Dattatreya

Dattatreya is a deity and sage who combines the three gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in one figure, the son of the sage Atri and his wife Anasuya. He is shown with three heads and six arms, often with four dogs and a cow beside him, standing under a tree. He is the divine guru of the Datta tradition, strongest in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat. In Odisha his following is small and he is honoured by Vaishnava and Shaiva devotees on Datta Jayanti, which falls on the full moon of Margashira.

According to the Markandeya Purana and the Bhagavata Purana, the wives of the three great gods, Sarasvati, Lakshmi and Parvati, were jealous of Anasuya, who was famed for her devotion to her husband. They urged their husbands to test her. The three gods came to Atri's hermitage disguised as...