The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2298 page)

 
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Skanda
.

Hindu deity, offspring of
iva
(conceived without the assistance of a female being), who became a notable warrior. He was suckled by the six K
ttikas (Pleiades) and developed six faces for this purpose. From this derives the name
K
rttikeya
by which he is commonly known and worshipped. He is depicted as young and chaste (i.e. as Kum
ra), clothed in red, with a spear (which always hits its target and returns to his hand). His cult, of great antiquity, used to cover India, but is now mainly in the south: in
Tamilnadu
, he has merged with Muruka
/Murugan.
Skanda Pur
a
is one of the eighteen classical Pur
as (the longest of them) and contains what purports to be his teaching.

 
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(Skt., ‘group’; P
li,
khandha
). In Buddhism, the five aggregations which compose or constitute h
man appearance (
n
ma-r
pa
):

(i) 
r
pa
, material composition;
(ii) 
vedan
, sensing, including sensing through the sixth sense of mental impressions;
(iii) 
sa
jña
(P
li,
sañña
), perception;
(iv) 
sa
sk
ra
(P
li,
sankh
ra
), mental formations producing character;
(v) 
vijñ
na
(P
li,
viññ
na
), consciousness. They are constantly in the process of change, and do not constitute a self (
an
tman
).