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A very old Indian name of Sanskrit origin. Etymologically, ultimately related to the root kRt, to cut, which is cognate with such words as latin Curtus. The constellation of Pleiades looked like a knife or flame to the Indians, were called the kRttikA, the six celestial nymphs (this constellation of six or seven stars has been important in cultures all over the northern hemisphere: see the wikipaedia, for example). One of the sons of shiva, the eternal meditator, the supreme destroyer, and lord of the arts, and pArvvatI, his consort, the daughter of himalayas, the personification of all power; or of agni, the eternal fire and the generative power and gaMgA, the celestial river and the purifier; who was raised by the kRttikA and developed six faces to suckle from them. He lead the divine beings in a war over the demonical powers, and is the primary god of war in Indian mythology, and is the central figure (under many different names) in many parts of India, especially in the South. He was called kArttikeYa because of his foster mothers, or his having led the warfare during the month (kArttika) with its full moon in the lunar mansion of kRttikA (today in November, shifts by a month every two thousand years because of the precession of the equinoxes, and the stories are probably at least that old).