The boy Murugan asks Brahma what Om means, and when Brahma cannot say, locks him up; when Shiva comes to ask for his release, the son teaches the father, and at Swamimalai the boy's shrine stands on the hill above Shiva's.
South India · Swamimalai, near Kumbakonam, Tamil NaduKaumara
The boy asks Brahma how he makes living things. With the Vedas, Brahma says, and begins to recite them from their first syllable, Om. What does it mean, asks the boy; Brahma cannot say, and Murugan puts him in prison and takes over creation himself. The gods go to Shiva. Shiva asks his son to let Brahma go, and is told no. Then you explain it, says Shiva, and the son does, the father listening as a pupil. That is why Murugan here is Swaminatha, the teacher of the lord, and why his shrine is on the hillock, up sixty steps named for the sixty years, with Shiva's shrine below.