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The birth of Lord Kandhan as told by Viswamitra
 King Himavan had two beautiful daughters namely Ganga and Uma, the latter was the younger one of the two. Uma engaged herself in doing severe penance and she was treated with respect by the subjects. Himavan married her to Lord Shiva, who was the chief of the three worlds. The Devas requested Himavan to send Ganga to heaven and Himavan granted their request. So from then on Ganga started flowing as a river.
Many years passed, but Shiva and Uma did not have a progeny. Then Shiva agreed to request of the Devas and decided to bear the embryo himself as it was not possible for anyone to bear it. Then afterwards Agni, the God of Fire, on Shiva's command went to river Ganga and asked her to bear the embryo. Ganga did so but after sometime even she could not bear the growing embryo. Agni asked Ganga to leave it in the Himalayan slopes and that is where the precious metals like Gold, Silver, Copper and Iron appeared for the first time.
 The Foetus came out of the embryo and since it came out of Lord Shiva, it was called Kandhan and because Ganga took care of it for a while, the name Kangeyan was also given. The Devas
asked six Kruthika Deities to feed the baby and so Kandhan drinking milk from them took a form with six faces. Because of this, he was called Karthikeyan. The child grew up into a boy and destroyed the Asuras. The delighted Devas crowned him as the commander of their army.
Thus Viswamitra narrated the birth of Kandha to Rama and Lakshmana and started on the story of Ganga and Bhageerathan's efforts in bringing the Ganga to Earth.
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