The birth of Kartikya

Sham Misri

Ganga has played a vital role in Hindu ceremony: in rituals of birth and initiation of marriage and death. As a goddess, she has moved among the great celestials of Hinduism: at times the child of Brahma, the wife of Shiva, the metaphysical product of Vishnu, or mother of the Vasus and to Kartikya, god of war. But ever and always, she confers benediction. Even in the underworld, the river has pointed the way to paradise.

Indirectly, Ganges is also mother of Skanda or Kartikya god of war- and the planet of Mars. An interesting story tells us that at one time, the gods were powerless against the demon Taraka, who, it seems, could be destroyed only by a child of Shiva born without aid of woman. According to the Shiva Purana, that in order to assure the Earth's salvation, the gods had to hasten the birth of Shiva's son, who was then destined to lead the divine hosts and to conquer the forces of darkness which had taken possession of the planet. But Shiva was in no hurry to make a son, and so the Gods found it necessary to steal Shiva's seed by interrupting his love play with Devi (Parvati) at the precise moment when the precious bīja (sperm, seed) was to come forth. Intercourse having been interrupted, the seed fell to the ground. Agni, in the form of a Dove, took the seed in his beak and flew with it. The Purana then describes the adventures of the precious bīja in a series of twelve stages until it finally comes back to Shiva and Parvati, transformed into the beautiful youth Skanda.

The two most important persons in the adventure of Shiva's stolen Seed are Agni and Ganga.

Agni is the element Fire. His color is red and his geometric symbol - according to the  Upanishads - is the triangle. He is more specifically Mars, which the Indian Veda confirms by allotting him ruler ship of Tuesday, or Mars Day.

Ganga, on the other hand, represents the Water element, and she is connected with the Moon, as the story of her birth reveals; and through the Moon to Saturn, in the form of Mahakala.

The Dove is a key symbol and has a very special connection with the worship of Shiva and Parvati. In the famous Amaranth Cave, in South Kashmir, India, an extraordinary phenomenon takes place yearly. This magnificent cave is tucked away in the sacred Himalayas. From time immemorial each year on the full moon day of August, an ice Lingam is formed spontaneously.

It is to be noted that while the phenomenon of the ice Lingam occurs in the area that is most sacred to Shiva, near to the source of Ganga, the Dove which is the bird is seen attending the cave. Through his aspect of Agni, the formation of the Lingam occurs with the full moon of

Agni, unable to hold Shiva's powerful seed (bīja) in his beak any longer, dropped it in the Ganges. The river then carried the seed and when the time of birth arrived she deposited it in a sacred reed grove situated on her shores; and there Kartikya was born.

He is called Kartikya because the Krttikas took up the child and nourished him. They were six in number, wives of the six Rishis, therefore, the child is also called Shanmugam, 'of six mouths', having suckled at the breasts of the six wives.