Vamana Purana — Birth of Skanda (Kartikeya), Shloka 103

The Birth and Consecration of Skanda (Kartikeya) at Kurukshetra

Devanagari script

शक्ति हुताशो ऽद्रिसुता च वस्त्रं दण्डं गुरुः सा कुटिला कमण्डलुम् मालां हरिः शूलधरः पताकां कण्ठे च हारं मघवानुरस्तः

Transliteration

śakti hutāśo 'drisutā ca vastraṃ daṇḍaṃ guruḥ sā kuṭilā kamaṇḍalum mālāṃ hariḥ śūladharaḥ patākāṃ kaṇṭhe ca hāraṃ maghavānurastaḥ

Translation

ဟုတာရှ (အဂ္နိ) သည် «သက္တိ» (လှံတံအမျိုးအစား) ကို ပေး၏။ တောင်သမီး (အဒြိသုတာ) သည် ဝတ်ရုံကို ပေး၏။ ဂုရုသည် တောင်ဝှေ့တံ (ဒဏ္ဍ) ကို ပေး၏။ ကုတိလာသည် ကမဏ္ဍလု (ရေခွက်) ကို ပေး၏။ ဟရိသည် ပန်းကုံးကို ပေး၏။ တြိရှူလကိုင်ရှင်သည် အလံကို ပေး၏။ မဃဝန် (ဣန္ဒြ) သည် လည်ပင်းနှင့် ရင်ဘတ်ပေါ်တွင် ဝတ်ရန် လည်ဆွဲကို ပေး၏။

Word by Word

• śaktiḥ: the spear/weapon (Śakti)
• śaktiḥ: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: śakti (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग (Feminine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative, 1st), एकवचन (Singular)

• hutāśaḥ: Agni (fire-god)
• hutāśaḥ: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: hutāśa (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग (Masculine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative, 1st), एकवचन (Singular)

• adri-sutā: daughter of the mountain (Pārvatī)
• adri-sutā: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: adri (प्रातिपदिक) + sutā (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग (Feminine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative, 1st), एकवचन (Singular); षष्ठी-तत्पुरुष (genitive determinative)

• ca: and
• ca: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध/connector)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: ca (अव्यय)
• Form: समुच्चय-अव्यय (conjunction)

• vastram: garment/cloth
• vastram: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: vastra (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग (Neuter), द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative, 2nd), एकवचन (Singular)

• daṇḍam: staff/rod
• daṇḍam: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: daṇḍa (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग (Masculine), द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative, 2nd), एकवचन (Singular)

• guruḥ: the teacher (Bṛhaspati)
• guruḥ: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: guru (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग (Masculine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative, 1st), एकवचन (Singular)

• sā: she
• sā: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: tad (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग (Feminine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative, 1st), एकवचन (Singular); सर्वनाम (pronoun)

• kuṭilā: crooked/curved
• kuṭilā: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: kuṭila (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग (Feminine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative, 1st), एकवचन (Singular); विशेषण (adjective)

• kamaṇḍalum: water-pot (kamaṇḍalu)
• kamaṇḍalum: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: kamaṇḍalu (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग (Masculine), द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative, 2nd), एकवचन (Singular)

• mālām: garland
• mālām: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: mālā (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग (Feminine), द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative, 2nd), एकवचन (Singular)

• hariḥ: Hari (Viṣṇu)
• hariḥ: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: hari (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग (Masculine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative, 1st), एकवचन (Singular)

• śūla-dharaḥ: trident-bearer (Śiva)
• śūla-dharaḥ: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: śūla (प्रातिपदिक) + dhara (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग (Masculine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative, 1st), एकवचन (Singular); उपपद-तत्पुरुष (instrument/possessive sense: 'bearing a trident')

• patākām: banner/flag
• patākām: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: patākā (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग (Feminine), द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative, 2nd), एकवचन (Singular)

• kaṇṭhe: on the neck
• kaṇṭhe: Adhikaraṇa (अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: kaṇṭha (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग (Masculine), सप्तमी-विभक्ति (Locative, 7th), एकवचन (Singular)

• ca: and
• ca: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध/connector)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: ca (अव्यय)
• Form: समुच्चय-अव्यय (conjunction)

• hāram: necklace
• hāram: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: hāra (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग (Masculine), द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative, 2nd), एकवचन (Singular)

• maghavān: Maghavan (Indra)
• maghavān: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: maghavat (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग (Masculine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative, 1st), एकवचन (Singular)

• urastaḥ: on/from the chest-front
• urastaḥ: Adhikaraṇa (अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: uras (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग (Neuter), पञ्चमी-विभक्ति (Ablative, 5th), एकवचन (Singular); अव्ययीभाववत् प्रयोगः (adverbial: 'from/on the chest-front')

Speakers

• Narratorial voice listing donations/assignments of emblems within the tīrtha-mahātmya frame

Primary Deities

• Agni
• Pārvatī (as Adri-sutā)
• Bṛhaspati (as Guru)
• Viṣṇu (Hari)
• Śiva (Śūladhara)
• Indra (Maghavan)

Key Themes

• Ritual emblems and divine endowments
• Shaiva-Vaishnava unity (Hari and Śūladhara together)
• Tīrtha as a ritual-assemblage (objects, standards, garlands)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Flavour)

{ "primaryRasa": "vira", "secondaryRasa": "adbhuta", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }

FAQs

Why does a tīrtha-māhātmya list objects like staff, banner, garland, and kamaṇḍalu?

Such lists encode the ritual identity of a sacred site: the tīrtha is not only a place to bathe but a locus with prescribed symbols, guardianship, and liturgical ‘equipment.’ The objects function as markers of authority (daṇḍa), ascetic sanctity (kamaṇḍalu), victory/visibility (patākā), and devotional offering (mālā, hāra).

Does the presence of Hari and Śūladhara indicate sectarian synthesis?

Yes. The verse places Viṣṇu (Hari) and Śiva (Śūladhara) in a single coordinated act of bestowal, a common Purāṇic strategy to present tīrthas as pan-sectarian spaces where multiple divine powers cooperate.

Who is “Kuṭilā” here—an epithet or a specific figure?

Grammatically it reads as a proper name within the donation list (“sā kuṭilā kamaṇḍalum…”). In tīrtha catalogues, such names often denote localized śaktis/attendants incorporated into the broader Purāṇic pantheon; without additional nearby verses, it is safest to treat Kuṭilā as a named feminine power associated with the site’s ritual ecology.