Chapters 151-170 of the Shiva Purana

Rudra Samhita - Kumara Khanda

The fourth of the Rudra Samhita's five khandas, and the first from Volume 2 of this edition. Kartikeya's birth from Shiva's own seed - passed through Agni, the six Krittikas, Himalaya, Ganga and finally a clump of reeds - his upbringing and his slaying of Tarakasura; then, in a separately flagged origin story, Ganesha's creation from Parvati alone, the battle that costs him his original head, and his restoration with an elephant's head. Closes with the race around the world that determines which son marries first.

1. Chapter 1: Shiva's Amusement

   Shiva and Parvati's married pleasures stretch on for a thousand divine years, long enough that the gods, desperate for the son who alone can kill Taraka, grow anxious and consult Vishnu - who tells them plainly that interrupting a couple's union carries real consequences, citing several precedents, and that they must simply wait for the natural end of this one.

2. Chapter 2: Birth of Shiva's Son

   Shiva releases his seed as instructed, and Agni, commanded to accept it, cannot bear the energy and passes it onward through a remarkable relay - the wives of six sages, Himalaya, the Ganga, and finally a clump of reeds - each unable to contain it until the last, where it finally becomes a child. Parvati, furious at the gods' interference, curses them and Agni before relenting.

3. Chapter 3: Kartikeya's Pastimes

   The infant, discovered by Vishvamitra and briefly named Shveta, performs his own rites of passage through pure infant strength - destroying an army of rakshasas with a single spear-strike, producing three warrior-sons from a single blow of Indra's vajra, and finally being claimed and nursed by the six Krittikas, who name him Kartikeya for their own sake.

4. Chapter 4: Search for Kartikeya

   Parvati, unaware her own son has been born and raised elsewhere, demands Shiva account for the lost semen. In a formal inquest, Shiva questions the elements and witnesses one by one - earth, fire, the mountain, the Ganga, the wind, the sun, the moon, water, twilight and night - each confirming their part in the relay that finally produced the child the Krittikas now raise.

5. Chapter 5: Kumara's Abhisheka

   Kartikeya departs his grieving foster-mothers for Kailasa, where Shiva and Parvati receive him with overwhelming joy amid vast festivities, and every major deity in turn gives him a signature weapon or gift - Vishnu his own emblems, Shiva his trident and Pinaka, Indra his elephant and vajra, Agni a spear, Kama his own weapon - before his formal consecration as commander against Taraka.

6. Chapter 6: Kumara's Extraordinary Conduct

   Before the war begins, a brahmana approaches Kumara in distress over a lost sacrificial goat, delivering an extended hymn of praise before making his request. Kumara's attendant Virabahu locates the goat in Vaikuntha itself; Kumara rides it once around the entire universe within a single muhurta before returning it, unharmed, to its owner.

7. Chapter 7: Start of the War

   With Kumara placed formally at the front of the army, the gods and Taraka's forces meet at the confluence of the Mahi with the ocean. An extended, brutal general engagement follows between named champions on both sides, with the battlefield itself described in graphic detail - heads, limbs and rivers of blood - before Taraka's own entrance is reserved for the next chapter.

8. Chapter 8: The Battle in General

   Taraka personally defeats Indra and every guardian of the world in turn, routing the gods' forces entirely until Virabhadra enters the fray and fights him to a bloody standstill - each repeatedly knocking the other down, neither able to finish the fight, until Narada intervenes to warn Virabhadra off, provoking a furious refusal.

9. Chapter 9: Taraka Fights against Shakra, Vishnu and Virabhadra

   Brahma intervenes directly to remind Kumara that only he, by Brahma's own boon to Taraka, can actually end this fight - no matter how long Vishnu, Indra or Virabhadra continue. Taraka, seeing the child finally approach, delivers an extended, venomous catalogue of Vishnu's and Indra's own past sins to argue that neither deserves victory anyway.

10. Chapter 10: Taraka's Death

    Kumara and Taraka fight a long, evenly matched duel with spears, watched by the mountains and gods in genuine suspense, until a voice from the sky confirms Kumara's inevitable victory. Kumara lands the final blow, killing Taraka outright and scattering his entire army, ending the war decisively.

11. Chapter 11: Bana and Pralamba Are Killed

    Two of Taraka's surviving lieutenants, Bana and Pralamba, continue harassing refugees even after the war's end; Kumara dispatches each with a single thrown spear that returns to his hand afterward, and commemorates the victories with four named Shiva lingams established on the spot.

12. Chapter 12: Kartika, Shiva and Shivaa

    The gods formally praise Kumara for the full victory and he grants boons to the mountains in turn, before the whole triumphant procession returns to Kailasa for a joyous reunion between Kartika and his parents, closing with an extended hymn of praise to Shiva himself.

13. Chapter 13: Ganesha's Origin

    Brahma explicitly flags that Ganesha's birth story varies by kalpa before telling this edition's version: prompted by her friends' complaint that Shiva's ganas serve only Shiva, Parvati creates a son of her own from the dirt of her own body, specifically to serve as her personal, loyal doorkeeper - setting up the confrontation with Shiva himself in the chapters that follow.

14. Chapter 14: Quarrel with the Ganas

    Shiva's own ganas are repeatedly rebuffed and mocked by the new doorkeeper, who refuses to be intimidated despite being vastly outnumbered. Parvati, consulted, deliberately chooses pride over peace, instructing her son to fight rather than yield - while Shiva, equally proud, reasons through why he too must escalate rather than simply walk past his own servant.

15. Chapter 15: Description of Ganesha's Battle

    Ganesha single-handedly routs wave after wave of Shiva's ganas with a club, embarrassing Brahma himself when sent to pacify him, and then holds off the devas' combined weapons entirely once Parvati secretly empowers him with two created Shaktis - a battle so unprecedented that even Shiva's own forces flee outright, forcing Shiva to intervene personally.

16. Chapter 16: Severing of Ganesha's Head

    Shiva and Vishnu together finally overcome Ganesha only once Parvati's protective Shaktis withdraw their support - and even then, Vishnu resorts to deliberate deception to distract the boy rather than defeating him outright, allowing Shiva to sever his head with the trident while his back is turned.

17. Chapter 17: Ganesha Gets His Life Back

    Parvati's rage, on learning her son is dead, nearly destroys the entire universe through newly created Shaktis who devour everyone indiscriminately - gods, ganas, even Shiva's own side - until the rishis collectively plead with her directly and she sets a single condition for stopping: her son's full revival.

18. Chapter 18: Ganesha Obtains the Title of Ganadhipa

    On Shiva's own instruction, the gods fetch the head of the first living being encountered to the north - an elephant - and fix it to Ganesha's headless body, reviving him instantly. Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma jointly declare that Ganesha must be worshipped before all other deities, on pain of every other act of worship failing without it.

19. Chapter 19: Prelude to Ganesha's Marriage

    Shiva and Parvati, loving both sons equally, set a seemingly fair test to decide whose marriage happens first - whoever circles the entire earth and returns wins - and Kartikeya departs immediately on the literal task, while Ganesha, recognising his own physical limits, begins thinking through an entirely different approach.

20. Chapter 20: Ganesha's Marriage

    Ganesha wins the contest through a theological technicality - circling his own parents seven times rather than the literal earth, citing Vedic authority that this is equivalent - and marries first, while Kartikeya, learning of the apparent deception, departs permanently for Mount Krouncha in anger, becoming the eternal bachelor-ascetic the khanda closes on.

Retold in our own words from Bibek Debroy's English translation of the Shiva Purana (Penguin Classics). Names, numbers and the order of events follow the source.