Info on Dattaatreya

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

Mythological information:

The name dattAtreya means "the Atreya (son of atri) who was s gift." The
story is that the gods once decided to test the chastity of anasuyA, the
wife of the r.shi atri. So, brahma, vishNu and Siva went to her when atri
was away. However, she was not fooled, and by her power, transformed
all three of them into one child, with three heads. The gods were pleased
with her chastity and the child was thus called dattAtreya. He is therefore
considered to be an incarnation of all three of brahma, vishNu and Siva.

There are ascetics in the Maharashtra region, who are supposed to be from
the datta sampradAya. Their traditions are similar to that of advaita
sannyAsIs, but their paramparA is not considered to be derived through Sankara.
I know of one dattAtreya ASram near Ahmednagar, which has close connections
with the advaita maThas.

advaita tradition also connects dattAtreya to Sankara in a peripheral way.
There is a small cave near Kedarnath, called the datta guha, which is where
Sankara is said to have been last seen. There is a memorial in this cave
dedicated to Sankara. According to some Sankara vijayams, Sankara had a long
conversation with dattAtreya in this cave before he attained samAdhi.
dattAtreya is usually depicted with four dogs by his side, representing the
four vedas, a cow behind him (a la vishNu), a trident in his hand (a la
Siva) and three heads (a la brahma).

S. Vidyasankar