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According to Hindu legend, Shiva, the destroyer god, was destined to have a son who would be a great warrior and save the gods. In a version of Kartikeya's origin story commonly found in northern India, Shiva and his wife, Parvati, created a being with five faces. A glowing spark emerged from each face. Shiva sent the five-faced being into the holy Ganges river. The five sparks floated out, and each formed into a child. Young women found them in the forest pond, each taking and nursing one of the children. When Shiva and Parvati eventually took their children back, Parvati did not know how she could manage to take care of and feed all five. To make her job easier, Shiva merged the children into one being with six heads - one for each of the children, representing the five senses, and a final head to combine the senses into one, symbolic of the mind and power of Shiva. The six-headed child was the much-awaited warrior god, Kartikeya. Kartikeya means son of kittikas, or forest nymphs, a nod to the young women who first raised him.