Krittikas- Hindu GroupCollective"The Star Mothers"

Nursing of Skanda

The Krittikas' defining myth is their adoption and nursing of the infant Skanda. According to the Mahabharata, when Skanda was born from the seed of Shiva, carried by Agni, deposited in the Ganga, and nurtured by the Sara reeds, the newborn god manifested with six heads. The Krittikas discovered the radiant child and each took one of his six forms to her breast, nursing him simultaneously. This act of collective motherhood gave the war god his patronymic: Kartikeya, "son of the Krittikas." In the Shiva Purana, Parvati was jealous of the Krittikas' claim to motherhood but eventually embraced all six infants together, merging them into one child with six faces.

Separation from the Saptarishis

The Krittikas were originally wives of six of the Saptarishis, the seven great sages who form the stars of Ursa Major. When Agni, carrying Shiva's seed to the Ganga, was seen in the Krittikas' company, the sages accused their wives of infidelity. The accusation was false. Only Arundhati, wife of the seventh sage Vasishtha, remained unquestioned. The six Krittikas were cast out by their husbands and took their place as an independent constellation. The Matsya Purana offers this as the reason the Pleiades and Ursa Major appear as separate star groups in the sky: former wives visible as a tight cluster apart from their former husbands.