Vamana Purana — Birth of Skanda (Kartikeya), Shloka 45
The Birth and Consecration of Skanda (Kartikeya) at Kurukshetra
माहासेन इति ख्यातो हुताशस्यास्तु पुत्रकः शारद्वत इति ख्यातः सुतः शरवणस्य च
māhāsena iti khyāto hutāśasyāstu putrakaḥ śāradvata iti khyātaḥ sutaḥ śaravaṇasya ca
«Il est célèbre sous le nom de “Māhāsena” ; qu’il soit le fils de Hutāśa (Agni, le Feu). Il est célèbre sous le nom de “Śāradvata” — et aussi comme fils de Śaravaṇa (le fourré de roseaux).»
{ "primaryRasa": "adbhuta", "secondaryRasa": "shanta", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }
FAQs
It presents Skanda as the commander of a vast divine host—an archetypal war-leader who organizes and empowers the devas’ army, especially in demon-slaying cycles like Andhaka’s.
One major Purāṇic strand narrates that Śiva’s fiery seed is borne/handled by Agni, making Fire a proximate ‘father’ in the transmission of divine potency. The text preserves this by explicitly granting Skanda the patronymic link to Hutāśa.
‘Śaravaṇa’ is a reed-thicket setting—often treated as a specific sacred landscape in Skanda lore. Even when not mapped to a single named tīrtha in the verse, it functions as a mythic-geographical marker: the deity’s manifestation is tied to a recognizable ecological feature (reed-beds), which later traditions frequently localize to particular wetlands or riverine margins.