Kartikeya
Kartikeya, also known as Skanda, Subrahmanya, Shanmukha or Muruga, is the Hindu god of war. He is generally described as the son of the deities Shiva and Parvati and the brother of Ganesha.
Kartikeya has been an important deity in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times. Mentions of Skanda in the Sanskrit literature data back to fifth century BCE and the mythology relating to Kartikeya became widespread in North India around the second century BCE. Archaeological evidence from the first century CE and earlier shows an association of his iconography with Agni, the Hindu god of fire, indicating that Kartikeya was a significant deity in early Hinduism. Kaumaram is the Hindu denomination that primarily venerates Kartikeya. Apart from significant Kaumaram worship and temples in South India, he is worshipped as Mahasena and Kumara in North and East India. Muruga is a tutelary deity mentioned in Tamil Sangam literature, of the Kurinji region. As per scholars of religion, the Tamil deity of Muruga coalesced with the Vedic deity of Skanda Kartikeya over time. He is considered as the patron deity of Tamil language and literary works such as Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai by Nakkīraṉãr and Tiruppukal by Arunagirinathar are devoted to Muruga.
The iconography of Kartikeya varies significantly. He is typically represented as an ever-youthful man, riding or near an Indian peafowl, and sometimes with an emblem of a rooster on his banner. He wields a spear called the vel, supposedly given to him by his mother Parvati. While most icons represent him with only one head, some have six heads, a reflection of legends surrounding his birth wherein he was fused from six boys or borne of six conceptions. He is described to have aged quickly from childhood, becoming a warrior, leading the army of the devas and credited with destroying asuras including Tarakasura and Surapadma. He is regarded as a philosopher who taught the pursuit of an ethical life and the theology of Shaiva Siddhanta.
He is also worshipped in Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, other countries with significant populations of Tamil origin, Caribbean countries, and countries with significant Indian migrant populations.
Etymology and nomenclature
The epithet "Kartikeya" is linked to the circumstances surrounding the deity's birth. According to the Skanda Purana, six divine sparks emerged from Shiva, forming six separate baby boys. These boys were raised by handmaidens known as the Krittikas. Later, Parvati fused them into one, creating the six-headed Kartikeya. Kartikeya means "of the Krittikas" in Sanskrit. According to Hindu literature, he is known by 108 different names, though other names also exist in common usage. Most common amongst these include Skanda, Muruga, Kumara, Subrahmanya, Senthil, Vēlaṇ, Swaminatha, Saravaṇabhava, Arumukha or Shanmukha, Dhanadapani and Kandha.The name of "Muruga" is popular in the South, especially in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, with the gendered morphological adaptation of the noun in the deep Dravidian languages like Tamil and Malayalam, appearing in the form "Murugan" with the addition of -n as a masculine suffix.
On ancient coins featuring his images, his name appears inscribed as Kumara, Brahmanya, or Brahmanyadeva. On some ancient Indo-Scythian coins, his name appears in Greek script as Skanda, Kumara, and Vishaka.
Legends
Birth
Various Indian literary works recount different stories surrounding the birth of Kartikeya. In Valmiki's Ramayana, he is described as the child of deities Rudra and Parvati, with his birth aided by Agni and Ganga. The Shalya Parva and the Anushasana Parva of the third-century BCE Hindu epic Mahabharata narrate the legend of Skanda, presenting him as the son of Maheshvara and Parvati: Shiva and Parvati were disturbed during sex, causing Shiva to inadvertently spill his semen. The semen was then incubated in the Ganges, preserved by the heat of the god Agni, and eventually born as baby Kartikeya.According to Shiva Purana, asura Tarakasura performed tapas to propitiate the creator god Brahma. Brahma granted him two boons: one, that none shall be his equal in all of the three worlds, and two, that only a son of Shiva could slay him. As Shiva was a yogi and thus unlikely to bear children, Tarakasura was armed with near immortality. In his quest to rule the three worlds, he expelled the devas from Svarga. Indra, the king of devas, devised a scheme to disrupt Shiva’s meditation and beguile him with thoughts of love, so that he could sire an offspring and thusly end Tarakasura's immortality. Shiva was engaged in meditation, and hardly noticed the courtship of Parvati, the daughter of Himavan who sought him as her consort. Indra tasked god of love Kamadeva and his consort Rati to disturb Shiva. Shiva was furious with the act and burnt Kamadeva to ashes. But Shiva's attention then turned towards Parvati, who had performed tapas in order to win his affection, and married her, then conceiving Kartikeya.
