Images of Skanda-Karttikeya-Murugan : An Iconographic Study

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In the Hindu pantheon of gods Skanda Karttikeya the son of Siva, is the only god who is endowed with six faces and twelve hands and named as Sanmukha. His six faces indicate five elements, ether, fire, air, water and prthvi and the Life Principle is the spirit at is the Supreme Force. With regard to the faces of Siva and Sanmukha, the only difference lies between them is that while the six faces of Siva are endowed with separate names for themselves, the faces of Sanmukha do not have any separate name but exhibit the spiritual purpose lies behind each head in the name of Sanmukha tattva. The multi-faced god Sanmukha, the divine essence of Universal Spirit is being represented in the iconic forms known in the names of Skanda, Karttikeya, Guha, Subrahmanya and Naigameya, and exclusively as Murugan in the Tamil country.

Second notable fact is that, in the legend of the birth (incarnations) of any other god we do not come across so much of various explanations and different analysations as we found in the legend of the birth of Skanda from various accounts, i.e., Puranas and other legendary folk tales.

Thirdly, while in north India the six faced god had been worshipped as war god in the name of Skanda until the historical periods of Kusanas, Yaudheyas and Guptas, from the post-Gupta period the cult of war god changed its course towards south India where even today he is portrayed as hunter god, Red god and popularly called as Murugan and Muruga. In the present time his cult is known as Kaumaram. Adi sankaracharya proclaimed the name Kaumaram for Skanda cult and included in the Sanmata. The other five cults in the Sanmata are Vaisnavism, Saivism, Souryam and Ganapatyam.

For many of us it may be the perturbing question that how the cult of war god of north India being synthesized once for all with the hunter god of south India and completely absorbed by the society in the name of Kaumaram. The answer to this question is very clearly explained in the present book.

Interestingly, the images (icons) of Skanda Karttikeya in the forms of Subrahmanya and Sanmukha found in India and abroad area great feast to the devotees and others. In the form of Subrahnanya, he is represented with snakehood or sometimes in the snake form only. The, images of Skanda Karttikeya are Worshipped with a single face and multiple faces and endowed with two to twelve hands. It is very important for the readers to know that he and his consorts Valli and Deivayani are the embodiments of Jnana Sakti, Iccha Sakti and Kriya Sakti, respectively. Above all his spear 'Vet' in Tamil endows his Jana Sakti and thus, his name has come to be known as Velan which means "the holder of Vel". There are nine chapters in this present work which deals with each and every aspect of Kumara in analytical form. The text is enlivened w 87 copious illustrations, several among them appearing for the first time.

Dr. (Mrs.) Haripriya Rangarajan obtained her Ph.D. degree in Indian Culture from the Gujarat University in 1987. She specialized in the iconography of Visnu and has contributed articles to academic journals, national seminars and popular magazines. Her doctoral thesis was published in 1990 under the title Spread of Vaishnavism in Gujarat upto 1600 A.D. (A Study with Special Reference to the Iconic forms of Vishnu). Her book on Ramanuja Sampradaya in Gujarat: A Historical Perspective was published in 1996. Her third work entitled Varaha Images in Madhya Pradesh: An Iconographic Study was published in 1997 and the Asiatic Society of Bombay has awarded the Silver Medal for this work in 1998. Her fourth book Images of Varahi: An Iconographic Study was published in 2004.

She is a recipient of Indian Council of Historical Studies fellowship for her research studies. She is keen in organizing and participating in the academic activities. She has organized several seminars and work-shops in close association with well-known museums and research institutions.

The aim of the present book is to study the most persistent and multifaced god Skanda Karthkeya who is very popular in South India in the names of Murugan, Kandan, Balaswami, Guruswamy, Thagappanswamy and Subrahmanya. When I decided to work on this present book, a question arose in my mind about what I was looking forward to explain in this work with regard to the divine essence of the Universal Spirit which is being represented in the iconic form known by the names of Skanda, Sanmukha, Karttikeya, Guha, Subrahmanya, Naigameya and exclusively as Murugan in the Tamil country. I started wondering that how far I will be able to explain the philosophy of Sanmukhs Trove which is being contemplated by the sculptors and has transformed their perception through the medium of visual images of six faced Karttikeya. The sculptors with their profound knowledge in the philosophical exposition of Saivism, accuracy in their perception and perfectness in the art of sculpturing could exhibit the spiritual contemplation of Skanda Karttikeya in various iconic forms, i.e., with two hands to twelve hands and with a single face to six faces. It is indeed a difficult task for a common man to understand the essence of the Spiritual Reality that lies behind the icon of the deity possessing exclusively a single body and endowed with six heads and twelve hands. But the sculptors taking great efforts could realize the spiritual purpose that lies behind each head of Sanmukha (six faced Karttikeya) and accordingly, depicted them along with the respective attributes in twelve hands as prescribed in the silpasastras. In this book the essence of Sanmukha Tattva is explained in detail. Secondly, I found that in North India from the very early times he was worshipped in the form of a war god and his cult gradually developed into one of the popular religious cults during the historical periods of Kusanas, Yaudheyas and Guptas. In the post-Gupta period, it was properly propagated and systematized by the great Guru Adi Sankara who named it as Kaumaram and included in Sanmatam. The other five cults are Saivism, Vaisnavism,Saktism,Souryam and Ganapatyam. However, it soon became obvious that after the Guptas the transaction of several popular cults crossed the geographical boundary and extended to the Deccan and South. This does not mean that the concept of Skanda Karttikeya was not understood and realized by Tamil country. On the contrary, in the ancient and earliest Tamil literature and archaeology he is portrayed as a hunter god and called Red God.

In the Epic mythology for the first time the legend of his birth is vividly described with various explanations. In the Mahabharata, the epic author explored the significance of his birth in great detail. It includes his different names and their causes, his different epithets, and their symbolic meanings, dynamic approach of teaching Pranava mantra to the creator god Brahma, adoration of devas towards the young Kumara Karttikeya, his anointment by Indra and Brahma for appointing him as 'Devasenapati' i.e., commander in-chief of Devas army, his great feat of success in the war with asuras and his marriages with Devayanai, the daughter of Indra in Devaloka and Valli the daughter of a hunter in the Bhuloka. The beauty of the representation of Skanda Karttikeya lies in the fact that while Skanda was depicted as war god in the Epic mythology, the early Southern literature depicted him as a hunter god and hill god. Epic addresses him as 'Brahmanyam as well as ‘Ksatriya’ because he is a war god. As the replica of Brahman he exhibits himself as a preacher of Pranava mantra and Saiva Siddhanta which is superbly expressed by the Tamil saint poets in the Sangam period. In fact, these poets portrayed him exclusively as Tamil god and addressed him as high god.