# Murugan

In Hinduism, Kartikeya or principally Skanda (but also Subrahmanya, Kumara, Arumukha, Shanmukha, Murugan, Guha, Saravana, Svaminatha, Velan, Velavan, Senthil, Mayuresha) is a god born out of a magical spark created by Shiva and Parvati. The name Kartikeya means "the one of the Pleiades". There are several legends surrounding his birth.

## Origins

In the Hindu epics, the first elaborate account of Kartikeya's origin occurs in the Mahabharata. In this Sanskrit epic, Kartikeya was born of Agni and Svaha, after the latter impersonated the six of the seven wives of the Saptarshi except Arundhati, the wife of Vasishtha because of her and his chastity by taking their forms and mated with the former. The actual six wives then become the Pleiades.
Kartikeya was born to kill the asura Mahishasura (In latter mythology, Mahishasura became the adversary of Parvati as Durga and gets killed by her). Indra attacks Kartikeya as he sees the latter as a threat to his position as the king of Svarga, until Shiva and Parvati intervene and makes Kartikeya the commander-in-chief of the army of the devas and devis.
He is also married to Devasena - Indra and Shachi's daughter. The name of Kartikeya that emerged from this marriage is Devasenapati. It means the husband of Devasena. The Ramayana version is closer to the stories told in the Puranas discussed below.

#### An another story related to Kartikeya's birth

After the two are married, they depart to Mount Kailasha, Shiva and Parvati's favorite dwelling place, and immerse themselves completely in sexual dalliance, which continues uninterruptedly for long periods of time. The love god Kamadeva is resuscitated when Shiva and Parvati embrace and the sweat from his body and her body mingles with the ashes of the burned god who was burned because he disturbed their mating in secret with his flower arrow.
Their lovemaking is so intense, that it shakes the cosmos and the gods and goddesses become frightened. They are frightened at the prospect of what a child will be like from the union of two such potent deities. They fear the child's extraordinary powers. They thus plan to interrupt Shiva and Parvati's lovemaking. Vishnu goes with his entourage of gods and goddesses to Mount Kailasha and waits patiently outside the quarters of Shiva and Parvati. Many years passed and yet Shiva remained closeted with Parvati. Vishnu spoke in a shrill and plaintive voice and entreated Shiva and Parvati to come out and listen to their problem. When Shiva and Parvati disregarded this, Agni, the god of fire, disguised himself as a pigeon and entered the bedchamber of Shiva and Parvati. Parvati immediately sensed that her privacy was violated. Shiva withdrew and a drop of his semen and her eggs fell on the ground. Agni in the form of the dove, ate the two drops of semen and eggs. Parvati and Shiva, however, were disturbed and angry that the gods and goddesses had assembled and interrupted her and his erotic pleasures, and cursed them that all their wives and husbands would be barren until Tarakasura was killed by their son. She and he was particularly enraged at Agni for having eaten the seeds of Shiva and Parvati.
When Agni was unable to bear the fiery seeds's heat, he went to the banks of the Ganga. At that moment, the seven wives of the Saptarshi had come down to bathe. Six of the wives felt cold and went towards Agni. Agni dropped the fertilized seed and the fertile seed entered the six wives and they became pregnant. When the six sages found this out, they admonished their wives, who placed the embryo on one of the peaks of the Himalayas. Thus was born Kartikeya, a lustrous boy with six heads. Shiva and Parvati were delighted at the birth of their son and it added much joy to Parvati and Shiva who had longed for a child. We now hear that her and his breasts oozed milk and sweat resoectively in affection when she and he first saw the boy.

### In the Hindu Puranas

Though slightly varying versions occur in the Puranas, they broadly follow the same pattern. (By this period, the identification of Shiva (Rudra) with Agni and Parvati (Rudrani) as Svaha, that can be traced back to the Vedas and Brahmanas, had clearly made Kartikeya, the son of Shiva and Parvati.)
The Skanda Purana narrates that Shiva, was married earlier to an incarnation of Parvati named Dakshayani (also known as Sati), the granddaughter of Brahma and Sarasvati, and the daughter of Daksha and Asikini. Daksha never liked Shiva because he was the god of destruction (Shiva begs for food from all people, lives in all graveyards being covered with the ashes of all dead people, because of him being the destroyer god, he has no possessions, not even good clothes for himself, symbolising his detachment from material things but are disliked by Daksha because of him being the destroyer of the entire universe and he, being the creator god of this universe in his opposite role, so making both of them as incompatible gods) and insults Shiva in front of Dakshayani in the Daksha yajna, calling him as the destroyer of the 14 worlds. Dakshayani self-immolates herself in the Vedi and kills herself because she was unable to bear the humiliation. Having thus incurred Shiva and Parvati's lawful wrath, the Yajna is destroyed even though it was protected by all the other gods and goddesses and rishis. Thus, Tarakasura, after getting a boon from Brahma that only the son of Shiva and Parvati can kill him, believed that, since Shiva and Parvati were two ascetics and their earlier marriage was itself conducted with great difficulty, their remarriage was out of the question, hence his boon of being killed by Shiva and Parvati's son alone would give him invincibility.
The devas and devis do to get Shiva married to Parvati (who is Dakshayani in her true form) by having Kamadeva (also known as Manmatha), the god of love, awaken him and her from his and her penance, incurring his and her wrath by opening his and her third eyes and emnating fires from there off, and Kamadeva getting burned to ashes and being resurrected by them through their sweats while hugging during mating later. Shiva and Parvati hand over the effulgence of their third eyes used to burn Kamadeva to ashes and ressurect him to Agni, as he alone is capable of handling it till it becomes the desired offspring because he is the fire god. But even Agni, burned by its heat, hands it over to Ganga who in turn deposits it in a lake in a forest of reeds (Sara). The boy is finally born in this forest (Vana) with six faces. He is first spotted and cared for by six women who are the Pleiades - Krittikas in Sanskrit. He thus gets named Kartikeya. As having the form of a seven year old boy, he kills Tarakasura. As the doer of this thing as the youthful saviour of the devas and devis by killing Tarakasura, he is called Kumara (the youthful one in Sanskrit).