According to the seventeenth-century CE text Kanda Puranam '', the asura brothers Surapadma, Simhamukha and Tarakasura performed tapas to Shiva, who granted them with various weapons and a wish wherein they could only be killed by the son of Shiva, which offered them near-immortality. They subsequently oppressed other celestial beings including the devas, and started a reign of tyranny in the three worlds. When the devas pleaded to Shiva for his assistance, he manifested five additional heads on his body, and a divine spark emerged from each of them. Initially, the wind god Vayu carried the sparks, later handing them to the fire god Agni because of the unbearable heat. Agni deposited the sparks in the Ganges river. The water in the Ganges began to evaporate due to the intense heat of the sparks. Ganga took them to Saravana lake, where the sparks developed into six baby boys. The six boys were then raised by the Krittikas and they were later fused into one by Parvati. Thus, the six-headed Kartikeya was born, conceived to answer the devas' pleas for help and deliver them from the asuras.
Kumarasambhava from the fifth-century CE narrates a similar story on his birth wherein Agni carries the semen of Shiva and deposits them in Bhagirathi River. When the Krittikas bathe in the river, they are impregnated and give birth to Kartikeya.
An alternate account of Kartikeya's parentage is narrated in the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, where he is described as the son of Agni and Svaha. It is narrated that Agni goes to meet the wives of the Saptarshi and, while none of the wives reciprocates Agni's feelings of love, Svaha is present and attracted to Agni. Svaha takes the form of six of the wives, one by one, and has sex with Agni six times. She is unable to take the form of Arundhati, Vasishtha's wife, because of Arundhati's extraordinary virtuous powers. Svaha deposits the semen of Agni into the reeds of Ganges river, where it develops and is born as the six-headed Skanda.
Early life
In Kanda Puranam, Kartikeya is portrayed as a child playing in the cosmos. In his childhood, he fiddles with the orbits of planets, stacks the mountains in Kailasha on top of Mount Meru and stops the flow of River Ganges, among other feats. He imprisons Brahma as he could not explain the meaning of Aum. When Shiva asks for the meaning of the mantra, Kartikeya teaches it to his father. According to the Mahabharata, the devas and gods gift him various objects and animals.As per Kanda Puranam, sage Narada once visited Shiva at Kailasha and presented him with a Gnana palam. This fruit is generally regarded as a mango. Shiva expressed his intention of dividing the fruit between his two sons, Ganesha and Kartikeya, but Narada counseled that the fruit could not be divided. So, it was decided to award the fruit to whomsoever first circled the world thrice. Accepting the challenge, Kartikeya started his journey around the globe atop his peacock mount. However, Ganesha surmised that the world was no more than his parents Shiva and Shakti combined, circumambulated them, and won the fruit. When Kartikeya returned, he was furious to learn that his efforts had been in vain, and felt cheated. He discarded all his material belongings and left Kailasha to take up abode in the Palani Hills as a hermit. According to Fred Clothey, Kartikeya did this out of a felt need to mature from boyhood. According to Kamil Zvelebil, Kartikeya represents the actual fruit of wisdom for his devotees rather than any physical fruit such as a mango or a pomegranate.
War with asuras
Though Kartikeya had powers derived from Shiva, he was innocent and playful. Shiva granted him celestial weapons and the divine spear vel, an embodiment of the power of Shakti. On obtaining the vel, Kartikeya was imparted with the knowledge of distinguishing between good and evil. Texts Kanda Puranam and Kumarasambhavam recount a war fought by Kartikeya against the asuras. As Kartikeya was born to save the devas from the tyranny of the asuras, he was appointed as the commander of the devas and engaged in conflict with the asuras. Shiva granted him an army of 30,000 warriors to assist in the war against the oppressive asura brothers, whom Kartikeya was born to defeat. Kartikeya was assisted by nine warriors, headed by Virabahu, who served as sub-commanders of his army. These nine men were borne by nine lesser clones of Shakti who appeared from her silambu.Kartikeya believed that asuras and devas were all descendants of Shiva and that if asuras were to correct their ways, the conflict could be avoided. He sent messengers to communicate as much and to give the asuras a fair warning, which they ignored. Kartikeya killed Tarakasura and his lieutenant Krowchaka with his vel. While Tarakasura was confused at facing Shiva's son, as he thought his war was not with Shiva, Kartikeya felt it necessary to vanquish him, as his vision was occluded by Maya. Zvelebil interprets this episode as the coming of age of Kartikeya.
Kartikeya killed the next brother Simhamukha and faced off with Surapadma in the final battle. Surapadma took a large form with multiple heads, arms and legs trying to intimidate Kartikeya. When Kartikeya threw his vel, Surapadma escaped to the sea and took the form of a large mango tree, which spread across the three worlds. Kartikeya used his vel to split the tree in half, with each half transforming into a peacock and a rooster, respectively. After Surapadma was killed, Kartikeya took the peacock as his vahana and the rooster as his pennant.