The Kanda Purānam, or Tamil

version of the Skanda Purana, was written by

Kachiappa Sivāchāryar of Kumara Kottam at
Kanchipuram. According to the account of
Kachiappa, each day he would write his
inspired account of the career of Lord
Murugan or Skanda, and in the evening
deposit his day's work in the mūlasthāam of
Lord Subrahmanya at Kumara Kottam.

Each night, miraculously, the Lord Himself

would modify Kacciappa's manuscript with
His own corrections. Hence, the Kanda
Purānam is considered to be the absolutely
authoritative account of Lord Murugan's
career bearing the seal of approval of none
other than the Lord Himself.

The original Kanda Purānam was intended

to be recited aloud in Tamil to audiences who
were already well acquainted with the
marvelous career of Lord Murugan. This
abridged, illustrated Kanda Purānam is
intended to be seen and read by devotees
young and old who live near or far from the
sacred places mentioned in this purānam.
May all obtain the grace of Lord Murugan
merely by beholding this sacred account.
Once in the
Himālayas, Parvati prayed to
Lord Siva to help her to take a new
birth so that tha name of Dakshayani,
daughter of Daksha, would be
removed. As per her request the Lord
ordered her to become a child of
Kamavan, the King of the Hills.
Parvati became the child of Kamavan
and at the age of five she started
praying to Lord Siva.

Surapadman the asura was ruling the

three worlds and was troubling the
devas and torturing them. The devas
went to Lord Siva and requested him
to help them. Siva promised them that
he would make an end to Surapadma's
life by creating a son of his own.

Siva took six faces on his head and

created six heads and created six
flames from each of his faces. Due to
the terrific heat produced from the
light the devas all fled. Parvati also
could not resist the heat and ran away.
Aranar collected all the six sparks and
gave them to Vayu the wind god.
Vayu gave the sparks to Agni the fire
god as he also could not bear the heat.
Agni gave them to River Ganga and
finally Ganga surrendered the six
sparks into Saravana Poikai, a marshy
pond in Himalaya.
With a bright
body, six faces and
twelve arms, Lord
Murugaappeared
on a red lotus.

Six Krittika
maidens discovered
the six baby boys
as per the order of
Lord Visnu. Each
took one to herself
to nurse.
From the chilambu (anklet) worn
by Parvati nine saktis were produced
and with the help of Lord Siva these
saktis were transformed into nine
brothers of Lord Murugan.
Veerabahu was one of them.

Lord Siva went to Saravana Poikai

with Parvati, who embraced Lord
Murugan, nursed him with her milk
and brought him before Lord Siva.

Siva took Murugan in his arms and

made Murugan sit with him and
Parvati. Brahma, Visnu and Indra
were pleased and showered flowers
upon Lord Murugan.
The
Krittikāmaidens
prayed to Lord Siva.
Siva blessed them and
said, "Since my son was
brought up by you, those
who pray to Lord
Murugan on Karttikai
days will obtain all they
want."

Narada Rishi performed

puja and from the
homam a big ram
emerged and started
killing people. Narada
could not do anything
about it, so he reported it
to Siva and asked him to
control the ram.

Veerabahu controlled the

ram and presented it to
Lord Murugan as his
riding vehicle.
Once Lord Brahma came to Mount
Kailasa and walked in proudly. Lord
Murugan called Brahma and asked him for
the meaning of the pranava mantra 'OM'.

Brahma replied that "Om means Lord

Brahma."

Angered, Murugan gave Brahma a beating

on all four heads and kicked him out of the
place. Murugan then threw Brahma in prison
at Kandaverpilai. Then he himself took over
the job of creation, protection and
destruction of the universe.

Lord Siva came to know about Brahma's

imprisonment and sent Nandi to request
Murugan to release Brahma. But Murugan
ignored the request.

When Narada told Siva about Murugan's

refusal to release Brahma, Siva laughed and
he himself came to Lord Murugan, released
Brahma and gave him back his work of
Creation.
Lord Siva made
Murugan to sit on His lap
and asked him the meaning
of 'OM'. Murugan whispered
the meaning to Lord Siva's
ear. Thus he became Swami
Nathan, the lord of his own
father.

Visnu's daughters Amirta

Valli and Sundara Valli both
wanted to marry Lord
Murugan and were praying
to him at Saravana Poikai.

