Dattatreyaदत्तात्रेय

Dattatreya (दत्तात्रेय) is the deity in whom the Trimūrti converges: a single sage bearing the natures of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Born, tradition holds, to the sage Atri and his wife Anasūyā — whose chastity and hospitality so impressed the three gods that they gave themselves to her as a son — he is revered above all as the lord of yogis, the archetypal avadhūta who wanders free of every convention, and the primordial guru from whom lines of spiritual teaching descend.

Iconography

Dattatreya is usually shown with three heads and six arms, carrying the emblems of all three gods — rosary and water-pot, conch and discus, trident and drum. A cow stands behind him and four dogs accompany him, commonly read as the four Vedas following the master of knowledge in humble form. The image compresses his paradox: the highest divinity appearing as a possessionless mendicant.

The twenty-four gurus

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa gives Dattatreya his most influential teaching. Questioned by King Yadu, the avadhūta lists twenty-four gurus from whom he has learned — the earth, air, sky, water, fire, the moon, the sun, a pigeon, a python, the ocean, a moth, a courtesan, a child, an arrow-maker among them. Wisdom, the discourse insists, is gathered from the whole of experience by an attentive mind. Works such as the Avadhūta Gītā are traditionally ascribed to him.

Worship and legacy

Devotion to Dattatreya is strongest in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Andhra, where he is honoured both in temples and through living lineages of gurus regarded as his manifestations; the Nāth yogis and several sampradāyas claim his patronage. Mount Girnar in Gujarat is a celebrated seat of his austerities. His festival, Datta Jayantī, falls on the full moon of the month of Mārgaśīrṣa. In him the guru principle itself is deified: wherever teaching passes from master to disciple, tradition sees Dattatreya's continuing presence.