Dattātreya

Dattātreya is a Purāṇic deity, in origin a Tantric antinomian yogin later sanitized and adapted to the devotional milieu of the Purāṇas. The mythical ̣ accounts present him as the son of the rṣị Atri and of his wife Anasūyā. Thanks to the help offered by Anasūyā to the trimūrti of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva she and her husband are bestowed the grace that the trimūrti would be born as their sons: thus are born Soma, Datta/Dattātreya (“The Given One;” “The One Belonging to Atri’s Lineage”) and Durvāsas who are avatāras of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva respectively. Significant Purāṇic loci are Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.3.11, 11.7.24–11.9.33 and Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa chapters 17-19, 37-43. The vaiṣṇava character of the deity is intertwined with antinomian traits and from its inception Dattātreya’s theology appears as an inextricable mixture of vaiṣṇava and śaiva elements. Although Dattātreya’s presence is traceable even in Nepal, his heartland is the Marāṭhī cultural area. The oldest testimony of his presence is in the literature of the Mahānubhāvs, a monastic community conceived as heterodox by Brāhmaṇical authorities. Apparently, the Mahānubhāvs received Dattātreya through the medium of the yogic sect of the Nāths. In Maharashtra, the advent of the Dattasampradāya (“The Tradition of Datta [Followers]”) dates to the mid-16th century when the Marāṭhī Gurucaritra (“Life of the Master”) was written by Sarasvatī Gaṅgādhar. This hagiography presents the lives of Śrīpād Śrīvallabh (c. 1323–1353) and Nṛsiṃha Sarasvatī (c. 1378–1458), regarded as the first historical avatāras of Dattātreya. The Gurucaritra emphasizes Brāhmaṇical ritual orthodoxy, in an effort to counter Islāmic dominance and Tantric excesses. In fact, quite a number of Tantric works centered upon ritual practice are attributed to Dattātreya among which is a Dattātreyatantra, possibly dating to the 12th century. Noteworthy is the ca. 13th century Dattātreyayogaśāstra, reputed to be the earliest work to teach both the eightfold system of Patañjali’s classical aṣṭāṅgayoga and the methods of haṭhayoga. The most popular texts ascribed to the deity are the Jīvanmuktagītā (“The Song of the Liberated-in-Life”), the Avadhūtagītā (“The Song of the Free”) and the jñānakhaṇḍa (“Section on Knowledge”) of the Tripurārahasya (“The Secret of [the Goddess] Tripurā”), which are all late compositions. On the whole, the Dattātreya movement exhibits ambivalent traits. On the one hand it expresses an integrative spirituality that accommodates even Islāmic tenets, while on the other it is the catalyst of Brāhmaṇical pride and of an assertive ritual orthodoxy.