Ātreyī, Wife of Aṅgiras
Ātreyī · ātreyī, “the daughter of Atri”
Ātreyī has other meanings too: see all meanings of Ātreyī.
Ātreyī, also called Śubhātreyī, was the daughter of Atri Maharshi and the wife of the ṛshi Aṅgiras. Her husband, born of Agni, spoke harshly to her because of the fire in his nature, yet she went on serving him and bore him strong and valiant sons, the Āṅgirasas. When she asked her father-in-law Agni for help, she would not let her husband come to harm, and at Agni’s word she flowed over her fiery husband as water. The two grew calm in the waters of the Gaṅgā, and Ātreyī became the famous river Parushṇī, which joins the Gaṅgā.
Her birth and marriage
Brahmā tells Nārada the glory of Parushṇīsaṅgama, the confluence of the Parushṇī with the Gautamī, which destroys every pāpa. Atri propitiated Brahmā, Vishṇu and Maheśvara, and when they were pleased he asked: “You three shall be my sons, and a beautiful daughter shall also be born to me.” So the three were born as his sons, Datta, Soma and Durvāsa, and Atri begot a daughter, Śubhātreyī, called Ātreyī.
The ṛshi Aṅgiras was born of Agni together with aṅgāras (embers), and so he is called Aṅgiras. Atri gave Ātreyī of supreme splendour to him as his wife. Because of the nature of Agni in him, Aṅgiras always spoke harsh words to her, but Ātreyī served him faithfully. She bore him sons of great strength and valour, the Āṅgirasas, and the sons always calmed their father.
Her words with Agni
Once, deeply dejected by her husband’s harsh words, Ātreyī joined her palms and spoke to her elderly father-in-law Agni: “O Havyavāhana, carrier of the offerings, I am the daughter of Atri and the wife of your son. I am always busy serving my husband and my sons, yet my husband always speaks harshly to me and looks at me in anger for no reason. Instruct me, O eldest of the devas, and restrain my husband.”
Agni answered that her husband was born of sparks of flame and that some means must be found to calm him: he would take the form of fire, and at Agni’s command she should flow over him in the form of water. Ātreyī said: “I would rather bear the harsh words. Let my husband not leap into the fire. What use is life to a wife who goes against her husband? I wish for peaceful words, and I must have my husband too.”
Agni comforted her: Agni is present in the waters, in bodies, and in all moving and unmoving beings; he is the lasting abode of her husband and is known as his father, so she need not grieve. “Keep this firmly in mind: the waters are divine mothers, and Agni is your father-in-law.” Ātreyī asked: “You yourself say the waters are mothers. I am your son’s wife. How can I, his wife, also be his mother in the form of waters?” Agni taught her the roles of a wife: first she is the partner in dharma, then the one who sustains, then the one from whom the son is born, and always the one who seeks her husband’s welfare; she had taken on all of these. The one who is born of her is her son, and she is surely his mother; so those who know the meaning of the Vedas say that once a son is born she is no longer only the wife.
The river Parushṇī
Hearing her father-in-law’s words, Ātreyī flooded with water her husband, who had taken the form of fire. The couple mingled with the waters of the Gaṅgā, and both became calm in form and nature. They were like Bhagavān Vishṇu with Lakshmī, Bhagavān Śaṅkara with Umā, and Soma with Rohiṇī. Sweeping her husband along in her flood, Ātreyī took a body of water and became the famous river Parushṇī, and she joined the Gaṅgā. The Āṅgirasas, her sons, performed yajñas there with plentiful dakshiṇā.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 74
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 74