Thread by @Kickass_monk

Recently there is a big uproar on Murugan being Tamil god alone. Its completely nonsensical.The politics of caste has blinded certain factions of Tamils into believing that Murugan is Tamil God. Lord Muruga is worshiped in North as well.This thread will throw some light on it 1/n

Skanda is mentioned in many of our Scriptures- Chandayoga upanishad revere him as Skandakumara, a vedic sage and religious teacher. In the Śatpatha Brahmāna he appears as one of the aspects of Agni. Rig Veda describes him with bells and banners, Atharva Veda with Peacock 2/n

References
Chatterjee, Asim Kumar. The Cult of Skanda-Kārttikeya in Ancient India
Clothey, Fred W. The Many Faces of Murukan
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Sage Panini describes Skanda in samratipugartha where he mentions the worship of Siva, Skanda and Visakha. In fact Maurya kings sold the prathimas of these gods for gold.
Ref: cdn.website-editor.net/e4d6563c507949… 4/n

More references of Lord Skanda can be traced back Kautilya’s Arthashastra, where Kautilya describes Skanda as senapati. There were many temples of Karttikeiya in Kautilya's period
Brahmāindra Yama Senāpatyānidvārāni 5/n

Skanda is mentioned in MBH and Ramayana.
MBH- Chapter sixteen describe in detail Skanda-Karttikeya. Ten chapters of Vanaparva, three in the Salya Parva and three in Anusasana Parva provide details regarding the birth and exploits of Skanda. 6/n

Ramayana- The Balakanda birth story of Skanda.When Rama is proceeding to the forest Kausalya invokes the blessings of Skanda for welfare of Rama during the exile. In the Agastya hermitage a shrine of Kārttikeya is mentioned.Skanda's piercing the Kraunca mountain is also there 7/n

The story of birth of Lord Skanda is mentioned in a number of puranas as well. Vayu Purana describes the birth and exploits of Skanda which is similar to Ramayana. In Brahmavaivarta Purana,Bhagavata Purana and Visnudharmottara Purana Skanda is identified with Vishnu. 8/n

Kalidasa(Gupta period) in his Kumarasambhava and Meghadutam mentions Skanda as emnation of Shiva&is the general of gods who defeats Taraka and other asuras.
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Ref Chandra Rajan: The Complete works of Kalidasa, Sahitya Akademi, 1997.

Bana Bhatt, a contemporary of Harshavardhana, mentions the slaying of Taraka and Kraunca. The sakti of Skanda and its immense capability is described, riding on a beautiful peacock, he carries a red cloth banner. 10/n

copied from -pdfslide.net/documents/the-…

Worship of Skanda was prevalent in entire north India. Bilsad stone pillar inscription during Kumaragupta period and various sculptures discovered from the North East are a testimony to the popularity of Skanda. 11/n

jatland.com/home/Bilsad

books.google.ca/books?id=KP_DT…

A bronze image of Skand at National Museum(NM),Delhi, sculptures of Skanda (pic1 left) in the Gwalior Museum; images at Baijnath, Almora in Parvati temple (pic1 right ) and sculpture from Gwalior(Pic 2)at NM reflect the popularity of Lord Skanda in North 12/n

Yaudheyas, an ancient Indian military tribe, had adopted Skanda as their ruler. They were 4m Rohtak, Haryana and recently several Karttikeya coins were discovered here
Yaudheya coinage of Punjab is shown in pic : Karttikeya standing facing, holding sceptre; peacock on right. 13/n

Ref for the above tweet vcoins.com/en/stores/gang…

The discovery of 5th century AD six-armed image of Skanda in the ruins of Avantipura indicates that he was present in Kashmir. Ref 4m Nilamata Purana of a 'Kumaraloka' indicates that Skanda had an important place as a deity 14/n
Ref-Culture and Political History of Kashmir,Vol 1

Skanda sculptures traced at Mathura of Kanishka's time inform us of Skanda worship. There is sufficient evidence to prove that Skanda was publicly worshipped in temples, like Dasavatara temple at Devagarh in Jhansi area 15/n
Ref- Rana, S.S. A study of Skanda cult, 1995

Image from - pinterest.in/pin/5736460712…

Besides there are many famous temples of Lord Skanda in North India. For eg Kartik Swamy Temple in Garhwal is a highly revered shrine and the location is simple magnificent. Temple is related to the story of fruit between Ganesha and Skanda. 16/n

Pehowa temple is another famous temple where the Lord is present as Kumara or the brahmachari form of Lord Skanda. Lord Kartikeya has a tradition of consecration with oil. Every year millions of people come to anoint this Pindi with oil. 17/n

Another famous temple is the Kartikeya Mandir, Gwalior. Doors of this temple are opened only once a year on Kartik Purnima. The four hundred year old temple is the only one to have an idol of Kartikeya, Ganga, Jamuna and Saraswati. 18/n

Finally, Skanda is also considered to be Sidh Bawa Balak Nath in the Kali Yuga. His shrine is known as "Deotsidh". It is situated 45 kms. away from "Hamirpur" near the border of Hamirpur and Bilaspur districts of Himachal Pradesh, India. 19/n

The vast references to Skanda throughout the history of Sanskrit&Tamil literature alike prove his importance as a pan-Indian deity. To say he is Tamil God is nonsense.
He is a God for everyone who believes in him #வெற்றிவேல்_வீரவேல்
#vetrivelveeravel
#vetrivel_veeravel