praNAm

So it is Kuber.
My understanding was that Kuber is a Yaksha, not exactly an asur (although they all get clubbed together as Yaksha-rAkshas and daitya - sons of Diti).

He and GhanTA-KarNa that i mentioned above share the role of kshetrapAL at BadrinAth DhAm/ tIrtha-kshetra. I also cannot help noticing how Kuber was mentioned twice in that post as
a) kshetrapAL of Badrinath and
b) as one of BadrinArAyaN's pancharatna (Uddhav NArad Kuber Nar NArAyaN-Rshi)

as part of the story about GhanTA-karNa.


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Virajaji,

Thanks for the clarification.
Sorry about that, I have made the correction in the post.

Always had this hazy cloud about
a. AyyapA aka Sashta and
b. Subramanium aka Murugan aka Kartikeya aka Skanda

I don't know what i was thinking - about the picture above,

1. That this is one of Shiva's sons
2. That He holds shankha and chakra hence somehow is an aMsha of VishNu

that led me to think of the son of Hari (Mohini avatar) and Hara.

Also,
3. the Subramanium that I have seen in a temple does not look like Kartikeya at all,
4. more like Vyankatesh or VishNu with Shri-devi and Bhu-devi (except for His Shaiva tilak)

5. Ayyappa in that temple looks like a cute baby Shiva or mini Shiva in Yogic pose, and when asked i was told He is "brother of Ganesh" leading me to think (years ago) that this is another name for KArtikeya.

6. Then Murugan was introduced, and His peacock was nowhere in sight around either of them.

Eventually the priest told me "this is not Murugan, Murugan is there" pointing to Subramanium and i was all confused

Not once did i think of looking up Wikipedia

om namo bhagavate vAsudevAya