Indian name Kamala associated with several deities

Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris became a presence on the national scene, her name – a common one for women in India – has attracted a lot of attention, most specifically for its pronunciation.

The three-syllable word should be pronounced “Come-a-laa” (Kamalā), with the final long “a” signaling a feminine noun in Sanskrit. In the United States, it is often enunciated with stresses placed on the first or second syllable.

However, the pronunciation of “Kamala” is the least interesting thing about this lovely name, which is only one of many words in Sanskrit for the radiant, fragrant, large-petaled pink lotus, or Nelumbo nucifera, that is ubiquitous in the Indian subcontinent. As a scholar of South Indian religions, I’d like to explain the deep symbolism and the many meanings of the kamala, or lotus, which are shared by different faith traditions in the subcontinent.

The ‘kamala’ in Indian literature

In many Indian love poems, the wide, shapely eyes of beautiful women are compared to the lotus, while in devotional poetry it is the God’s eyes that invite the comparison.

The simile is not confined just to the eyes but can be used to praise the beauty, softness and radiance of a lover’s or the divine’s face, feet or hands. The ninth-century Tamil poet, Nammalvar, in his magnum opus, the “Tiruvaymoli,” uses the simile to describe the beauty of the god Vishnu:

In some cases, love, whether mystical or human, is described as a lotus that blooms in the day, responding to the warmth and brightness of the sun. At night, the lotus closes its petals, much as one might withdraw in the absence of the beloved. Equally, the lotus can be evocative of desire and intimacy, drawing a bee to drink from its nectar.

The lotus, as whole