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Kartikeya is elder son of lord Shiva and goddess Parvati, but he is not worshiped much compared to his dad, mother and brother.

If you visit temples in our country, rarely any temple will have an idol for Kartikeya, whereas the temple will always have idols of lord Shiva and Ganesha and atleast a photo frame of goddess Parvati.

This is same with the frames of gods we see around, Kartikeya is rarely seen with them

lord Shiva family

Credits for Image : ajitvadakayil.blogspot.com

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    lord Kartikeya a.k.a lord Ayyappa is worshipped most in south region of India. Yeah but your point is true that there is no "Kartikeya chaturthi" as "Ganesh chaturthi".
    – Mr_Green
    Jul 9, 2014 at 10:43
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    @Mr_Green Lord Karthikeya and Lord Ayyappa are two different gods. Karthikeya was created by Lord Shiva from the flames of his eyes to destroy the demon Soorapadman. Ayyappa was born out of the union of Lord Shiva with Lord Vishnu in his Mohini form.
    – TheLoneKing
    Jul 9, 2014 at 10:45
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    Just an FYI, Ganesha worship in Maharashtra (one of the places with highest Ganesha worshippers) was the brainchild of Bal Gandaghar Tilak so as to combine religion with freedom movement.
    – Vineet Menon
    Jul 9, 2014 at 15:12
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    Kartikey is very well worshiped in South India. I remember a company owned by a Sounth Indian guy which was having a big idol of Bhagwan Kartikey at the entrance even bigger than Ganesha. Ganesha is worshiped every where because he was blessed by Shiva to be the first God to be worshiped. Shiv sent his elder son Kartikey to South and made him responsible for protecting South India from evils. I remember perhaps same is mentioned somewhere in Shiv Puran.
    – Amit
    Jul 10, 2014 at 7:03
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    In malaysia ... majority of hindus here are tamils.... we have so many karthikeya temples here.... in kuala lumpur, penang, ipoh, sungai petani, seremban, johor...n maran..n THAIPUSAM is a public holiday n dedicated to lord karthigeya
    – user3444
    Aug 3, 2015 at 15:08

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The point that Karthikeya is not widely worshipped may be true in North India. But in Tamilnadu, he is very popular. This may be due to the fact that all the major incidents which involved Karthikeya took place in Tamilnadu. The Six Abodes of Murugan signifies such incidents. Apart from the Six main temples, there are numerous other notable temples dedicated to Karthikeya. Maruthamalai, Kathirkamam, Sikkal, Kunrakkudi are some of them. In Tamilnadu, he is regarded as the Tamil Kadavul (meaning Tamil God).

Outside Tamilnadu, Karthikeya is worshipped in Karnataka and Kerala also. Kukke Subramanya Temple is located in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. Keezhattingal Sree Subrahmanyan swamy temple, Chacka BalaSubrahmanya swamy temple, Edappazhinji Subrahmanya swamy temple are a few of the many Karthikeya temples located in Kerala.

Outside India, Karthikeya is worshipped in Sri Lanka and Malaysia too. Nallur Murugan temple and Thirukkovil Murugan temple (it was affected by 2004 Tsunami) are notable temples in Sri Lanka. The Batu Malai Murugan temple is a famous temple located near Kaula Lumpur in Malaysia.

It is true that Karthikeya worship is not popular in North India. During the Gupta rule, Karthikeya should have been worshipped (or atleast widely known) considering the fact that two Gupta kings were named after him (Skanda Gupta and Kumara Gupta). Even today there is Karthikeya temple in Haryana at Pehowa. In Delhi, Malai Mandir is a temple dedicated to Karthikeya.

The existence of numerous temples lead us to the conclusion that Karthikeya worship is popular in South India. In Tamilnadu, it is equal in popularity to Shiva worship. But in North India, Karthikeya worship seems to have declined slowly.

Regarding the frames of Shiva's family, here is one with Karthikeya. In fact, this is the first picture that came up when I googled "siva family".

enter image description here

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  • Interesting. Ganesha looks older than Kartikeya in this image.
    – Rubellite Yakṣī
    Apr 8, 2018 at 22:27
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    @RubelliteYakṣī Well, what do you expect? Ganesha is the elder brother.
    – TheLoneKing
    Aug 12, 2018 at 17:53
  • @Dharmaputhiran: In Ramayana, Skanda was mentioned but not Ganapati. Even in BG Skanda was mentioned but not Ganapati. Ganapati story evolved at a later date.
    – Srimannarayana K V
    Jun 2, 2019 at 15:37
  • @Dharmaputhiran It is due that Ramayana mostly based in the south part of India, Also Srilanka also based in the south of India.
    – Padhiyar Gaurang
    Oct 9, 2019 at 12:55

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