The Tamil Skanda Purana tradition, known as the Kanda Puranam, tells at length of the war between the god Murugan, also known as Kartikeya or Skanda, son of Shiva and Parvati, and the asura Surapadman, who along with his brothers had obtained through prolonged austerity a boon of near invincibility that allowed them to dominate the gods and threaten cosmic order. Murugan was born and raised specifically to lead the gods against this threat, a narrative purpose paralleling the way several other Puranic deities and avatars are described as incarnating or being born expressly to resolve a particular cosmic crisis that existing divine power could not otherwise address.
The war between Murugan's forces and Surapadman's is described at considerable length in the Tamil tradition, culminating in single combat in which Murugan, wielding his spear, the Vel, finally overcomes Surapadman. In the most widely told version of the story's conclusion, rather than simply killing his opponent, Murugan splits Surapadman into two halves, transforming the defeated demon rather than merely destroying him.
This narrative occupies a place of particular devotional significance within Tamil Shaiva tradition specifically, reflecting Murugan's especially prominent status as a Tamil regional deity alongside his place within the wider Sanskrit Puranic corpus concerning Kartikeya more broadly.