Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.2332

c9.2332

By the power of Śiva's semen all the trees and animals and birds in the forest became golden in colour. When 10,000 years were completed a child, as effulgent as the rising sun, was born and Subrahmaṇya was the child. The child cried in a thunderous voice and six divine Kṛttikās who came that way saw the child and taking pity on it vied with one another to breast-feed it. Since the child looked at the six Kṛttikās one after the other it developed six faces and since it was breast-fed by Kṛttikās it came to be named Kārttikeya as well.