Elements of Hindu Iconography v4.c26.1

v4.c26.1

S UBRAHMANYA is almost exclusively a South Indian deity. There is not a village, however small, which does not possess a shrine for Subrahmaṇya. In fact the popularity of this deity with the South Indian is so great as to induce him to build shrines for him in all places such as towns, villages, gardens, mountain tops and other odd places. Strangely enough Subrahmaṇya is less known and less worshipped in Northern India; there are not many temples of this god in Northern India. In Bengal it is stated that he is worshipped by disreputable women on certain occasions, while in the Bombay Presidency no sumaṅgali (a woman whose husband is alive) would visit the temple of Kārttikēyasvāmin (Subrahmaṇya).