Lord Karthikeya temple, Panchgani, Maharashtra India

Kartikeya or Shadanan, the God with six heads is the eldest son of Lord Shiva. Kartikeya is, in Maharashtra, believed to be a bachelor God, whom ladies are not supposed to worship. His temples are rather rare in Maharashtra. However in South India, he is commonly worshipped without any taboo attached to women-worship. The Kartikeya mandir was built by Shrimant Raghobadada, elder brother of Nanasaheb  Peshwa. There was a continuous family feud between these two brothers and a life - long competition and rivalry between these two families. We see a clear picture of it in the words of his wife Anandibai, kept in confinement as a political prisoner at Kopargaon. When the subject of Parvati came for discussion, she said, “the idol of Kartikeya should have been installed on some other hilltop. It would have at least brought good name.”