Anasūyā

Anasūyā was the wife of Atri Maharshi, one of the Saptarshis, the seven great ṛshis. Atri was the mind-born son of Bhagavān Brahmā. Anasūyā is counted among the greatest pativratās (wives wholly devoted to their husbands) in the Purāṇas and the epics. Her devotion to her husband, kept up through her whole life, gave her tapas-śakti, the power of austerity, of extraordinary strength. Her name means “she who is without envy” (an + asūyā, where asūyā is jealousy and ill will towards the good fortune of others).

She is the mother of three sons: Candra (also called Soma, the Moon), Dattātreya and Durvāsa. The Purāṇas and the Rāmāyaṇa tell of her many deeds, and they are given below text by text.

Atri’s wife and her sons

Anasūyā is described as the best of pativratās. Her power came wholly from her unfailing devotion to her husband. Her tapas had grown into a force able to hold up the order of the worlds. The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa treats her as the one by whom all questions of pativratā-dharma (the duty of the devoted wife) are settled.

The three sons of Atri and Anasūyā are:

• Candra, also called Soma, the Moon. He was born through Bhagavān Brahmā’s vara (boon) and from a portion of Bhagavān Brahmā.
• Dattātreya, the great avadhūta teacher and the combined form of the Trimūrti, born through Bhagavān Vishṇu’s vara and from a portion of Bhagavān Vishṇu. He is the great yogī-avatāra who later became the teacher of Kārtavīryārjuna and Alarka.
• Durvāsa, the fierce and powerful ṛshi, born through Bhagavān Śiva’s vara and from a portion of Bhagavān Śiva. His anger became well known in the Purāṇas.

The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa: the stopped sun

The account begins in the city of Pratishṭhāna. A brāhmaṇa named Kauśika lived there in a sick body, suffering from the karma of an earlier birth. His wife, Kauśikī, served him as if he were a deva, without complaint. By this service she gained great pativratā-power.

The ṛshi Māṇḍavya had given Kauśika a śāpa (a curse): he would die at sunrise the next morning. When Kauśikī learned of this, she used the full force of her pativratā-śakti to stop the sun from rising. With no sunrise, the order of the worlds was upset. Rituals that needed the sunrise could not be done, and the worlds waited in still darkness. The devas were troubled.

Anasūyā’s help

The devas and the great ṛshis went to Anasūyā. They knew that only her pativratā-power could meet the power of Kauśikī and end the stalemate. Anasūyā went to Kauśikī. She spoke with kindness and wisdom and accepted that Kauśikī’s devotion was right. She asked her to let the sun go, and she promised that Kauśika would not die. By her tapas and grace, Anasūyā also healed Kauśika of his disease. Kauśikī then released the sun, and the dawn rose. The order of the worlds was restored.

The birth of the three sons

In the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, the birth of the three sons is the fruit of Anasūyā’s tapas and pativratā-śakti. The Trimūrti, Brahmā, Vishṇu and Śiva, each sent a portion of himself to be born as her son. The sons are Candra from Brahmā, Dattātreya from Vishṇu and Durvāsa from Śiva.

The Śiva Purāṇa, Śata Rudra Saṃhitā: Atri’s tapas

The Śata Rudra Saṃhitā tells the birth of the three sons with Atri’s tapas as the cause. Atri wished for children. He went with Anasūyā to the Tryakshakulā mountain on the bank of the Nirvindhyā river. He fixed his mind on Parameśvara alone. He held that only Bhagavān Śiva, the one truly called Īśvara in all the worlds, should give him a son. He did prāṇāyāma (breath control) and tapas in solitude for one hundred years.

The tapas was so strong that a great column of fire rose from Atri’s head and scorched all the worlds. The devas, the maharshis and Indra were tormented by the flames. They fled in turn to Brahmaloka, then to Vishṇuloka, then to Rudraloka. Brahmā, Vishṇu and Mahāśiva held counsel and went together to Atri’s āśrama.

Atri bowed to the Trimūrti and asked in wonder why all three had come. He had meditated only on the supreme Īśvara. He held that only Bhagavān Śiva together with Pārvatī bears the name Īśvara in all the worlds. The three replied, “We three are one and the same. Your saṅkalpa (resolve) has been fulfilled exactly. From our three portions, three sons will be born to you.” They then went back gladly to their own abodes. In due time Candra was born from Brahmā’s portion, Dattātreya from Vishṇu’s portion and Durvāsa from Śiva’s portion. In this account too Anasūyā bore all three sons.

