Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.1112

c4.1112

Rāvaṇa seduced her and had a secret union with her. At once she became pregnant and gave birth to a dazzlingly bright baby. The mother handed over the child to Rāvaṇa and returned to the world of the Gandharvas. Rāvaṇa, in his paternal love, took the child into the Vimāna and proceeded. On the way, the Vimāna knocked against a mountain peak and the baby was thrown overboard and fell in the forest. Rāvaṇa stopped the Vimāna and made a search for the baby in the forest. He found the child without the slightest injury, smiling and lying on a flat rock in the deep woods. He failed in his attempt to take it up even though he used ten of his hands. The child began to grow steadily in size. Then he tried again to lift the baby using all his twenty arms. The boy, who had by this time grown into enormous size, suddenly sprang up and getting into the Vimāna took his seat in it. Rāvaṇa gave him the name Atikāya. On his arrival in Laṅkā, he presented him as adopted son to the barren Dhanyamālā. Atikāya was brought up by Dhanyamālā.