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.

… Dīpāvalī, a sister's invitation brings even Yama home: the Skanda Purāṇa's Yamunā story, the shared meal, prayers for well-being and the many regional forms of Bhai Dooj.

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

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

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

- *Festival narrative:* Skanda Purāṇa, Vaiṣṇava-khaṇḍa, Kārttikamāsa-māhātmya, chapter 11, 'The Efficacy of Yamadvitīyā'. The date and meal are …

Why a new-moon night in Kārttika became the festival of light: the Upaniṣadic prayer from darkness to light, Lakṣmī of the Śrī Sūkta, the many stories that claim the same five days…

… passages that fix Lakṣmī Pūjā to Kārttika amāvāsyā, and the Skanda and Padma Purāṇa passages on lamp-offering (*dīpa-dāna*) in Kārttika — they exist in several recensions and we ha …

Why Dhanteras opens Dīpāvalī's five days: Dhanvantari rising from the churned ocean with the pot of amṛta, the bride who out-lit Yama, the goddess who stays in an honest home, and …

… thā* and widely retold online — sometimes attributed to the Skanda Purāṇa, though we have not been able to trace it to a specific chapter or verse of that or any other Purāṇa, and …

… and the farmer's household (often attributed online to the Skanda Purāṇa, but we could not trace it to a specific passage of that or any other text); the specific liturgy used in …

Why the day before Dīpāvalī is named after a demon: Kṛṣṇa's war on Narakāsura in the Purāṇas, the women he freed, the question of Satyabhāmā's part, the bath before dawn and the la…

… raka*. These texts often attribute the rule to the Padma or Skanda Purāṇa. We have not been able to trace that attribution to a specific chapter and verse, so readers should treat …

… teaching on *abhyaṅga snāna* and *Yama-tarpaṇa*; the Padma/Skanda Purāṇa attributions these sources give are not independently traced here. - *Regional and oral tradition:* Satyab …

… is wonderfully recognisable family situation appears in the Skanda Purāṇa's Vaiṣṇava-khaṇḍa, Kārttikamāsa-māhātmya, chapter 11. At last, on Dvitīyā, he comes with his attendants. …

*Satkāra*, honouring someone, runs in both directions. The Skanda chapter does not merely ask a sister to serve a brother. It instructs the visiting brother to greet her respectfu …

… s, sequence and prayers differ across regions. The checked Skanda chapter supports the sister's meal, hospitality and reciprocal honour. It does not establish every present-day ti …

… n:* Yama Dvitīyā also has a river-pilgrimage dimension. The Skanda chapter associates bathing in Yamunā with the observance; families also remember her welcome of Yama at home. Th …

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 …

… **The Great Night of Śiva — Mahā Śivarātri.** 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…