### In Sanskrit literature

The birth of Kartikeya is treated in great detail by Kalidasa in one of the greatest Sanskrit epics - Kumarasambhava. The story here is essentially same as the one found in the Sanskrit Puranas.

## The adoration of Kartikeya in the Indian subcontinent

Historically, Kartikeya enjoyed immense popularity in the Indian subcontinent. One of the major Puranas, the Skanda Purana is dedicated to him. In the Bhagavad-Gita (Ch.10, Verse 24), Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, explaining his omnipresence to Arjuna, says - "Of the generals, I am Skanda, the lord of war".
It is interesting that Krishna makes this statement in the middle of the Kurukshetra War, which at the time of the battle is festering with the world's greatest generals like Bhishma, Drona, Bhima, Duryodhana, Dushasana, Yuddhishtira, Upapandavas, Abhimanyu, etc!
His presence in the religious and cultural sphere can be seen at least from the Gupta age. Two of the Gupta kings, Kumaragupta and Skandagupta were named after him. He is seen in the Gupta sculptures and in the temples of Ellora Caves and Elephanta Caves. As the commander of the divine armies, he became the patron of the ruling classes. His youth, beauty, bravery was much celebrated in the Sanskrit works like the Kathasaritsagara. Kalidasa chose his birth as the subject of one of his epics.
However, his popularity in North India saw a great erosion from the Middle Ages. He slowly vanished from the scene and is today virtually unknown in these areas except in scholarly circles. The last vestige can be seen only in Bengal where he is worshipped during the Durga Puja along with Durga.
This surprising change is caused by the fact that he was stongly associated with the ruling classes and from the Middle Ages, most of the ruling classes were Muslims.

## Differences in Northern and Southern traditions of Hinduism about Kartikeya's mythology

There seem to be some intriguing differences in the traditions associated with Kartikeya in the North India and South India.
The Sanskrit epics and Puranas indicate that he was the eldest son of Shiva and Parvati, as the tale of Shiva's marriage to Parvati indicates. In the Shiva Purana, for example, he is seen helping Shiva fight the newly born Ganesha, Shiva's other son, when Ganesha stopped Shiva from entering his home in Kailasa and he was killed when he was beheaded by Shiva and ressurected in his true form by his powers only. The Kanda Puranam has all along maintained that he was the younger of the two.
In the north, he is a married to Devasena only. In the south, he is married to two wives, Devasena and Valli, who are two forms of Devasena.

## Kartikeya's worship in Tamil Nadu

In Tamil Nadu, he is known as Murugan and he is married to two goddesses named Devasena and Valli, who are forms of Devasena and he is the younger son of Shiva and Parvati.

## Kartikeya's worship in Sri Lanka

Kartikeya is adored in the large Tamil population in Sri Lanka, and numerous Kartikeya temples exist in the North of Sri Lanka and East of Sri Lanka, as well as in the capital city of Colombo. He is the favorite god of the common folk everywhere and it is known that he never hesitates to come to the aid of a devotee when called upon.
In the South of Sri Lanka, Kartikeya is worshipped by both Hindus and Buddhists alike at the temple in Kataragama (Kathirkamam), where he is known as Kataragama deviyo (Lord of Kataragama) and Kathirvela. History of that temple shows that Kartikeya was alighted in Kataragama and was smitten by Valli, one of the local aboriginal lasses, who was actually, a form of Devasena. After a courtship, they were married. This event signifies that Kartikeya is accessible to all who worship and love him, regardless of their birth and heritage.

## Related links

* Swami Sivananda's book on Lord Kartikeya; also available on PDF.
* Murugan Bhakti site
* The one major Murugan temple that is not atop a hill
* Skanda worship in Katirkamam, Sri Lanka
* Weekly podcast on Vedic Chanting and Vedic Mythology
* Skanda Upanishad