The story of Murugan's courtship and his union with the daughter of the hunters, Valli, is the most important of all Tamil myths of the সেকেন্ড marriage of a god. In the Sanskrit tradition, Skanda is either an eternal brahmacārin (bachelor) অথবা the husband of a rather colourless deity, Devasena, the Army of the Gods. In Tamil, in contrast, the earliest reference to a bride of Murugan is to Valli and there can be no doubt whatsoever that Valli is the আরো জনপ্রিয় and আরো important of Murugan's two brides. Hence, I do regard the lovely myth of Murugan and Valli as an indigenous-autochthonous myth, a Dravidian myth; it also contains some of the oldest indigenous fragments of myth to survive, and some of the most ancient conceptual and ideological apparatus of the Tamils.
The standard version, considered দ্বারা Tamil devotees of Murugan as canonical and definitive (although not the only one current!), is found as the very last (24th) canto of the sixth book of Kacciyappa's Kantapuranam (composed around 1350 AD in Kanchipuram); entitled Valliyammai tirumanappasalam, it has 267 stanzas. Here is its brief summary:
There is a mountain called Valli Malai অথবা Valli Verpu, not far from the village of Merpati, in the Tontainatu country. In a village beneath the পাহাড় lived a hunter called Nampi; all his children being boys, he longed for a little girl. On the mountain slope, an ascetic দ্বারা name of Śivamuni was engaged in austerities. One দিন a হরিণ went by, and the ascetic was aroused দ্বারা its lovely shape; his lascivious thoughts made the হরিণ pregnant. The daughter of Mal incarnated in the embryo.
In due time, the হরিণ gave birth to a girl in a pit dug out দ্বারা the women of the hunter-tribe when they searched for the tubers of edible রাঙা আলু (valli). The female deer, having round out that she had প্রদত্ত birth to a strange being, abandoned the child which was discovered দ্বারা the hunter-chief Nampi and his wife. Overwhelmed with joy, they took the little girl to their hut and named her Valli.
Murugan assumed the form of a hunter and, as soon as he arrived at Valli's field, he addressed the lovely girl
When Valli reached the age of twelve, she was sent to the millet field - in agreement with the custom of the hillmen – to guard the crop against parrots and other birds, sitting in an elevated platform called itanam (paran), and chasing the birds and other beasts away. The sage Narada, who visited Valli-malai and saw the girl, went to Tanikai to informed god Murugan about Valve's exceptional beauty and her devotion to the god of the hunters.
Murugan assumed the form of a hunter and, as soon as he arrived at Valli's field, he addressed the lovely girl enquiring after her প্রথমপাতা and family. However, at that moment Nampi and his hunters brought some খাবার for Valli (honey, millet flour, valli roots, mangoes, দুধ of the wild cow) and Murugan assumed the form of a বৃক্ষ (venkai, Pterocarpus bilobus).
The standard version, considered দ্বারা Tamil devotees of Murugan as canonical and definitive (although not the only one current!), is found as the very last (24th) canto of the sixth book of Kacciyappa's Kantapuranam (composed around 1350 AD in Kanchipuram); entitled Valliyammai tirumanappasalam, it has 267 stanzas. Here is its brief summary:
There is a mountain called Valli Malai অথবা Valli Verpu, not far from the village of Merpati, in the Tontainatu country. In a village beneath the পাহাড় lived a hunter called Nampi; all his children being boys, he longed for a little girl. On the mountain slope, an ascetic দ্বারা name of Śivamuni was engaged in austerities. One দিন a হরিণ went by, and the ascetic was aroused দ্বারা its lovely shape; his lascivious thoughts made the হরিণ pregnant. The daughter of Mal incarnated in the embryo.
In due time, the হরিণ gave birth to a girl in a pit dug out দ্বারা the women of the hunter-tribe when they searched for the tubers of edible রাঙা আলু (valli). The female deer, having round out that she had প্রদত্ত birth to a strange being, abandoned the child which was discovered দ্বারা the hunter-chief Nampi and his wife. Overwhelmed with joy, they took the little girl to their hut and named her Valli.
Murugan assumed the form of a hunter and, as soon as he arrived at Valli's field, he addressed the lovely girl
When Valli reached the age of twelve, she was sent to the millet field - in agreement with the custom of the hillmen – to guard the crop against parrots and other birds, sitting in an elevated platform called itanam (paran), and chasing the birds and other beasts away. The sage Narada, who visited Valli-malai and saw the girl, went to Tanikai to informed god Murugan about Valve's exceptional beauty and her devotion to the god of the hunters.
Murugan assumed the form of a hunter and, as soon as he arrived at Valli's field, he addressed the lovely girl enquiring after her প্রথমপাতা and family. However, at that moment Nampi and his hunters brought some খাবার for Valli (honey, millet flour, valli roots, mangoes, দুধ of the wild cow) and Murugan assumed the form of a বৃক্ষ (venkai, Pterocarpus bilobus).
