The child with six mothers: Kartikeya's birth as Parvati's story
The seed Agni could not hold, Parvati's curse on the gods' wives, the six sages' wives, the Ganga and the reeds, the six Krittikas who nursed one boy with six faces, and the day Parvati sent for her son; in the Tamil Kanda Puranam her embrace makes six babies one.
Who is in it
Parvatithe mother who did not bear him and claims him
After the wedding Shiva and Parvati withdraw for a thousand divine years; the gods, needing a son against Taraka, wait and worry.
Vishnu warns that whoever parts the couple will suffer, and that the seed, once out, will become Skanda where it falls.
The gods praise at the door; Shiva lets the seed fall; Agni as a dove swallows it.
Parvati finds the gods there and curses them: their wives will be barren; and Agni: he will devour everything.
The gods who eat what the fire carries are scorched; Shiva has them vomit it as a golden mass like a mountain; Agni alone still burns.
Narada advises the women who bathe in Magha; six of the seven sages' wives, chilled, warm themselves at Agni though Arundhati warns them; the seed enters by the pores of their hair.
The six are cast off by their husbands; they lay the burden on Himavat's peak; the mountain throws it into the Ganga, who leaves it in a forest of reeds.
A boy is born on the sixth bright day of Margashirsha; milk comes to Parvati's breasts at Kailash.
Six Krittikas come to bathe, all want to hold him; he takes six faces and drinks from all six, and they raise him as their own.
Parvati asks Shiva where his seed went; the elements and the Dusk tell the whole road and his name, Karttikeya.
Nandi and Virabhadra come armed to the Krittikas' house; the women are afraid; the boy says do not fear.
Nandi says his mother urged the search and his father will crown him; the boy calls the Krittikas his mothers and Parvati his mother too, and goes.
In the Tamil telling six lights from Shiva's six faces become six babies on six lotuses in the Saravana pond; when Parvati takes them up they join into one body with six faces and twelve arms.
After the wedding the couple withdraw and a thousand divine years pass. The gods on Meru wonder why no son has come; Vishnu warns them that parting a couple brings ruin and that the seed, once it falls, will be Skanda. The earth shakes; the gods go to Kailash and praise at the door. Shiva, holding back for fear of offending Parvati, finally lets the seed fall and Agni, sent by the gods in the form of a dove, swallows it. Parvati comes out, finds the gods, and in fury curses them: the gods' wives will bear no children; and Agni, who devours everything. The gods, fed by the fire, become pregnant and scorched and beg at her threshold; Shiva makes them vomit a golden mass like a mountain. Agni alone still burns. Told to put it in a good woman's womb, he says no woman but Parvati could hold it; Narada names the women who bathe in Magha. Six of the seven sages' wives come chilled from the water and warm themselves at the fire though Arundhati warns them; the seed enters by the roots of their hair; their husbands cast them off. On Himavat's peak they set it down; the scorched mountain throws it into the Ganga, who leaves it in a forest of Shara grass, and a splendid boy is born on the sixth bright day of Margashirsha. At Kailash milk flows from Parvati's breasts and drums sound. Vishvamitra does the boy's rites; Agni gives him a spear; Indra's bolt brings Shakha, Vishakha and Naigama out of his sides; six Krittikas come to bathe and quarrel over who will hold him, so he takes six faces and drinks from all six, and they take him home and love him more than their lives. Later Parvati asks Shiva where his seed went; the elements tell the road, and the Dusk says the Krittikas named him Karttikeya. Shiva sends Nandi and Virabhadra with the ganas; the Krittikas are terrified; the boy tells them not to fear. Nandi says Parvati urged the search and Shiva will crown him and send him against Taraka; the boy praises the wise women who nursed him, says he is their fostered son and that Parvati is as good as his mother, and goes.
Shiva and Uma are together a hundred divine years; the gods, afraid of what may come, ask him to hold back. He agrees, but part has already stirred; the Earth receives it, Agni and Vayu enter it, and it becomes the white mountain and the reed forest Sharavana. Uma, kept from a son, curses the gods that their wives will bear no children, and curses the Earth to be the wife of many and have no joy of children. Later, needing a commander, the gods have Agni give the energy to Ganga, Himavat's elder daughter; she cannot bear it and lays it on the mountain, where it shines like molten gold and makes gold and silver in the rocks. Indra and Vayu set the six Krittikas to nurse the child; he takes six faces and drinks from all at once; he is Kartikeya for them and Skanda because he slid out; in a day he is grown, and the gods make him their general.
What is different here:
Uma curses the Earth as well as the gods' wives; Ganga is the carrier who cannot bear it; no dove, no sages' wives, no Nandi; the nurses are the Krittikas from the start.
