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Kartikeya is elder son of lord Shiva and goddess Parvati, but he is not worshiped much compared to his dad, mother and brother.

If you visit temples in our country, rarely any temple will have an idol for Kartikeya, whereas the temple will always have idols of lord Shiva and Ganesha and atleast a photo frame of goddess Parvati.

This is same with the frames of gods we see around, Kartikeya is rarely seen with them

lord Shiva family

Credits for Image : ajitvadakayil.blogspot.com

LightAchala
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Mr. Alien
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    lord Kartikeya a.k.a lord Ayyappa is worshipped most in south region of India. Yeah but your point is true that there is no "Kartikeya chaturthi" as "Ganesh chaturthi". – Mr_Green Jul 09 '14 at 10:43
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    @Mr_Green Lord Karthikeya and Lord Ayyappa are two different gods. Karthikeya was created by Lord Shiva from the flames of his eyes to destroy the demon Soorapadman. Ayyappa was born out of the union of Lord Shiva with Lord Vishnu in his Mohini form. – TheLoneKing Jul 09 '14 at 10:45
  • @Dharmaputhiran yeah, your explanation is correct. Thanks for clarifying. – Mr_Green Jul 09 '14 at 10:48
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    Just an FYI, Ganesha worship in Maharashtra (one of the places with highest Ganesha worshippers) was the brainchild of Bal Gandaghar Tilak so as to combine religion with freedom movement. – Vineet Menon Jul 09 '14 at 15:12
  • Mr Green, Ayyappa and Karthikeya are not one –  Aug 09 '14 at 09:30
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    In malaysia ... majority of hindus here are tamils.... we have so many karthikeya temples here.... in kuala lumpur, penang, ipoh, sungai petani, seremban, johor...n maran..n THAIPUSAM is a public holiday n dedicated to lord karthigeya –  Aug 03 '15 at 15:08
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    Kartikey is very well worshiped in South India. I remember a company owned by a Sounth Indian guy which was having a big idol of Bhagwan Kartikey at the entrance even bigger than Ganesha. Ganesha is worshiped every where because he was blessed by Shiva to be the first God to be worshiped. Shiv sent his elder son Kartikey to South and made him responsible for protecting South India from evils. I remember perhaps same is mentioned somewhere in Shiv Puran. – Amit Jul 10 '14 at 07:03
  • Another fyi... Kartikeya is not the elder son of shiva but the younger son according to the belief in South India. – TheLoneKing Nov 18 '15 at 17:14
  • @Dharmaputhiran Yeah, it's similar to how North Indiana believe that Ganesha has two wives and Kartikeya is unmarried, whereas South Indians believe that Kartikeya has two wives and Ganesha is unmarried. – Keshav Srinivasan Nov 18 '15 at 18:02
  • @Mr_Green "lord Kartikeya a.k.a lord Ayyappa is worshipped most in south region of India." Kartikeya and Ayappa are completely different. Kartikeya is a son of Shiva who defeated the demon Tarakasura. Ayyappa refers to prince Manikandan of Pandalam, who was an incarnation of the god Dharma Shasta, the son of Shiva and Mohini, and who defeated the demoness Mahishi. See my question here: http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/10134/36 In any case, Kartikeya and Dharma Shasta are completely different sons of Shiva. – Keshav Srinivasan Dec 10 '16 at 16:11
  • It is true that overall Ganesha is more worshiped. I wonder if this has something to do with the boon he received at the time of his head transplant? Also Kartikeya is a general, an army leader. So his worship in south may have significance as the Hindu thoughts spread in south and beyond the border of Bharat. – Jay Thakar Apr 19 '22 at 21:59

1 Answers1

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The point that Karthikeya is not widely worshipped may be true in North India. But in Tamilnadu, he is very popular. This may be due to the fact that all the major incidents which involved Karthikeya took place in Tamilnadu. The Six Abodes of Murugan signifies such incidents. Apart from the Six main temples, there are numerous other notable temples dedicated to Karthikeya. Maruthamalai, Kathirkamam, Sikkal, Kunrakkudi are some of them. In Tamilnadu, he is regarded as the Tamil Kadavul (meaning Tamil God).

Outside Tamilnadu, Karthikeya is worshipped in Karnataka and Kerala also. Kukke Subramanya Temple is located in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. Keezhattingal Sree Subrahmanyan swamy temple, Chacka BalaSubrahmanya swamy temple, Edappazhinji Subrahmanya swamy temple are a few of the many Karthikeya temples located in Kerala.

Outside India, Karthikeya is worshipped in Sri Lanka and Malaysia too. Nallur Murugan temple and Thirukkovil Murugan temple (it was affected by 2004 Tsunami) are notable temples in Sri Lanka. The Batu Malai Murugan temple is a famous temple located near Kaula Lumpur in Malaysia.

It is true that Karthikeya worship is not popular in North India. During the Gupta rule, Karthikeya should have been worshipped (or atleast widely known) considering the fact that two Gupta kings were named after him (Skanda Gupta and Kumara Gupta). Even today there is Karthikeya temple in Haryana at Pehowa. In Delhi, Malai Mandir is a temple dedicated to Karthikeya.

The existence of numerous temples lead us to the conclusion that Karthikeya worship is popular in South India. In Tamilnadu, it is equal in popularity to Shiva worship. But in North India, Karthikeya worship seems to have declined slowly.

Regarding the frames of Shiva's family, here is one with Karthikeya. In fact, this is the first picture that came up when I googled "siva family".

enter image description here

TheLoneKing
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