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The devas

Bhagwan Kartikeya (Murugan)

कार्त्तिकेयः

Son of Shiva and Parvati, born to slay the asura Taraka and nursed by the six Krittikas; commander of the devas, worshipped across Tamil lands as Murugan at his six battle-camps.

SkandaSubrahmanyaShanmukha, the six-facedKumaraDevasenapati, general of the devasMurugan, the beautiful one
Vahana
Paravani, the peacock
Consort
Devasena (Deivanai) and Valli
Abode
Skandagiri; the six Padai Veedu
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Cite

MLA

“Bhagwan Kartikeya (Murugan).” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/devata/kartikeya/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Bhagwan Kartikeya (Murugan). Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/devata/kartikeya/

How they are shown

A youth with one or six faces, holding the vel (spear) his mother gave him, with a cockerel on his banner, riding or standing beside a peacock. At Palani he is the renunciant Dandayudhapani with a staff and shaven head; elsewhere he stands between his consorts Valli and Devasena.

01Born to defeat Taraka

Taraka had won a boon that only a son of Shiva could kill him, at a time when Shiva sat in yoga after Sati’s death. The Shiva Purana’s Kumara Khanda tells how the devas brought about the marriage of Shiva and Parvati, and how Shiva’s fiery seed passed through Agni and the Ganga to a reed forest, where a child was born. Six Krittikas came to nurse him, and he grew six faces to drink from all of them. The Valmiki Ramayana (Bala Kanda) tells the same birth to young Rama. Made general of the devas, he led them out and killed Taraka.

02Murugan of the Tamils

In Tamil devotion he is Murugan, the beautiful one, lord of the hills. Nakkirar’s Tirumurugatruppadai guides the pilgrim to his six Padai Veedu: Thiruparankundram, where he married Devasena; Tiruchendur on the sea, where he destroyed Surapadman; Palani, where he stood alone after losing the fruit to Ganesha; Swamimalai, where as a child he taught his father the meaning of Om; Tiruttani, where he married Valli; and Pazhamudircholai in the forest. Arunagirinathar’s Thiruppugazh hymns in the fifteenth century are still sung at every one.

03Festivals of the vel

Skanda Shashti, the sixth day of the bright half of Kartik (Aippasi in the Tamil month), ends at Tiruchendur with the Soorasamharam, when the slaying of Surapadman is enacted on the shore before lakhs. Thaipusam in the month of Thai brings devotees carrying kavadi, often after forty-eight days of vow, to Palani, and to Batu Caves and Singapore wherever Tamils have settled. Panguni Uttiram marks his wedding. In north India his worship is older than it looks: Skandamata is the fifth of the Navadurga, and Kukke Subrahmanya in Karnataka is a great serpent-shrine of his.

In the texts

  • Shiva Purana, Rudra Samhita, Kumara Khanda
  • Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda
  • Skanda Purana
  • Tirumurugatruppadai of Nakkirar; Thiruppugazh of Arunagirinathar
  • Kumarasambhava of Kalidasa

Utsav: festivals

ThaipusamThe Tamil month of Thai, on Pusam (Pushya) nakshatra, usually at the full moonSkanda Shashti and SoorasamharamPanguni UttiramVaikasi Visakam (his birth)

Temples on this site 16

Palani Dandayudhapani TempleStanding
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Palani Dandayudhapani Temple

The third of Murugan’s six Arupadai Veedu, on a hill in the Western Ghats foothills. Here the young Murugan stood as a renunciant after losing the fruit of wisdom.

Subramaniya Swamy Temple, TiruchendurStanding
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Subramaniya Swamy Temple, Tiruchendur

The second of Murugan’s six abodes and the only one on the seashore. Here, the Kanda Puranam says, Murugan defeated the asura Surapadman, and every Skanda Shashti the battle is enacted on the sand.

Swaminatha Swamy Temple, SwamimalaiStanding
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Swaminatha Swamy Temple, Swamimalai

The fourth of Murugan’s six abodes, where the boy Murugan explained the meaning of Om to his father, Bhagwan Shiva. Shiva’s shrine stands below; the son’s shrine stands on top.

ThiruparankundramStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Thiruparankundram

The first of Murugan’s six Padai Veedu, the battle camps, on a granite hill at the edge of Madurai. Here Murugan married Devasena, daughter of Indra, after slaying Surapadman, and the sanctum is cut into the living rock.

TiruttaniStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Tiruttani

The hill where Murugan rested, his anger calmed, after the war with Surapadman, and where he wed Valli. One of the six Padai Veedu, it is where Muthuswami Dikshitar sang his first kriti; S. Radhakrishnan was born in the town in 1888.

Pazhamudircholai Murugan Temple, SolaimalaiStanding
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Pazhamudircholai Murugan Temple, Solaimalai

The sixth of Murugan’s abodes, in the forest of the Alagar hills above Madurai. Here, the Tamil tradition says, the boy Murugan tested the poetess Avvaiyar with a question about fruit.

Kukke Subramanya TempleStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Kukke Subramanya Temple

The Subrahmanya of the Western Ghats, worshipped as protector of the serpents, where families come to perform Sarpa Samskara and Ashlesha Bali for relief from naga dosha.

Kataragama (Kathirkamam)Standing
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Kataragama (Kathirkamam)

The jungle shrine of Murugan in the far south-east of Lanka, on the Menik Ganga, where he is said to have met and wed Valli. Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and the Vedda people all come here, and Tamil pilgrims once walked to it for weeks from Jaffna.

Vadapalani Andavar Temple, ChennaiStanding
Renaissance and the struggle for Swaraj

Vadapalani Andavar Temple, Chennai

A devotee who could no longer walk to Palani set up a picture of Murugan in a hut in what was then a village west of Madras, and it became Vadapalani, the Palani of the north. It is now one of the most loved temples of Chennai and a favourite place to be married.

Ardhanareeswarar Temple, TiruchengodeStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Ardhanareeswarar Temple, Tiruchengode

On the red hill of Tiruchengode, Shiva is worshipped as Ardhanareeswarar, half Shiva and half Parvati. Here Sambandar sang the Tiruneelakanta padigam to free his companions from fever.

Marudhamalai Subramanya Swamy TempleStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Marudhamalai Subramanya Swamy Temple

On a hill of marudham trees at the edge of Coimbatore, Murugan stands as the god of the Kongu country. Devotees call it the seventh abode after the six Padai Veedu, and the cave of the snake-charmer siddha is just below the shrine.

Nallur Kandaswamy TempleRebuilt
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Nallur Kandaswamy Temple

The great Murugan temple of Jaffna, burnt by the Portuguese in 1620 and rebuilt in 1734. Its 25-day festival is the largest Hindu gathering in Sri Lanka.

Show all 16