Agni, sent by Brahma and Vishnu, shrinks himself, slips past Nandi and begs alms at the inner door with his hands for a bowl. Shiva rises in fury as Bhairava; Parvati stops him, gives Agni the alms herself, and curses him to be all-devouring and to suffer. The gods, pregnant through the fire, vomit a golden mass at Shiva's word. At dawn the sages' wives warm themselves at Agni though Arundhati forbids it; the Krittikas receive the seed and are cursed by their husbands to become the Krittika stars; they lay the burden on Himavan's summit, and it floats in the Ganga ringed with hollow bamboos as a six-faced infant. Milk comes to Parvati's breasts and she asks Shiva why; he answers as if he did not know. Narada announces the birth; Kailash is decorated; Shiva rides the bull with Girija to the sandbank; Parvati embraces the child, calls him Guha and nurses him; on Shiva's lap the baby grips the serpent Vasuki and counts his hands wrong, and Shiva laughs.
What is different here:
Parvati curses Agni only; the nurses are the sages' wives who become the stars; Parvati nurses him herself on the Ganga's sandbank; the baby's miscount and Shiva's laugh.
Agni loves the seven sages' wives, becomes their household fire to be near them, and goes to the forest in despair. Svaha, Daksha's daughter, who loves him, takes the form of Angiras's wife and then of five others, never Arundhati's, and six times carries his seed as a bird to a golden lake on the White Mountain. A six-faced boy is born, Skanda, the cast-off; by the fourth day he is grown; he takes Shiva's Tripura bow, splits the Krauncha hill with an arrow and lops a peak from the White Mountain. The sages cast off their innocent wives; Indra sends the Mothers to kill the child and they ask instead to nurse him; Indra's bolt brings Vishakha from his side and Indra surrenders. The six cast-off wives ask to be his mothers and are given a place among the stars as Krittika. Brahma tells him that Rudra with Agni and Uma with Svaha made him; Mahadeva and Parvati ride out in a lion chariot and he commands their seventh corps and kills Mahisha. The hymn says he was born of Ganga, Svaha, the Earth or the Krittikas as he chose.
What is different here:
Svaha and Agni are the parents; Parvati curses no one; Uma enters only at the end when Brahma names Rudra and Uma as his makers; the mothers are the Krittikas as cast-off wives.
Kanda Puranam (Kachiyappa Sivachariar) and the Kanda Shashti tradition
South India · Tamil Nadu; TiruchendurKaumara🪔 Karthigai Deepam
Surapadman and his brothers, sons of Surasa by Kashyapa, win boons from Shiva and drive the gods out of heaven. Indra, Brahma and Vishnu go to Kailash; Kama is sent to wake Shiva and is burnt. Shiva takes his six-faced form and from the third eye of each face comes a light that fills all space. He gathers it in his hands and gives it to Vayu and Agni to carry to the Ganga; Vayu tires and hands it to Agni, Agni drops it in the river, and Ganga, unable to bear it, carries it to a small pond ringed with sara reeds, the Saravana Poigai. There the light becomes six beautiful babies lying on six lotuses, and the six Karthigai maidens nurse them. Shiva and Parvati come. When Parvati takes the babies up they join into a single body with six faces and twelve arms: Skanda, the joined one, Kartikeya for the maidens, Saravanabhava for the pond, Murugan. He leads the gods' army and kills the asuras with his vel. The six days of Kanda Shashti in Aippasi end with the Surasamharam at Tiruchendur, when the vel is laid on the effigy's neck and the demon's four heads fall; his wedding is kept the next day.
What is different here:
Six lights, six babies, one body made by Parvati's embrace; no curse, no sages' wives, no Krittika stars; the enemy is Surapadman, not Taraka.
Sources: The Siva Purana, tr. J. L. Shastri (Motilal Banarsidass, 1950), Rudra Samhita: Parvati Khanda (2.3), Kumara Khanda (2.4), Srishti Khanda 16 and Vayaviya Samhita 1.16, on Wisdom Library; Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda sargas 36-37, prose rendering on valmikiramayan.net; The Skanda Purana, tr. G. V. Tagare (Motilal Banarsidass), Maheshvara Khanda: Kedara Khanda 27, 34-35 and Arunachala Mahatmya 3-13, on Wisdom Library; The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), Vana Parva sections 223-230 (the birth of Skanda), on the ibiblio Sripedia mirror; Kandar Anubhuti, introduction: the story of Murugan's birth in the Kanda Puranam (kaumaram.com); Wikipedia: Kartikeya; Surasamharam; Kanda Puranam (redirects to Skanda Purana)