ādityasya sadā pūjāṃ tilakasvāminas tathā |

mahāgaṇapateś caiva kurvan siddhim avāpnuyāt ||

My critical edition has the reading “tilakasvāminas” following the Malayalam mss. and Viśvarūpa’s commentary. Vijñāneśvara and Aparārka (as also all the Vulgate manuscripts) read “tilakaṃ svāminas”. Vijñā explains tilakam as: ādityaskandagaṇapatīnām anyatamasya sarveṣāṃ vā tilakaṃ svarṇanirmitaṃ rūpyanirmitaṃ vā kurgan. So he takes “tilaka” as a forehead mark (ornament) made out of gold or silver and, probably, attached to a statue of one of these gods.

If, however, Viśvarūpa is correct, and the verb kurvan has a single object “pūjām”, then we have the compound “tilakasvāminas”, which nicely parallels “mahāgaṇapateś”.

My query is, has anyone seen the epithet “tilakasvāmin” applied to Skandia. I’d be much obliged for any comments on this.