Lord Muruga

Lord Murugan is known as the God of the Tamils. Wherever Tamil-speaking people reside in the world, we might see temples for Lord Murugan as the Murugan worship has been associated with Tamil people. From time immemorial generations of Tamils have been worshipping Lord Muruga.

Some historians relate the Lord Muruga worshipping to the days of Indus valley civilization. Evidence such as clay seals etc. depicting the forms of Lord Murugan as God had actually been discovered at the archaeological sites of the Indus valley civilization.

In ancient Tamil literature such as Sanka period literature, we can read about early Tamil people’s devotion to Lord Muruga and in those materials, he was referred to as Lord Sevvel.

At present, worshiping of Lord Muruga can be widely seen in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, European countries, America, Canada, etc. We are able to see beautiful temples for Lord Muruga in all these countries.

The great Hindu sage Aadi Sankara had devised six sub-sects of Hinduism and they are called, Souram, Saivam, Saaththeyam, Vaishnavam, Ganapathyam, and Koumaram.

Koumaram, is the sixth sect that includes devotees who worship Lord Muruga.

Friday, the sixth day of the week is recognized as the special day for worshipping Lord Muruga. View the table below for details: 

(You could review in-depth features on the six sects of the Hindu religious sects devised by Aadi Sankara soon here on the hinduKidsWorld.org webpages.)

Devotees of Lord Muruga call their heartfelt God in several lovely names. Here are a couple of those names:

Kumaran – One who is always young.

Murugan – Gorgeous God

Swamynathan – One who taught his father

Saravanan – One who grew up at the pond, Saravana.

Karthikeyan – One who was nursed by the six Karthigai maids

Gankeyan – One who was developed by placing the six triggers of fire which originated from the third eye of Lord Shiva at the river Ganga.

Kanthan – The name derived as Devi Uma merged up the 6 babies into one as Lord Muruga who was with six heads, twelve hands with a single body.

Sevvel – The God with a red body.

Kugan – One who dwells in caves and hillsides.

Visagan – One who was formed as a form of light on the day of the star Visakam

Velan – The God with the weapon, the spear that resembles knowledge.

Subramaniyan – The God who is worshipped by the Gods, People, and the asuras.

Skandan – God who sits as a child with the parents at Somaskanda moortham.

Lord Muruga has six faces; he has six adobes; the number of letters in his mantra, sa ra va na ba va are six. Basics of Hinduism are six; Inner religious beliefs are six; external religious beliefs are six; paths are six.

Thus, the number six signifies many basic aspects of Lord Murugan. You will learn later that Lord Muruga is actually a combined figure of sextuplets (6 babies at birth) and thus 6 faces.

We read that Lord Murugan has six heads. Yes, he has actually eighteen eyes on those six faces. (As like his father Lord Shiva, Lord Muruga too has three eyes on each of his faces). Lord Shiva has five faces, ie: eesaanam, thatpurusham, akoram, vamathevam and saththyosatham. Lord Murugan has all these five along with the powerful face of his mother, Devi Sakthy which makes him the God with six faces.

Lord Murugan has twelve hands. He bears several kinds of weapons on each of those hands. But, the powerful Spear of knowledge that was given him by his mother for destroying all demons is the greatest. The spear of Lord Muruga destroys all sins of his devotees so that they can go to heaven.

Lord Murugan has two consorts, called Valli and Theivayanai. Actually, it signifies that two sakthis called Ichcha sakthi and Kiriya sakthi escort Lord Muruga who is the personification of knowledge.

Veda and Agama are the feet of Lord Murugan.

He has three vehicles. The peacock which represents Thamasa guna, the goat which represents Rasatha guna and the elephant which represents Sathva guna is his energetic vehicles.

We may see the stunning cock depicted on his flag. The cock implies triumph.

Beautiful temples have been built on top of mountains and hills to worship Lord Murugan. All over the world such temples are built and disperse the glory of Lord Murugan.

Among all of them, the six abodes (called padaiveedu) of Lord Murugan are positioned at Thiruthani, Thiruchendur, Thirupparankunram, Pazhamuthir Cholai, Pazhani, and Suvaamimalai. Further to these, there are gorgeous temples for Lord Murugan at Nallur and Kathirgamam in Sri Lanka, Kanchipuram in India, and Bathu caves in Malaysia.

There are many in Europe and London Sri Murugan Temple and London Archway Highgate Hill Murugan Temple are worth mentioning here.

The ardent devotees of Lord Murugan carry out three fastings as part of their worshipping of the Lord, which is Karthigai fasting, Sukkira vaara fasting, and Sashti fasting.

From the time of the Tamils’ history, a lot of learned poets and devotees had been the ardent devotees of Lord Muruga. A couple of them are, Agasthiyar, the sage Sigandi, Nakkeerar, Nalliyak kodan, Avvaiyar, Kachchiyappa sivaachariyar, Murugammai, Poyyamozhi, Arunagirinathar, Sithambara suvami, Gnanavarothayar, Pakazhikkooththar, Kavirajapillai, Kumarakuruparar, Ramalinga adikal, Murukathasa swamy and Paamban adigal. These poet devotees have written several sweet Tamil devotional materials in praise of Lord Muruga.

Lord Murugan was formed from the third eye of Lord Shiva in order to demolish harmful demons who acquired rare boons from Gods and used them to enslave all three globes and torture devas, sages, and people. The excellent Hindu epic, Skanda Purana illustrates this powerful tale of Lord Murugan’s grace and victory.

Dear children, you all can read the full story from Skanda Purana very soon on the pages of your hindukidsworld.org.