Shloka 5
द्वैतवन-सरः प्रवेशविघ्नः
Dvaītavana Lake: Obstructed Entry
पूर्वोक्त कुमार-ग्रहोंने विशाख (स्कन्द)-को अपना पिता माना। भगवान् स्कन्द बकरेके समान मुख धारण करके समस्त कन्यागणों और अपने पुत्रोंसे घिरकर मातृकाओंके देखते- देखते युद्धमें अपने पक्षकी रक्षा करते हैं। वे ही “भद्रशाख” तथा “कौसल' नामसे प्रसिद्ध हुए हैं ।। ततः कुमारपितरं स्कन्दमाहुर्जना भुवि । रुद्रमग्निमुमां स्वाहां प्रदेशेषु महाबलाम्
tataḥ kumāra-pitaraṃ skandam āhur janā bhuvi | rudram agnim umāṃ svāhāṃ pradeśeṣu mahābalām ||
Then people on earth proclaimed Skanda to be the ‘father of the Kumāras’. In various regions they also revered the mighty divine powers—Rudra, Agni, Umā, and Svāhā—recognizing their roles in the origin, protection, and ordering of these fierce child-seizing forces. The narrative frames how communities explain and ritually manage dangerous, liminal beings by locating them within a divine genealogy and sphere of worship.
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse shows how dangerous forces affecting children are brought under moral and ritual order by linking them to recognized deities. By naming Skanda as their ‘father’ and acknowledging Rudra, Agni, Umā, and Svāhā across regions, the tradition channels fear into structured worship and protective practice, emphasizing responsibility, reverence, and communal safeguarding.
Mārkaṇḍeya explains that people came to identify Skanda as the progenitor/overlord of the Kumāras and that, in different localities, they also honored Rudra, Agni, Umā, and Svāhā as powerful divine figures connected with these beings. It is an etiological account—explaining how certain cultic identifications and regional reverences arose.