Kartikeya, known also as Skanda, Murugan and Subrahmanya, is the god of war and the commander of the army of the gods, the second son of Shiva and Parvati, who rides a peacock and carries the spear called the vel. His birth is bound to a purpose: the gods, oppressed by the demon Taraka, whom no one but a son of Shiva could kill, needed such a son, and the elaborate myths of Kartikeya's conception turn on how that son was brought forth. In one widespread account the divine seed is carried by Agni the fire and the Ganga, and the child is fostered by the six Krittikas, the mother-stars of the Pleiades, from whom he takes the name Kartikeya and, in some tellings, six faces, one to take the milk of each.
Grown with miraculous speed, he leads the heavenly host and destroys Taraka. There is a notable regional dimension to his worship: in the Tamil-speaking south of India and among Tamil communities across the world he is Murugan, one of the most beloved of all gods, a youthful lord of the hills honoured at great temples such as Palani and Tiruchendur and in the exuberant vow-taking of the festival of Thaipusam. In the north his worship is comparatively muted, and he is often shown as a celibate youth, whereas in the Tamil tradition he has two consorts. Kartikeya thus wears a strikingly different face in different parts of the Hindu world.