I was just walking through some documents I had saved over the years, when it struck me that there has been very little new research work or relook into the history of the hill states. One particular format has been the examination of oral ballads, very few of which seem to be available in popular culture today. However, that was certainly not the case in the British era, when much field work seems to have been done by scholars of Europe on the subject, as they panned across the state of the Lahore kingdom and their adjunct territories. Sirmour was a Small Princely state along the Yamuna river's course While their purpose may have been malevolent in nature, many interesting insights got captured over the course of their work, and replication or improvement on the same seems to be rather scarce, especially in the context of what the European scholars used to call the "Punjab Hill States". One such case was on Sirmour, where very little information can be found in the publi...
It has been years since I had written the original piece on the practice of Skanda worship being rather prevalent in and around North-west India. Since then, I also found a few updates that I felt were rather interesting and unique, and added to the depth of the piece. (special thanks to Aditya Sharma for somevital information shared here today). Vayu Purana and its Linkage to Balak Nath? Vigraha of Baba Balak Nath at Deotsidh The Vayu Purana gives us some hints about the origins and links of the worship of Baba Balak Nath. A shloka in the Vayu Purana (chapter 54) clearly goes as follows पप्रच्छ कार्तिकेयं वै मयूरवर्वाहनम् । महिशसुरनारीणां नयनाञ्जनतस्करम् महासेन महात्मानं मेघस्त्नित्निस्वनम् । उमामनःप्रहर्शेण बालकं छद्मरुपिणम् .... The section is essentially a discussion between the Sage Vashishtha and Kartikeya, where Vayu Deva calls Kartikeya one who has the form of a child which delights Uma, who incidentally is also known as Skanda Mata. Balak Nath is known as Bala ...