Korravai was the ancient goddess of war and victory and mother of Murugan

Murugan

Murugan also called Kartikeya, Skanda and Subrahmanya, is a popular Hindu deity especially among Tamil Hindus, worshipped primarily in areas with Tamil influences, especially South India, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Mauritius and Reunion Island. His six most important shrines in India are the...

, the Hindu god of war, now patron god of Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

. The earliest references to Korravai are found in the ancient Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 grammar Tolkappiyam

Tolkappiyam

The Tolkāppiyam is a work on the grammar of the Tamil language and the earliest extant work of Tamil literature. It is written in the form of noorpaa or short formulaic compositions and comprises three books - the Ezhuttadikaram, the Solladikaram and the Poruladikaram. Each of these books is...

, considered to be the earliest work of the ancient Sangam literature

Sangam literature

Sangam literature refers to a body of classical Tamil literature created between the years c. 600 BCE to 300 CE. This collection contains 2381 poems composed by 473 poets, some 102 of whom remain anonymous The period during which these poems were composed is commonly referred to as the Sangam...

. Korravai is identified with goddess Durga

Durga

For the 1985 Hindi Film of Rajesh Khanna see DurgaaIn Hinduism, Durga ; ; meaning "the inaccessible" or "the invincible"; , durga) or Maa Durga "one who can redeem in situations of utmost distress" is a form of Devi, the supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having eighteen arms, riding a lion...

. In early iconography, Korravai is presented as fierce and bloodthirsty .

To illustrate Korravai's place in the metaphysical world of the earliest sources, Kersenboom-Story provides a "tentative" fivefold classification of the disposition of the major spiritual powers.

According to the early Tamil literature, the divine manifests itself in various shapes, shades and degrees of intensity. In most cases it is thought of as a power that is highly ambivalent: possibly benevolent, but usually dangerous and even malevolant. The most striking aspect of man's relation to these different manifestations is his attempt to control them by means of some type of 'dramatic performance'. True evil is too powerful to be dealt with by humans and has to be subdued by the god Murugaṇ. ... Tentatively, we classify the manifestations of the divine as follows:

1. benevolent: the god Murugaṇ; the king
2. mildly ambivalent: hero-stone
   Hero stone
   Hero stone is a memorial commemorating the honorable death of a hero in battle of Tamil People. A hero stone can display a variety of adornments, including bas relief panels, statues, and figures of carved stone...
   
   ; kantu (stump of a tree)
3. ambivalent: aṇaṇku
   Ananku
   is a kata from Okinawan karate. Its history in Okinawan martial arts is relatively short in comparison to other kata as it was composed by Chotoku Kyan...
   
   'sacred power'
4. dangerous: pēy, pūtam (demon); Koṛṛavai
5. evil: cūr, Cūraṇ
   Curan
   Curan is a commune in the Aveyron department in southern France.-Population:-References:*...