Indra Attacks Kartikeya and Is DefeatedIndra, king of the gods, rides out on Airavata with the full army of heaven to kill Agni's son, Mahasena. But when the boy god roars back and belches flames that burn the divine army to cinders, the gods abandon their king — and Indra is left alone to hurl his vajra at a being who cannot be killed by it.
Skanda Creates the Grahas from MothersVinata and the group of mothers come to Skanda, asking to be his mothers and to devour the offspring of other mothers. Skanda grants them motherhood but redirects their hunger: he allows them to afflict children up to sixteen years of age, and from his own body springs a being that becomes the graha Skandapasmara — the first of eighteen terrible seizers.
The Krittikas Become Skanda's MothersSix goddesses, abandoned by their husbands the saptarshis after a false rumor that they gave birth to Skanda, come to the god of war seeking refuge. Skanda accepts them as his mothers, but the celestial disruption caused by their displacement must be resolved by Brahma himself.