Sage · All traditions · Pan-India · Chitrakoot (hermitage on the Mandakini)

Anasuya

Also called: Anusuya

Wife of the sage Atri, held up as the model of a chaste and austere wife. When the three gods come to her hermitage as young ascetics demanding to be fed by her unclothed, she turns them into infants and nurses them, and when their consorts beg for their return she asks for sons — the single three-headed Dattatreya, or three sons, according to the telling.

test virtue birth

Sources: Anasuya — Wikipedia; Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhaktivedanta Vedabase), cited by canto.chapter; Legends of the Nath-Jogis — Devdutt Pattanaik · see Anasuya's web

Relations 9

Anasuya parent of

Dattatreya (God) · Dattatreya: the three natures in one son
Dattatreya (God) · Anasuya tests the three gods
Durvasa (Sage) Vaishnava · Anasuya tests the three gods
Chandra (God) Vaishnava · Anasuya tests the three gods

Anasuya tested

Brahma (God) Smarta · Anasuya tests the three gods
Turned into an infant and nursed.
Vishnu (God) Smarta · Anasuya tests the three gods
Turned into an infant and nursed.
Shiva (God) Smarta · Anasuya tests the three gods
Turned into an infant and nursed.

Anasuya consort of

Atri (Sage) · Anasuya tests the three gods

Anasuya tested by

Narada (Sage) Smarta · Anasuya tests the three gods
Names her the most virtuous and provokes the goddesses into the test.

Stories 3

Dattatreya: the three natures in one son
In stone and bronze · as mother · 2 tellings
Three gods in one guru
How a tradition frames it · as his mother in the Puranic birth story · 2 tellings
Anasuya tests the three gods
Legend · as the tested wife · 4 tellings

Cited

Anasuya — Wikipedia Encyclopedia
Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhaktivedanta Vedabase), cited by canto.chapter § 4.1.15 Primary text (translation)
Legends of the Nath-Jogis — Devdutt Pattanaik Popular retelling