Surapadman and his brothers, Singamukhan and Tarakasuran, were asuras whose hearts were given to Shiv ji. They kept long and severe tapas, and when Shiv ji came before them they asked him for a life that would never end. That he would not give. So they asked for another boon: that nothing should destroy them but Shiv ji himself, born again in a new form. This he granted. Sure now that Shiv ji would never turn against them, the brothers grew proud. They drove the Devas out of the heavens, took their homes, and made every one of them a servant.
Brahma, Vishnu ji and all the Devas went to Shiv ji, who sat silent, deep in dhyana, and begged him for help. He agreed. He married Parvati Maa, and when the Devas asked him for the son who alone could end the brothers' rule, he did not turn them away.
Shiv ji took on six faces: his five — Tatpurusha, Aghora, Vamadeva, Sadyojata and Ishana — and a sixth, Adhomukha, the face turned downward. From the eye in the forehead of each face came a spark of fire, six in all. Their heat was so fierce that none of the Devas, Brahma first among them, could come near it, and it spread across the whole world.
Then Shiv ji drew the fire back into the six sparks and called Vayu and Agni. "Carry these flames," he told them, "and set them down in the Ganga. She will take them on to the Saravana." Vayu and Agni bore the sparks to the river, and the Ganga carried them into the Saravana, a still pool thick with reeds.
In the Saravana the six sparks became six children, each lying on a lotus that had opened on the water. That is why he is called Saravanabhava, the one who came into being in the Saravana.
Vishnu ji and the other Devas called the six Karthigai women, the women of the Krittika stars, and said to them: "In the Saravana the pure one has come, as a child. Feed him at your breast, and care for him every day." The six agreed gladly and came down to the pool. They nursed the children, and tended them day after day.
One day Shiv ji told Parvati Maa to bring her son, and she came to the Saravana. With both her hands she lifted all six children at once and held them close, and as she held them the six became one: a single child with six faces and twelve arms. Because the six were joined into one, he is called Kandan — Skanda.
The six Karthigai women came before Shiv ji and bowed, and he was gracious to them. "You have cared for Kandan," he said, "so let him be called your son." That is why Murugan is Karthikeya, the son of the Krittikas. And Shiv ji went on: "Whoever keeps a vrat on your day, and does puja at his feet with a glad heart — I will make good all that they lack, and give them the highest good."
Kandan grew to lead the army of the Devas. He took up the Vel and went to war against the brothers. Tarakasuran fell, and Singamukhan after him. Surapadman fought on to the very end, and at last rose in the middle of the sea as a vast mango tree whose branches shook the worlds. The Vel went through the tree and split it. By his old boon Surapadman did not perish: the two halves rose again as a rooster and a peacock. Under Kandan's gaze of grace the enmity left them. The rooster became the banner on his chariot, and the peacock the mount he rides.
The books name those who kept this vrat. Narada kept it for twelve years without a break, and became the Devarishi, the rishi of the Devas. Trishanku, Bhagiratha and Harishchandra kept it, and became great kings.
So the vrat is kept every month, on the day the Moon stands in Krittika: the day of the six women who nursed Kandan, and the day Shiv ji gave his word for. Whoever keeps it for twelve years, the books say, has the greatest good this life can give, and at its end, mukti.
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