Skandamata

Iconography

Skandamātā is shown with four arms: one holds her infant son Skanda seated on her lap, two hold lotus blossoms, and the fourth is raised in blessing. She is seated on a lotus, which gives her the additional name Padmāsanā. As with the other eight Navadurga forms, she is understood as an aspect of Pārvatī rather than a separate goddess; epithets such as Gaurī, Maheśvarī and Pārvatī applied to her in popular description are general names for the goddess and not unique to this particular form.

The Myth of Skanda and Tārakāsura

The mythology behind the image draws on the well-known cycle of Skanda's birth. After the death of Śiva's first wife Satī, Śiva withdrew into prolonged ascetic meditation. The gods, threatened by the asura Tāraka, who held a boon that he could be killed only by a son of Śiva, sent the love-god Kāma to rouse Śiva's desire for Pārvatī, Satī reborn as the daughter of the Himalaya; Śiva incinerated Kāma with his third eye for the intrusion before eventually accepting Pārvatī. Their son, Skanda, was raised by six celestial nurses, the Kṛttikās (hence the name Kārttikeya), and while still a child was made commander of the divine army and killed Tāraka. Kālidāsa's Sanskrit poem Kumārasambhava, of the fifth century, is the classical literary telling of Śiva and Pārvatī's courtship leading to this birth, traditionally said to break off before the birth itself is narrated; the fuller cycle of Skanda's exploits belongs to the Skanda Purāṇa, one of the largest of the Puranic texts and named for him.

Navratri and the Navadurga Scheme

The sequence of nine goddess-forms worshipped across the nine nights of Navratri — Śailaputrī, Brahmacāriṇī, Candraghaṇṭā, Kūṣmāṇḍā, Skandamātā, Kātyāyanī, Kālarātri, Mahāgaurī and Siddhidātrī — is drawn chiefly from the Devī Kavaca, a protective hymn transmitted alongside the Durgā Saptaśatī (the Devī Māhātmya section of the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa). The nine-day liturgical ordering familiar from present-day Navratri practice is a later systematization of this material rather than a scheme spelled out in the core narrative of the Devī Māhātmya itself.

Worship

On Skandamātā's day, worshippers bathe, wear white, blue or yellow clothing, and place an image or picture of the goddess at the site of worship before offering vermilion (roli-kumkum), rice pudding (kheer) and bananas. Two Sanskrit invocations are in common use: Om Skandamātrai Namaḥ, and a longer verse from the Devī Māhātmya's litany of the goddess's forms — Yā Devī Sarvabhūteṣu Mā Skandamātā Rūpeṇa Saṃsthitā — asking her blessing under this particular form. In popular astrological practice she is also linked to the planet Mercury (Budh), and worshippers seeking to counter that planet's unfavorable influence direct their prayers to her on this day.