence of political prisoners; among
others Shamyl, the Lesghian chief, spent his exile there (1859-1870).
KALYAN, a town of British India, in the Thana district of Bombay,
situated 33 m. N.E. of Bombay city, where the two main lines of the
Great Indian Peninsula railway diverge. Pop. (1901), 10,749. There is a
considerable industry of rice-husking. Kalyan is known to have been the
capital of a kingdom and a centre of sea-borne commerce in the early
centuries of the Christian era. The oldest remains now existing are of
Mahommedan times.
KAMA, or KAMADEVA, in Hindu mythology, the god of love. He is variously
stated to have been the child of Brahma or Dharma (virtue). In the _Rig
Veda_, Kama (desire) is described as the first movement that arose in
the One after it had come into life through the power of fervour or
abstraction. In the Atharva-Veda Kama does not mean sexual desire, but
rather the yearning after the good of all created things. Later Kama is
simply the Hindu Cupid. While attempting to lure Siva to sin, he was
destroyed by a fiery glance of the goddess' third eye. Thus in Hindu
poetry Kama is known as Ananga, the "bodiless god." Kama's wife Rati
(voluptuousness) mourned him so greatly that Siva relented, and he was
reborn as the child of Krishna and Rukmini. The babe was called
Pradyumna (Cupid). He is represented armed with a bow of sugar-cane; it
is strung with bees, and its five arrows are tipped with flowers which
overcome the five senses. A fish adorns his flag, and he rides a parrot
or sparrow, emblematic of lubricity.
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