Posted:
I have questions. South Indian tradition, unlike North Indian, has Ganesh as elder to Kartikeya. As is well known, in the versions that have Kartikeya as older, the reason the Devas tried to get Shiva to marry Parvati was that it was their son who was destined to kill Tarakasura & Surapadman, which is why they went to extents such as trying to get Kama to distract Shiva, w/ dire consequences. Finally, after Shiva married Parvati, they begat Kartikeya who went to war against the asuras and killed them.
In fact, in one of the stories about Ganesh (from the ACK Ganesh), it describes how Kartikeya too fought Ganesh when Shiva sent everybody against him to break the obstacle to his entry to Parvati's private chambers. So that would support the contention that Kartikeya was older.
My questions is - in the accounts that have Ganesh as older, do they
- Have the devas try and get Shiva to marry Parvati to fight Surapadman, or is Shiva already married to her when that need arises?
- If Surapadman was already persecuting the Devas and Shiva had granted this boon that he won't be killed by any force except Shiva's, then couldn't Ganesh have fought & killed him?
- If the killing of Surapadman was not the reason Kartikeya was born (in the version where he is younger), then were there any other circumstances that necessitated his birth? Or did Mahadev or Parvati simply want another son?
- Does the younger Kartikeya have 6 heads, like in the case of the older Kartikeya, due to his being the sons of Agni, Vayu, Shravan, the Kritikeyas, Ganga and Parvati?
Okay, these are the ones I can think of for now. But I wanted to know more about Kartikeya as described in Southern scriptures. The Northern ones, I more or less know - the reason Kartikeya was born and the killing of Tarakasura, Simhamukha & Surapadman.
comment:
p_commentcount