Murugan appeared before

them and arranged for
Amirta Valli to be born as
the daughter of Lord Indra
and for Sundara Valli to
become the daughter of sage
Siva Muni and to be adopted
by a hunter chieftain as his
step daughter.
When Lord
Murugan was with
Lord Siva upon Mount
Kailasa, Lord Indra
together with Lord Visnu
and Lord Brahma
approached Lord Siva
and reported the cruel
deeds of the asuras and
asked Him to put a stop
to it.

Siva asked Murugan to

go with an army and
destroy the asura
monsters and thereby put
an end to the suffering of
the devas. He gave Lord
Murugan the power to
destroy Surapadma and
his brothers and any
army of asuras. For this
he presented Murugan
with a marvelous spear,
the Vel.
The Lord also presented a
marvelous chariot to Lord
Murugan with the wind god
Vayu as its charioteer. Lord
Murugan then set off to
vanquish the asuras.

As Lord Murugan was

proceeding south, he
encountered Kraunchan and
Tarakan, two brothers of
Surapadman. They were ruling
Mayapuram at the foot of the
Vindhya mountains and were
blocking the way by standing in
the form of a huge mountain.
Seeing the mountain, the
followers of Tirumal (Lord
Visnu) were terrified. Lord
Murugan decided to fight with
Tarakan and kill him.

At the command of Lord

Murugan, Veerabahu went with
hundreds of thousands of
soldiers and fought with
Tarakan. A fierce battle
followed.
Tārakan saw that his
soldiers were being killed
in great numbers and
became very angry. He
used magic to send
Veerabahu and his men
into the Krauncha
mountain and bury them
there.

Narada carried this

message to Lord
Murugan. Murugan came
and fought with Tarakan.
He hurled his Vel, which
pierced Tarakan's chest
and turned the Krauncha
mountain into powder.

As soon as the mountain

was destroyed,
Veerabahu and his men
woke up alive. They all
sang the praise of Lord
Murugan.
Asurēndran, son of Tārakan, went
to Surapadman and informed him of
Tārakan's death and wept. Surapadman
upon hearing that Murugan, a mere child,
had killed his mighty brother Tārakan,
became furious. His minister Aramahan
tried to console Surapadman and sent
spies to find out the strength of Lord
Murugan's army.

Lord Murugan had camped on the bank

of the river Manni with his army. He
asked Devadakshan to build a temple
there. He installed the image of Lord Siva
and offered prayer at that spot.

Lord Siva was very pleased with Lord

Murugan's worship. Being seating on His
vehicle Nandi he appeared with Goddess
Uma before Murugan. Upon being
worshipped by Lord Murugan, Lord Siva
provided him with the Pasupata weapon
to kill the asura monsters.
Lord Murugan was
on his way south to
Tiruchendur. The six sons of
sage Parasura who was
performing tapas (penance)
upon Tiruparankundram,
namely Tatar, Anandar,
Nandi, Satirmugar,
Chakravani and Mali, felt the
arrival of Lord Murugan in
their mind's eye. They found
Murugan and prostrated
before Him.

Afer reaching Tiruchendur,

Murugan sat upon the throne
in the temple built by
Devadakshan while his army
cheered. Then Murugan
asked Brihaspati (Jupiter) to
narrate the whole story of
Surapadman to him.
Murugan knew the whole
story of course, but he asked
Brihaspati to narrate it
anyways.
It seems that Maya, a woman of the asura clan,
attracted the hermit sage Kasyapa and begot
Surapadman, Singhamukhan, Tarakan and Asamukhi.
From their sweat hundreds of thousands of asuras
were born. Surapadman and his younger brothers
studied under Sukeerar. He did hard penance toward
Lord Siva for many years.

Lord Siva appeared before him and granted him the

power to live for a hundred and eight yugas, to rule a
thousand and eight kingdoms and to be undefeatable
even by the forces of Lord Visnu. Surapadman's life
force could not be destroyed by anyone except by the
power created when Indra's chariot, the Lion throne
and the four kinds of forces were joined together.

The soldiers of Surapadman invaded heaven and

burned it. They enslaved the followers of Tirumal
(Visnu) and made them to do household cleaning
chores. Asamukhi went to kidnap Indra's wife Indrani
who was hiding in Seerkali in order to present her to
Surapadman. Surapadman commanded his son
Banugopan to burn heaven. He imprisoned the son of
Indra, Sayantan and other followers of Tirumal and
treated them harshly.
This was all narrated by
Brihaspati (god Jupiter) to Lord
Murugan who heard everything.
Murugan sent Veerabahu as
messenger to Surapadman to advise
him to release the followers of
Tirumal. Veerabahu obeyed at once
and started for Veera Mahendrapuri,
the capital of the asuras. Assuming
a huge form, he slayed the guards
and entered the city.

