From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
VEL
According to Hindu mythology, Goddess
Parvati presented the Vel to her son
Murugan as an embodiment of her
shakti or power in order to vanquish the evil
asura Soorapadman. According to the
Skanda Purana, in the war between Murugan and Soorapadman, Murugan used the Vel to defeat all the evil forces of Soorapadman. When a complete defeat for Soorapadman was imminent, the
asura transformed himself into a huge mango tree to evade detection by Murugan. Murugan hurled his Vel and split the mango tree into two halves, one becoming Seval (a
rooster) and the other Mayil (a
peacock). Henceforth, the peacock became his
vahana or mount and the rooster became the emblem on his battle flag.