16 Facts About Dattatreya

Dattatreya, Datta or Dattaguru, is a paradigmatic Sannyasi and one of the lords of yoga, venerated as a Hindu god.

Over time, Dattatreya has inspired many monastic movements in Shaivism, Vaishnavism, and Shaktism, particularly in the Deccan region of India, south India, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himalayan regions where Shiva tradition has been strong.

Dattatreya 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.

Dattatreya is described in the Mahabharata as an exceptional Rishi with extraordinary insights and knowledge, who is adored and raised to a Guru and an Avatar of Vishnu in the Puranas.

Dattatreya is stated in these texts to having renounced the world and leaving his home at an early age to lead a monastic life.

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One myth claims he meditated immersed in water for a long time, another has him wandering from childhood and the young Dattatreya footprints have been preserved on a lonely peak at Girnar .

The Tripura-rahasya refers to the disciple Parasurama finding Dattatreya meditating on Gandhamadana mountain, Near Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu.

Dattatreya is said to have his lunch daily by taking alms at a holy place Pithapuram, Andhra Pradesh, where he was born as Sripada Sri Vallabha .

Young Dattatreya is famous in the Hindu texts as the one who started with nothing and without teachers, yet reached self-awareness by observing nature during his Sannyasi wanderings, and treating these natural observations as his twenty four teachers.

Many 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.

Dattatreya is the motif of the '"honey bee" Yogin who has realized advaita knowledge.

For example, in the Badami temple, Dattatreya is shown to be with single head and four hands like Vishnu, but seated in a serene Yoga posture .

The right earlobe jewelry and hair decoration in this art work of Dattatreya is of Shiva, but on his left the details are those of Vishnu.

Dattatreya is mentioned in the classic text on Yoga, the Shandilya Upanishad.

Dattatreya is mentioned in the ancient chapter 9 of the Sattvata Samhita and chapter 5 of the Ahirbudhnya Samhita, both among the oldest layer of texts in the Vaishnava Agama tradition .

Schrader states these texts and the chronology of Dattatreya are older than the Mahabharata, but Rigopoulos disagrees with him on the chronology.