saravanabhavayam

The worship of Kumāra was one of the six principal sects of Hinduism at the time of Adi Shankara. 

The Shanmata system propagated by him included this sect. In many Shiva and Devi temples of Tamil Nadu, Subrahmaṇya is installed on the left of the main deity.

The references to Murugan in Sanskrit literature can be traced back to the first millennium BCE. There are references to Subrahmanya in Kautilya's Arthashastra, in the works of Patanjali, in Kalidasa's epic poem the Kumarasambhavam and in the Sanskrit drama Mricchakatika. The Kushanas, who governed from what is today Peshawar, and the Yaudheyas, a republican clan in the Punjab, struck coins bearing the image of Skanda. The deity was venerated also by the Ikshvakus, an Andhra dynasty, and the Guptas.