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Re: ARTICLE : A stotra on skanda
anand hudli (ahudli@silver.ucs.indiana.edu) wrote:
* TamilNadu has a rich tradition of Skanda worship. Perhaps you could
* post some of the details regarding this. On what occassions is
* Skanda especially worshipped? What is His relationship to Ayyappa?
* Are the two the same?
'murugan', 'kandhan', 'vElan' are the popular names used in Tamil
Nadu to identify Skanda or Subrahmanya. The murugan worship in Tamil
Nadu is very ancient. Early Tamil literature mention murugan
profusely, while mention of siva appears only later.
'murugu' literally means 'azhagu' - beauty. 'kandhan' might have
come from tamilization of 'Skanda'. On the other hand it could have
been completely indigenous Tamil word, since 'kandhu' is a word that
denotes a formless God (roughly represented as a stump of tree in
the shape of lingam). 'vElan' literally means one who holds a spear
in the hand. All the murugan idols in Tamil Nadu appear holding a
spear slanted across the body from right to left. 'vElan' also
happens to be the name for the priest of murugan.
According to the early Tamil literature, the land was divided into 5
regions - one of the divisions being the mountainous land. murugan
is the God for this mountainous region. (thirumaal or Vishnu is the
God for the forest region. There is no mention of Siva as a God for
any of the remaining regions.)
The people who inhabited the mountains were hunters and they
worshipped murugan by offering honey and millets. murugan was
thought to afflict young unmarried maidens and to propitiate him,
the priest 'vElan' performed a particular kind of dance.
The first major religious works extoling murugan that are extant are
the 'thiru muruku aaRRuppadai' of nakkeerar, and several individual
poems in a compilation called 'paripadal'. The murugan worship
mentioned in these works is considerably different from the modern
day worship practiced. However one significant point which is still
common is the abode of a murugan temple - a mountain.
murugan is not the same as ayyappan. The stories of their origin
differ totally. As a God, ayyappan seems to have been a much later
day invention and not found anywhere except in Kerala and one or two
modern day temples in Madras and elsewhere. ayyappan is said to be
the son of Siva and Vishnu in Mohini avatar. murugan is the son of
Siva and Parvati. A story in Skanda Purana (and alluded to in
paripadal) describes the birth of Skanda or murugan.
The most celebrated worship places for murugan in Tamil Nadu are 6
in number, known as 'aRu padai veedu' - the six war weapons of
murugan. The most popular of them being pazhani malai (Palani). (To
give a rough idea of how popular this temple is, it stands at number
2 in terms of net money earned after Thirupathy Venkateshwara
Temple.)
Arguably, the most popular God of worship in Tamil Nadu is murugan.
The worship is usually in the form of carrying a 'kaavadi', a
structure made usually of bamboo sticks, on one's shoulder. This
kaavadi will consist of the offering - a pot of milk, or sandalwood
paste, or flowers, etc. A place like pazhani will receive devotees
everyday offering this kaavadi. Just like in Thirupathy temple,
devotees tonsure their heads in pazhani too (as well as other
murugan temples).
The popular festival is unquestionably the one to celebrate murugan
destroying the demon sUrapadman. The event is play-acted in every
murugan temple on this day. Other popular festival is the one to
celebrate his birth.
--badri
* Anand
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Badri Seshadri
Graduate Student
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Cornell University
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