Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c8.s1.14

c8.s1.14

*Kumāra*, the miraculous babe, the wonderful hero, leader of the divine army, is the son of Agni and symbolises the principle of *Prāṇa* or life. There is a complex mythology under-lying the iconographic form of *Kumāra* as six headed son of six mothers, son of Gaṅgā, son of Agni, etc. An epic cycle of myth is associated with specially his conquest of Tārakāsura the latter typifying the lower mind and the former the death conquering principle of the divine power. Each life centre is a babe or *Kumāra*, the miraculous technique by which Nature has designed to perpetuate life in her laboratory.