Results for "Skanda"

A six-day vow building to a single reenacted battle — and, in the moment of the demon's defeat, a transformation the Tamil retelling insists on keeping: not death, but the enemy re…

Younger son of Shiva and Parvati, born to slay the asura Tarakasura. As Murugan in the Tamil tradition, he is the cosmic warrior whose Vel pierces ignorance, ego, and fear.

The Skanda Purāṇa calls it the greatest of all vratas, already quoted once at the start of this series. A hunter who worship …

A textual stratigraphy of Hanumān across the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, the Śiva Purāṇa, the Adhyātma and Ānanda Rāmāyaṇas, and Tulsīdās's Rāmcharitmānas — plus the Upaniṣadic anchors that …

… lationship between Hanumān and Śani Dev is detailed in the *Skanda Purāṇa* and various regional folk Rāmāyaṇas. Rāvaṇa, a master of astrology, had bound all nine celestial planets …

The full-moon day of Āṣāḍha honours the lineage of teachers who dispel darkness. From Veda Vyāsa the Ādi Guru of recorded knowledge, through the Mundaka and Kaṭha Upaniṣads, to Śiv…

… t only the Guru has actually *walked the territory*. The **Skanda Purāṇa (Guru Gītā)** gives the most famous verse of this tradition, elevating the Guru to the status of the *Trim …

Pradakṣiṇā, temple bells, kīrtana, touching an elder's feet, tilaka, and offering water to the Sun each carry real, textually grounded meaning — reverence, purification, remembranc…

… s a formal water offering. A chapter on Sun-worship in the *Skanda Purāṇa* has the devotee first perform purification and prayer, then offer water to Bhāskara with joined palms, fr …

- **Primary scripture and liturgical texts.** *Skanda Purāṇa*, chapter on the worship of the Sun-God, for the *arghya* procedure, the Vedic mantras *ud u tyam jātaveda …

Before Sāwan Somvār, Karva Chauth or the Friday fast for Santoshi Mata, there is the word vrata itself — older than fasting, meaning cosmic ordinance before it ever meant a vow. Yo…

… he individual fasts in this series get their footing. The **Skanda Purāṇa** calls Śivarātri "the greatest of all vratas"; the **Bhavishya Purāṇa** treats a deity's appointed fast-d …

… ](/essays/maha-shivaratri-the-great-night).** The vrata the Skanda Purāṇa calls the greatest of all — a hunter who worshipped by accident, and three different Purāṇas giving three …

… as cosmic ordinance (Varuṇa's *vratāni*); Bhaviṣya Purāṇa, Skanda Purāṇa and Padma Purāṇa on vrata prescriptions and Ekādaśī, consulted via named Purāṇa-summary compilations rathe …

Navrātri is a fast built around nine forms of one goddess, twice a year in public — Chaitra in spring, Śarad in autumn. Where the nine names of the Navadurgā actually come from, wh…

… aṇḍeya: **Śailaputrī, Brahmacāriṇī, Candraghaṇṭā, Kūṣmāṇḍā, Skandamātā, Kātyāyanī, Kālarātri, Mahāgaurī** and **Siddhidātrī**. In festival practice today, one form is invoked on ea …

Three separate vows share one weekday: the Monday fasts of Śrāvaṇ month, a sixteen-week vow said to have won Pārvatī her husband, and a twice-monthly twilight fast timed to the thr…

… ay in this series returns to for Mahā Śivarātri itself: the Skanda and Bhāgavata Purāṇas tell of a lethal poison, *hālāhala*, rising from the churned ocean and threatening all crea …

… r, more in a leap month — and is named in both the Śiva and Skanda Purāṇas. *Pradoṣa* itself reads as *pra* (great, exceeding) plus *doṣa* (twilight, the dusk hour): the great or s …

… Solah Somvār as taught by Śiva to Pārvatī; Śiva Purāṇa and Skanda Purāṇa, for Pradoṣ Vrat's merit and observance; Skanda Purāṇa and Bhāgavata Purāṇa, for the Samudra Manthan / Nīl …

… before spring. This series' first essay already quoted the Skanda Purāṇa naming Śivarātri "the greatest of all vratas," without elaborating why — this essay is that elaboration. W …

… s it to be the night of Śiva and Pārvatī's wedding. And the Skanda and Bhāgavata Purāṇas anchor it to the same Samudra Manthan and Nīlakaṇṭha episode the previous essay in this ser …

… Liṅga Purāṇa, for the Liṅgodbhava pillar-of-light episode; Skanda Purāṇa and Bhāgavata Purāṇa, for the Samudra Manthan / Nīlakaṇṭha framing — consulted via named secondary summari …

Already named three times over in this series' first essay as one of Purāṇic tradition's two great paths of expiation — this is the essay that finally gives Ekādaśī its own telling…

… ever giving it its own essay — prescribed across the Padma, Skanda and Bhaviṣya Purāṇas alike, and one of Purāṇic tradition's two major recognised paths of *prāyaścitta* (expiation …

… ification as a goddess born from Viṣṇu; Bhaviṣya, Padma and Skanda Purāṇas, previously cited in this series' first essay, for Ekādaśī's general prescription. - **Living calendrical …

One devotion, two weekly claims on it: Tuesday for Mars's courage, which Hanumān embodies, and Saturday for a debt Śani Dev himself is said to owe him. Not two vratas but one fast …

… ultural significance](/essays/hanuman-lore) traces, via the Skanda Purāṇa and regional folk Rāmāyaṇas, how Hanumān freed Śani Dev from imprisonment in Rāvaṇa's court and was reward …

- **Primary scripture and site cross-reference.** Skanda Purāṇa and regional folk Rāmāyaṇas, for the Hanumān–Śani narrative, as previously sourced and cited in full in th …

Almost everything else in this series depends on getting the timing right — a specific tithi, a specific twilight, a priest's muhūrta calculation. Akṣaya Tṛtīyā is one of the rare …

… e sage Jamadagni and Reṇukā — named on this date across the Skanda, Bhaviṣya and Matsya Purāṇas. Some of the same textual tradition places something larger on this day as well: the …

- **Primary scripture.** Skanda Purāṇa, Bhaviṣya Purāṇa and Matsya Purāṇa, for Paraśurāma Jayantī's placement on this date; Bhaviṣya Purāṇa, for …

Skanda Ṣaṣṭhī is kept for Kārtikeya — Skanda, Murugan in Tamil devotion — across six days culminating on the *ṣaṣṭhī* (s …

… d central to Murugan worship in its own right. The Sanskrit Skanda Purāṇa carries this story within Śaiva literature broadly, but the fuller, most widely known telling among Muruga …

… ly: **Kaumāram**, a recognised devotional stream centred on Skanda/Kārtikeya as the primary deity rather than as Śiva and Pārvatī's son incidental to their own worship. Tamil Nadu' …

- **Primary scripture.** Skanda Purāṇa, for the Sūrapadman narrative within Śaiva literature broadly, consulted via named secondary summaries rat …

Lord Krishna utilizes the pure, unshakeable devotion of the immortal Hanuman to gently correct the subtle spiritual pride residing in his queen Satyabhama, his mount Garuda, and hi…

At the dawn of creation, Brahmā's four mind-born sons — Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra — wander the cosmos in search of the ultimate truth. Beneath an ancient banyan t…