Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.1425

c4.1425

ĀTREYA. A sage. This sage had acquired the power to go from one planet to another. Once this ṛṣi went to devaloka as the guest of Indra and there he drank Amṛta (the celestial elixir) and enjoyed the dances of the celestial maidens A desire to have a similar heaven of his own budded in his mind and he approached Viśvakarmā who gave him a new heaven of his own. But before long the demons took over this heaven from him. Though Viśvakarmā took back the same from the demons, Ātreya did not go back but returned to his old āśrama on the banks of Gomatī and doing penance there for a long time attained salvation (Brahma Purāṇa).