In the Kanda Puranam, one half of Surapadman's tree, split by the vel.
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Often shown holding a serpent in its feet.
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Arunagirinathar addressed a whole sequence of verses to it, the Mayil Virutham, which is in the app's library.
Every deity in this tradition has a mount, and each says something. Murugan's peacock says something unusual: it used to be his enemy.
In the Kanda Puranam, when the vel split the tree that Surapadman had become, one half became the peacock. The creature that carries Murugan everywhere is the defeated adversary, turned. Devotional teaching reads it as pride brought under grace rather than destroyed, the beautiful, vain bird, kept and made useful.
The peacock is very often shown with a serpent in its feet. Peacocks do kill snakes, and the image has been read in many ways, including as mastery over fear and over the passions.
Arunagirinathar thought the peacock worth a sequence of its own, the Mayil Virutham, which sits in this app's library beside the Vel Virutham and the Seval Virutham.
The peacock also gives him names. The Kanda Sashti Kavasam closes by praising Mayilon, the one of the peacock, a line quoted on the mantra screen of this app, and Mayilvahanan, the peacock-rider, is among the most common of his titles. On festival days the processional image is often carried out on a peacock vahana, and the feathers reappear on the kavadis that pilgrims carry.
WHAT THIS RESTS ON
Tamil Kanda Puranam
That the peacock is one half of Surapadman, transformed, comes from the Kanda Puranam's account of the war. Reading the peacock as pride tamed is devotional interpretation.
Given its shape in the Tamil Kanda Puranam of Kachiyappa Sivachariar, a work distinct from the Sanskrit Skanda Purana traditions.