Somehow or other, Murugan, the youthful god of victorious war, is ubiquitous in Tamil writing and culture; he is present in the earliest classical poems of Tamil as well as in the splendid "Lay of the Anklet", in the ruby-red and sea-blue and golden songs of Arunakiri as well as in the very recent prayers to Murugan by A. K. Ramanujan. His wars are, of course, not only victorious, but just. He destroys evil, decay, death. His smile is the light of life and eternal youth. "His face shoots forth myriad rays of light, removing darkness from the world" (Tirgmurkarruppatai 91-92)."