Vamana Purana — Birth of Skanda (Kartikeya), Shloka 58
The Birth and Consecration of Skanda (Kartikeya) at Kurukshetra
जिघ्रती कार्त्तिकेयस्य अभिषेकार्द्रमाननम् भात्यद्रिजा यथेन्द्रस्य देवमातादितिः पुरा
jighratī kārttikeyasya abhiṣekārdramānanam bhātyadrijā yathendrasya devamātāditiḥ purā
As Pārvatī, the Daughter of the Mountain, smelled the face of Kārttikeya, still moist from the consecratory bathing, she shone forth—just as, in ancient times, Aditi, the Mother of the Gods, shone upon beholding Indra.
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FAQs
The comparison elevates Kārttikeya’s consecration by aligning it with the archetypal Vedic model of divine sovereignty: Indra as paradigmatic king of the gods, and Aditi as the luminous, auspicious divine mother. It frames Skanda’s new status as similarly legitimate and world-ordering.
It highlights immediacy: the consecration has just occurred, and the ritual water is still present. In Purāṇic poetics, such details intensify auspiciousness (maṅgala) and mark the transition into office as freshly conferred.
Primarily a maternal gesture of affection and recognition, but it also functions as a sign of acceptance and blessing immediately after a rite of elevation—an embodied confirmation of the consecrated status.