Skanda in Epic and Puranic Literature: An Examination of the Origins and Development of a Hindu Deity in North India
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract This article explores the origins and development of the Hindu deity Skanda in North India from approximately the fourth century bce to the seventh century ce . The author suggests that previous scholarship on this deity has located his origins in two sources: the Indus Valley and in an amalgamation of related deities. The article questions the Indus Valley hypothesis and develops the amalgamation hypothesis by examining a variety of textual and non‐textual sources. The author also argues that a shift occurs in the representation of Skanda and in his cult base over time. The article suggests that his cult begins in propitiation cults for Grahas and warrior deities in the north of India and shifts to one based in royal propaganda and military emblems. The cult of Skanda is also absorbed into the broader Śaivite cult during this time. These shifts, the author argues, result in the diminished popularity of Skanda in North India by the seventh century ce .
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.004 | 0.004 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.006 | 0.008 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".