Atikaya

Atikaya
Atikaya, a son of Ravana
Texts	Ramayana
Personal information
Parents	Ravana (father) Dhanyamalini (mother)
Siblings	Meghanada Akshayakumara Narantaka Devantaka Trishira

Atikaya was the son of Ravana and his wife Dhanyamalini in the Ramayana epic. Atikaya was the younger brother of Meghanada and was extremely powerful. Once upon a time when he infuriated Lord Shiva atop Mount Kailasha, the God hurled his Trishula (divine trident) at Atikaya, but Atikaya caught the Trishula in mid air and folded his hands before the lord in a humble manner. Lord Shiva was pleased at seeing this, and benevolently blessed Atikaya with the secrets of archery and divine weapons.

Due to his extraordinary skills and superiority, he had to be slain by Lakshmana by using a Brahmastra, the supremely powerful arrow obtained by the blessings of Lord Brahma. The secret was revealed to Lakshmana by the elemental God of Wind, Vayu at the behest of Lord Indra, that an otherwise invincible armour of Lord Brahma was granted to Atikaya, that could only be pierced by a Brahmastra.

Atikaya and his uncle Kumbhakarana are believed to be incarnations of the demons Madhu and Kaitabha, who were tricked and killed by Vishnu at the creation of the world.

Though this is not believed by all Hindus, since the most prominent belief is that Kumbhakarna was actually the incarnation of Vijaya, (other being Ravana, incarnation of Jaya, this is for second time and the first incarnated as Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha both being slayed by incarnations of Vishnu, Varaha and Narasimha as per the curse) the guardian of Vishnu. As known he incarnated as Kumbhakarna because of the curse given to him by the rishis for not allowing them to meet Vishnu and also harassing the four kumaras in the seventh gateway to Vaikuntha.