Chapter 8

Kartikeya

The son Kamadeva burned for — neither fire could hold him, nor the Ganga; six Krittikas raised him

A radiance no one could hold

Everything that had happened so far — Kamadeva's burning, Parvati's penance, Shiva's marriage — had been leading to the birth of one child.

But Shiva's radiance was so fierce that the gods took fright: "The earth will never bear this conception."

Agni was sent to receive that radiance. He took it — and began to scorch. He passed it on to the Ganga. She too could not hold it, and set it down in a reed-forest of Himalaya — in the Sharavana.

Six mothers

In that forest a child appeared.

The six Krittikas of the sky — what we today call the Pleiades — came to nurse him. He grew six mouths so he could drink the milk of all six at once.

From this came one of his names — Kartikeya, raised by the Krittikas. And Shanmukha — the six-faced one.

One body, six heads

Word reached Parvati that her son was in a forest with the six Krittikas, six-faced.

She ran to him and embraced her child — her own son, found at last.

The boy gathered many names: Skanda, Kumara, Guha (the one who hid in a cave), Subrahmanya. Belonging to Shiva and Parvati both, to the Krittikas, to Agni and the Ganga — this one boy had so many parents that every tradition addresses him in its own way.

Some traditions tell this differently — six separate infants, whom Parvati embraced into a single body while six heads remained. This retelling takes the six-mouths-for-nursing version as its base, since that's the one the questions ahead — the Krittika name, Shanmukha — connect to directly.

General of the gods

The gods came to Kartikeya. "Only a son of Shiva can kill Tarakasura. You are that son. Lead our army."

Kartikeya was still a boy when he was made general of the Devasena. Indra gave him his own daughter Devasena in marriage — her name meaning, quite literally, the army of the gods.

The end of Tarakasura

Kartikeya, mounted on his peacock, a spear named Shakti in hand, fell upon Tarakasura's army.

The war dragged on. In the end Kartikeya hurled that spear at Tarakasura, and the very boon the asura had won — that only a son of Shiva could kill him — became the condition of his death.

The son for whom Kamadeva had burned, for whom Parvati had spent years in penance, for whom Agni and the Ganga had both been scorched — his first act was this: killing an asura no one else in creation could touch.

Another name in the south

In Tamil tradition, Kartikeya is Murugan, one of the region's most important and beloved deities, with an extensive mythology of his own.

There he fights an asura named Surapadma and splits him in two — one becomes a peacock which is his mount, the other a rooster which sits on his banner. There he has two wives — Devasena and Valli, a girl of a hill tribe. In Tamil Nadu he has six principal abodes, called the "Arupadai Veedu."

This is the Tamil Shaiva tradition's own stream — of texts like the Kanda Puranam and the Tirumurugatruppadai — and it has a relation to the Skanda story of the Sanskrit Puranas, but it is not a copy of it.

Note: Kartikeya's story is in the Shiva Purana (Rudra Samhita, Kumara Khanda), the Mahabharata (Vana Parva and Shalya Parva), the Ramayana (Bala Kanda, where Vishvamitra tells it) and the Skanda Purana. The chain of Shiva's radiance going from Agni to the Ganga and then to the Sharavana is in both the Ramayana and the Shiva Purana. In the Tamil tradition (the Kanda Puranam, the Tirumurugatruppadai) he is Murugan, with two wives — Devasena and Valli — and the killing of Surapadma and the six Arupadai Veedu abodes are of this stream. This Tamil Shaiva tradition is the sibling of the Sanskrit Skanda story, not a copy.

Source: from several texts, Kartikeya

Now — how much stayed with you?

What happened?

What happened when Shiva's radiance was given to Agni?

Agni returned it to Parvati at once
Agni could not hold it, began to scorch, and gave the radiance to the Ganga
Agni handed it to Surya
Agni swallowed it and it was quieted there

Read the whole story — One radiance, many hands

The whole frame of the story is this: Shiva's radiance is so fierce that no single one can hold it — not a god, not Agni, not the Ganga, not the earth.

Every handing-on adds a new "parent" — which is why Kartikeya has so many names and so many mothers.

It's a fitting echo of Shiva's own nature: what he gives off is, like him, too vast for the ordinary world to contain.

Whose son?

From whom did Kartikeya get the name "Kartikeya"?

From Shiva, who gave him this name
From being born under the Krittika constellation
From Agni, one of whose names is Krittika
From the six Krittikas, who nursed and raised him

Read the whole story — A son of six mothers

Behind each of Kartikeya's names is a different parent: Kartikeya (the Krittikas), Gangeya (the Ganga), Skanda and Kumara (Shiva and Parvati), Agneya (Agni).

The six mouths are from this too — to drink the milk of all six Krittikas at once.

This is the most distinctive thing about this god: his identity is not made from any one parent, it is made from several at once.

Who said it?

"Only a son of Shiva can kill Tarakasura. You are that son. Lead our army." — Who said this, and to whom?

The gods, to Kartikeya
Shiva, to Kartikeya
Indra, to Tarakasura
Parvati, to Kartikeya

Read the whole story — A boy who became a general

In the Mahabharata (Vana Parva and Shalya Parva) the story of Skanda becoming general of the gods is told at length — the gods hand him the army at a very young age.

