Design by Devotion
" He who fulfills the wishes of his devotees,
Whose twinkling anklets produce melodious sounds
He who approaches me in slow and graceful steps,
The Rider of the peacock
Come and protect me with your Vēl "
Whose twinkling anklets produce melodious sounds
He who approaches me in slow and graceful steps,
The Rider of the peacock
Come and protect me with your Vēl "
Still I’m wondering about how my very first freelance project became something
related to the “Murugan”. The believe in God is really controversial in this era.
But there is no ways to explain that, only way is to experience it….
Kārttikēy, also known as Murugan, Skanda, Kumara, and Subrahmanya,
is the Hindu god of war. He is the son of Parvati and Shiva, brother of Ganesha,
and a god whose life story has many versions in Hinduism.
The iconography of Kartikeya varies significantly; he is typically represented as an ever-youthful man, riding or near a peacock, dressed with weapons sometimes near a rooster.
Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil is one of the most significant Hindu temples in the
Jaffna District of Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It stands in the town of Nallur.
The presiding deity is Lord Murugan in the form of the holy 'Vel' in the primary shrine.
The name Nallur is Tamil; Nall derives from the word ‘Nallathu’ which simply means good probably indicating it is a place of affluence or fertile lands, and ‘Ur’ which means village . So Nallur in Tamil translates means good or nice village.
The name Nallur is Tamil; Nall derives from the word ‘Nallathu’ which simply means good probably indicating it is a place of affluence or fertile lands, and ‘Ur’ which means village . So Nallur in Tamil translates means good or nice village.
This article is published in SL magazine 2014, but the layout design was quite conventional.
So I redesigned the whole article using same concepts but developing them using
the contemporary graphical styles. The icons are inspired by flat design styles and
the color pallet contains the basic colors that represent the “shiva and shakti”.
Vēl
Vel (Tamil: வேல், lit. 'Vēl') is a divine javelin (spear) associated with Hindu war god Murugan. 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. Vel, as a symbol of divinity, is an object
of worship in the temples dedicated to Murugan. The annual Thaipusam festival celebrates
the occasion when Murugan received the divine Vel from his mother.
“ Why fear, when I am here at Nallur ”
Mayil Vahana
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.
“Lord Murugan is the embodiment of Beauty, Perfection,Truth, Love, and Divinity ”
" Welcome to thee Oh, Lord,
Who rides on the peacock,
Who comes to help his devotees,
Who comes accompanied by sweet songs,
Who comes with pleasing sound of ringing anklets,
Made by numerous bells tied to your feet.
And I pray Lord Saravana Bhava,
To bless this poem on Sashti "
Who rides on the peacock,
Who comes to help his devotees,
Who comes accompanied by sweet songs,
Who comes with pleasing sound of ringing anklets,
Made by numerous bells tied to your feet.
And I pray Lord Saravana Bhava,
To bless this poem on Sashti "
" Mind, oh mine, meditate
On the feet of that Young God,
Who waged the war,
To end the problems of Devas "