Dattatreya Jayanti is celebrated on the tenth day of Margashirsha Krishna Paksha. Lord Dattatreya was the son of Maharishi Atri and mother Anusuya. Maharishi Atri is one of the Saptarishis, and Mother Anusuya is cited as the epitome of chastity. Lord Dattatya is believed to be an incarnation of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. It is said that they are considered to be part of the Tridevas. According to the Puranas, Dattatreya had three heads and six arms. Dattatreya is famous in mythological history due to his pluralism. The story of his birth is very strange.
The worship of Maharaj Dattatreya, which is comprised of all the three divine powers, is very successful and gives quick results. Maharaj Dattatreya was a Brahmachari, Avadhoot and Digambara. He is omnipresent and is very quick to take care of the devotee in any kind of crisis, if the worship of Maharaj Dattatreya is done by mental, or by deeds or by speech, then the devotee gets away from any difficulty quickly.
Dattatreya Katha
Once Narada Muni went to heaven to meet Lord Shankar, Vishnu and Brahma. But he could not meet any of the trinity. He met Parvati, Lakshmi and Saraswati, the wives of the trinity. To break the pride of all three, Naradji said that I keep traveling around the world. But I have not seen a virtuous wife, a woman of modesty and virtue like Anusuiya, the wife of Atri Rishi. All three of you goddesses are also behind them in following the holy religion. Hearing this, her ego got hurt because she understood that there is no pious woman like us in the world.
After the departure of Naradji, the three goddesses urged their respective gods to destroy the sacred religion of Sati Anusuiya. Coincidentally, Tridev reached the hermitage of Atri Muni at the same time. All the three gods had the same purpose. Destroy the husband religion of Anusuya. Together they made a plan. The three gods dressed as sages and asked for alms from Anusuiya. In alms he expressed his desire to eat. Anusuiya, who considers hospitality as her religion, said that you come after retiring from bath etc., till then I prepare the kitchen for you. When the three gods came after taking a bath, Anusuiya asked them to take a seat. On this, the three Daves said that we can take the seat only when you feed us in a natural state without clothes.
Anusuiya’s body then caught fire, but due to her husband’s dharma, she understood the tricks of the trinity. Anusuiya sprinkled the feet of the sage Atri on the trinity and said that if my virtuous religion is pure, then these three should turn into small children. Then, according to the condition of the three gods, Anusuiya offered food and on the cradle started swinging them separately.
When Tridev did not return even after a long time, Tridevis started getting worried. Tridevis reached the hermitage of Atri Rishi in search of Tridevs and Sati started inquiring about Tridevs from Anusuiya. Anusuiya pointed to the rears and said that your gods are resting in the rears. Take the identity of your own deity, but they could not recognize all the three being the same face. When Lakshmi ji very cleverly picked up Vishnu from the cradle, he turned out to be Shankar, on which he had to face a lot of ridicule.
On requesting the three goddesses, Anusuiya said that these three have drank my milk. So they have to be with me in some form or the other.
On this a special child of the part of the Tridevas was born, who had three heads and six arms. This child grew up to be called Dattateya Rishi.
Anusuiya again undone the trinity with the help of Pit Charnodak.
Lord Dattatreya is a Hindu god who is considered to be an incarnation of the three gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, also known as the Trimurti:
Incarnation
Dattatreya is the combined form of the three gods, and is said to have incarnated on Earth to free people from ignorance and fill their hearts with wisdom and spiritual joy.
Name
The word Datta means “given”, and Dattatreya is named as such because the divine trinity “gave” themselves to the sage couple Guru Atri and Mata Anusuya as a son.
Worship
Dattatreya is worshiped by millions of Hindus, and is approached as a benevolent God.
Texts
Dattatreya is mentioned in texts such as the Bhagavata Purana, the Markandeya Purana, and the Brahmanda Purana. Several Upanishads and texts of the Vedanta-Yoga tradition are also dedicated to him.
Dattatreya is typically shown with three heads and six hands, one head each for Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva who represent the Trimurti, the 3 main gods in Hinduism, and one pair of hands holding the symbolic items associated with each of these gods: Japamala and Kamandalu of Brahma, Shakha and Sudarshana Chakra of Vishnu, Trishula and Damaru of Shiva. He is typically dressed as a simple monk, situated in a forest or wilderness suggestive of his renunciation of worldly goods and pursuit of a meditative yogic lifestyle. In paintings and some large carvings, he is surrounded by four dogs and a cow, which symbolise the four Vedas and mother earth who nourishes all living beings.
In very few older medieval temples of Dattatreya show him with just one head, such as the one in Mahur, one at Narayanpur on Pune Satara Road, Near Pune, and another in Pandharpur, both in southern Maharashtra. Very few texts such as Agni Purana describe the architectural features for building murti, and for Dattatreya, it recommends him with one head and two hands. In Varanasi, Nepal, north Himalayan foothill states of India, 15th-century Nath temples of Dattatreya show him with just one face. In most parts of India and world, the syncretic six armed and three faced iconography is more common.