Indra marrying his daughter Devasena to him is symbolic: "Devasena" means the army of the gods, and Kartikeya is its lord.

That is, the son for whom so much had happened was born for one task — and that task was fixed from the very first day.

Who am I?

We are six stars in the sky. We nursed an infant lying in a forest, and he made six mouths to drink the milk of all six of us at once. Who are we?

The Saptarishis
Rohini and her sisters
The Krittikas (the Pleiades constellation)
The apsaras

Read the whole story — Six stars, one child

Looking at the Krittika constellation (the Pleiades) with the naked eye, one usually sees six stars — the story is linked to this.

In tradition the Krittikas were the wives of the Saptarishis, and their raising the infant separates them from their husbands — a separate story linked to the star Arundhati.

The infant making six mouths is the most recognised image of this story — Shanmukha, Shadanana, Aarumugam.

Fact

With which weapon did Kartikeya kill Tarakasura?

With the trident that Shiva gave
With the spear named Shakti (the vel)
With the Sudarshana discus
With the thunderbolt

Read the whole story — A spear that became an identity

Kartikeya's "Shakti" spear is in every image of him — in Tamil it is called the "vel," and Murugan's devotees worship it separately ("Vel Muruga").

Tradition says this spear was given to him by Parvati herself — that is, the mother's power directly into the son's hand.

In Taraka's killing the irony is completed: the asura's boon ("let only a son of Shiva kill him") becomes the very condition of his death — exactly as Bhasmasura's boon will turn on him further on.

Riddle

My birth was from a radiance no one could hold. I have so many parents that every tradition calls me by a different name — Skanda, Kumara, Guha, Murugan. I have six heads and my mount is a peacock. Who am I?

Ganesha
Kartikeya
Nandi
Virabhadra

Read the whole story — One god, many names

Kartikeya is perhaps the most "many-named" god of the Hindu tradition — and every name comes from a different story or region.

In North India his worship was once very large (his image is on Kushana coins), but later it declined; in the south, as Murugan, it is still the greatest.

The tradition treats these as one god throughout, while recognising that his stories shift from region to region.

Whose son?

To which of his daughters did Indra marry Kartikeya, and what does that name mean?

To Devasena
To Jayanti
To Shachi
To Urvashi

Read the whole story — The role in the name itself

The marriage of "Devasena" to the "Devasenapati" is a symbol: Kartikeya and the army of the gods are incomplete without each other.

In the Tamil tradition he has a second wife too — Valli, a girl of a hill tribe, whom he marries like a love-story, not an arranged one. This addition is not in the Sanskrit Puranas, it is in the Tamil Kanda Puranam.

The two wives are held in tradition to be the meeting of two sides — Devasena (sky/gods) and Valli (earth/people).

Put it in order

Which is the correct order of events?

The Krittikas raising him → Shiva's radiance → the Ganga → the killing of Taraka
The killing of Taraka → Kartikeya becoming general → birth → the Krittikas raising him
Shiva's fierce radiance → Agni receiving it and giving it to the Ganga → the Ganga setting it down in the Sharavana → the child appearing with six faces and the six Krittikas raising him → Parvati finding her child → the gods making him general and the marriage to Devasena → the killing of Tarakasura
Shiva's radiance → Parvati finding her child → Agni → the Ganga

Read the whole story — From one radiance to one killing

This chapter is built as a long chain: the radiance passes from one hand to another, each hand adding a name, until it all gathers into one general.

Everything turns on Parvati finding her child — that is where the scattered radiance becomes a recognised son.

The last scene — the killing of Taraka — is the end of the whole plan that began in the fifth chapter (Kamadeva). Kamadeva burned for this very son.

The texts disagree

Which texts is Kartikeya's story in, and what is his north-south difference?

The story is only in the Shiva Purana, and the same everywhere
The story is in the Shiva Purana, the Mahabharata (Vana/Shalya Parva), the Ramayana (Bala Kanda) and the Skanda Purana; in the north he is Skanda/Kumara and his worship declined, in the south he is Murugan and there he has his own large tradition
Kartikeya is only a god of the Tamil tradition, not in the Sanskrit texts
In every text he has only one mother, Parvati

Read the whole story — One god, two lives

In North India the worship of Skanda was large in ancient times — his image is found on Gupta and Kushana coins — but by the medieval period it had greatly declined.

In the south, as Murugan, his tradition never declined. The Kanda Puranam, the Tirumurugatruppadai, and the six Arupadai Veedu abodes — this is a whole separate, living stream.

This retelling treats the two as one god, and holds plainly that the Tamil Murugan tradition is not a copy of the Sanskrit Skanda story but its sibling.

Later tradition

In the Tamil tradition, what does Murugan's "Arupadai Veedu" mean?

His six weapons
The six names of his six heads
His six mothers, the Krittikas
His six principal abodes in Tamil Nadu

Read the whole story — Six houses, one god

"Arupadai Veedu" literally means "six war-camps" — each abode is linked to a stage of Murugan's fight against Surapadma.

Each abode has its own story: Tiruchendur by the sea, where the fight with Surapadma took place; Palani on a hill, where a sulking Murugan sat as an ascetic.

This tradition comes from the Tamil Kanda Puranam — related to the Sanskrit Skanda Purana, but not a direct translation of it, and treated here as its own strand of the Tamil Shaiva stream.