MURUKAṈ, the Tamil name for the Hindu deity also known by such names as Skanda, Kumāra, Subrahmaṇyam, or Kārttikeya. The name is sometimes transcribed as Murugan. While Murukaṉ is the most popular god in present-day Tamil India, he has been worshiped in a variety of forms from at least the third or second century BCE. In his earliest South Indian form, Murukaṉ was described in classical (or Caṅkam) literature as a god of hill and hunt, who was worshiped by hill people, the kuriñcis, as a possessor of young damsels and avenger of anaṅku and cūr, malevolent spirits of the hills.

In North India, Skanda was depicted in epic mythology as the son of Rudra-Śiva or Agni, and as a warrior deity patronized by such dynasties as the Śakas, Ikśvaku, and Guptas. By the...