Note 62 — CHAPTER 6

Ku is a mere prefix, meaning ‘evil’; ‘the evil striker (Mar).’ Hence, probably, the Mars of Rome. The birth of Kumar, the general of the army of the gods, with the Hindus, is exactly that of the Grecians, born of the goddess Jahnavi (Juno) without sexual intercourse. Kumāra is always accompanied by the peacock, the bird of Juno. [Kumāra probably means ‘easily dying’; there is no connexion with Mars, originally a deity of vegetation.]