Uma

Unconscious and broken, Arjuna hears the voice of the god he fought. Hara grants him divine sight, reveals himself as Mahadeva Girisha, and tells him he is pleased. Arjuna kneels and begs pardon — and the god who crushed him reaches down and takes his hands.

Arjuna, hunting in the forest, strings Gandiva against a rakshasa disguised as a boar. But a kirata hunter appears and claims the same target. Both release their arrows at the same instant — and both strike true.

After a fierce battle in which Shiva, disguised as a hunter, wrestles Arjuna to a standstill, the god reveals himself. Pleased with Arjuna's penance and courage, Shiva offers him any boon. Arjuna asks for the Pashupata weapon — the Brahmashira — the divine missile that can destroy the universe, intending to use it against Bhishma, Drona, Kripa, and Karna.

After months of solitary penance on a mountain, Arjuna shoots a boar — only for a kirata (hunter) to claim the same kill. What begins as a dispute over prey escalates into a battle where Arjuna unleashes divine weapon after divine weapon, and the kirata devours them all. Then they wrestle, and the hunter pins him to the ground.

Markandeya narrates the origin of Skanda's terrifying companions — sons and daughters born when the vajra struck him. The mothers of the world approach Skanda and ask to be made supreme, worshipped by all. He grants their wish, and through his favour, each mother bears a terrible son named Shishu, establishing the group of eight brave ones and the nine including Bhadrashakha.

Prajapati Brahma tells Mahasena (Skanda) to go to his father Mahadeva, then explains the strange circumstances of his birth — how Rudra entered Agni and Uma entered Svaha, how the semen was scattered five ways, and how the flesh-eating ganas were born from it. Skanda agrees, worships his father, and is affectionately received.