Murugan then appeared in a dream

of Sayantan and said to him, "Yours
sufferings will soon end. The asuras
will be destroyed. Have no fear!"

Veerabahu met Sayanthan and

others and comforted them. He told
them, "You attended Takka's Velvi
and ate Avirbhagam and so you
were imprisoned. To redeem you
Lord Subrahmanya is coming with
His Vel. He will destroy
Surapadman."
Then Veerabahu went to Attani
Mandapam where Surapadman resided.
Surapadman was sitting upon a throne decorated
with diamonds and pearls. Veerabahu introduced
himself as Lord Murugan's messenger, but
Surapadman ignored him and did not invite him
to sit down.

By the power of Lord Murugan there came a

throne with a halo decorated with precious
gems. Veerabahu sat on it and spoke about the
greatness of Lord Murugan and asked
Surapadman to release Tirumal's followers.

Upon hearing Veerabahu, Surapadman clapped

his hands and laughed. He asked one of his men
to throw Veerabahu in prison since to kill a
messenger was a sin.

By the power of Lord Murugan, Veerabahu

demolished the entire Attani Mandapam and all
the forests surrounding the capital. He killed
Satamukhan, Vakshiravagu the son of
Surapadman and several thousand other monster
asuras who opposed him.
Veerabahureturned
to Tiruchendur and
reported all that
happened to Lord
Murugan.

Surapadman learned of
his son's death and
became despondent. He
consulted his ministers
and decided to rebuild his
city and fight with Lord
Murugan.

Lord Murugan too

decided to fight with the
asuras and eliminate
them. He went to Sri
Lanka with his army and
camped at Emakudam.

Narada reported this to

Surapadman, who
became very angry and
vowed to kill Murugan as
soon as possible.
Thus began the war
between the devas and the asuras.
It lasted for many days as the
asuras used their black magic and
played many tricks.

One son of Surapadman,

Banugopan, would stand
suspended in the air and fight.
His magic weapon sent nine of
Murugan's soldiers and five
demons into the Nanneer Sea and
made them unconscious. But
Lord Murugan's Vel destroyed
Banugopan's weapon. Veerabahu
and others recovered and got up
to fight again.

On the fourth day of battle

Murugan killed Agnimukhan and
on the fifth day he killed
Banugopan and Tarumagopan.
Surapadman wept in sorrow,
seeing his followers being killed.
During the last four days Lord
Murugan and Surapadman fought
together fiercely. Surapadman
commanded all the asura forces that
were scattered in a thousand and eight
worlds. He brought the four kinds of
forces which reached the earth and
made the followers of Tirumal
tremble.

Lord Murugan destroyed all these

forces. He travelled across the
universe and destroyed all the
remaining forces of Surapadman.
Surapadman fought while being lifted
by his Lion throne. So Lord Murugan
killed the lion. Finally Surapadman
took the form of darkness and tried to
engulf all the followers of Tirumal.
Yet Lord Murugan prevented this
with his shining Vel.

In the form of a monstrous mango

tree Surapadman became invisible
and stood on the bottom of the ocean.
Murugan hurled his Vel and split the
mango tree. The Vel split
Surapadman's indestructible body in
two, one half becoming a cock and
the other half a peacock. Lord
Murugan made the peacock to be His
vehicle and the cock to be the
emblem on His battle flag.

The devas were thus redeemed. At the

command of Lord Murugan, Lord
Varuna destroyed what remained of
the asura capital Veera Mahendrapuri
in the ocean.

Then Lord Murugan returned to India

at Tiruchedur and prayed to Lord
Siva to repent for having spilt the
blood of so many demons. All the
celestial and earthly beings rejoiced
and acclaimed Lord Murugan as their
savior.
Lord Indraoffered his
daughter Teyvayanai(Devasena
or Amirta Valli) in marriage to
Lord Murugan and the wedding
was celebrated at
Tiruparankundram with great
pomp and celebration.

Later Lord Murugan wooed and

wedded the hunter's
daughter Valli Amma(Sundara
Valli) and all three went to live
happily at Tiruttani where they
remain to this day.

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