The Trimūrti test

One more narrative about Anasūyā is told in other Purāṇas. Brahmā, Vishṇu and Śiva came to her āśrama as mendicants to test her pātivratya (faithfulness to her husband). They asked her to serve them food while she was unclothed. Anasūyā stayed calm. She called on her tapas-power and turned the three into infants. She then served them with a mother’s love. When Atri came back and was told what had happened, the Trimūrti were given back their own forms. In honour of her purity and power, they gave her the varas that became the three sons.

The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa

Anasūyā appears in the last episode of the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa. Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa came to Atri’s āśrama at the edge of the Daṇḍaka forest. The Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa describes her as an aged woman, white-haired and radiant, with the light of her tapas plainly visible. In this account the three sons of Atri and Anasūyā, Soma (the Moon), Dattātreya and Durvāsa, were born of the varas of the Trimūrti. The Trimūrti came down to test Anasūyā’s virtue and were pleased by her steady pātivratya.

Atri introduced Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa to her and told Rāma of her deeds, all done through the power of this dharma.

• The ten-year drought. A terrible drought lasted ten years. The rivers dried up, and the three worlds suffered from thirst and hunger. Anasūyā did such strong tapas that she made food appear and made the sacred Gaṅgā flow through the dry land, so that it lived again.
• The great tapas. She performed a cāndrayaṇa tapas (a fast that follows the phases of the Moon) lasting ten thousand years.
• The compressed night. The ṛshi Māṇḍavya had given a terrible śāpa to a devoted wife named Śāṇḍilī. Her husband would die at dawn because she had delayed in rising. By her tapas-śakti, Anasūyā joined ten nights into a single night and stopped the sun from rising. The condition of Māṇḍavya’s śāpa, the coming of dawn, could not be met, and the husband lived.

The teaching to Sītā

Anasūyā received Sītā with great affection and called her to sit beside her. She then gave Sītā a full teaching on pativratā-dharma. The husband is the wife’s deva, whatever his qualities. Whether he is good or flawed, gentle or harsh, the wife’s duty to him stays the same. She gave Rohiṇī as the example. Rohiṇī is the beloved among the nakshatras (stars), and her constant following of Candra is the model of the pativratā. Women who keep this dharma go to the highest lokas and win glory in this life. Women who give it up win only infamy.

Sītā received the teaching with respect. She said that she already lived by these principles. She spoke of Rāma’s great qualities, his dharma, his gentleness and his love of truth, which made following him a joy and not a duty.

The gifts

Anasūyā then offered Sītā a vara. At first Sītā declined, because she felt all her wishes were met. Anasūyā insisted with warm affection and gave her several divine gifts.

• Garlands of divine flowers that would never fade
• Garments of celestial quality
• Jewels and ornaments of great beauty
• Aṅgarāga, a divine paste that would keep Sītā’s radiance and beauty fresh through all the years in the forest

She asked Sītā to wear them and told her they would sustain her through her forest years.

Sītā’s svayaṃvara

Anasūyā then asked Sītā to tell the story of her svayaṃvara (the ceremony in which a bride chooses her husband) and her marriage to Rāma. Sītā told her all of it. She spoke of her birth from the furrow ploughed by Janaka, and of Janaka’s promise that only the one who could string Bhagavān Śiva’s bow would win her. She told of Rāma’s coming with Viśvāmitra and Lakshmaṇa, the breaking of the bow, Daśaratha’s call to Mithilā and the wedding. With this telling the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa ended, and the three entered the Daṇḍaka forest.

The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa

Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa left Citrakūṭa and went into the deep forest at the start of the Araṇya Kāṇḍa. They came to the āśrama of Atri Maharshi. Anasūyā came forward with great joy to meet Sītā. She gave Sītā a full teaching on pativratā-dharma. She said that whether a husband is a great man or a man with faults, the devoted wife who serves him as her deva wins the highest worlds. Sītā received this teaching with respect. It came from one who had herself raised pativratā-śakti to the level of the cosmos.

Anasūyā then gave Sītā divine ornaments and garments: divine ointment, garlands and clothes that would never fade or become soiled. They would keep Sītā’s beauty through the hardships of exile in the forest. These gifts showed that Anasūyā recognised Sītā’s own highest pativratā nature. Sītā took them with thanks. The meeting of the two great pativratās at Atri’s āśrama is one of the sacred moments of the Araṇya Kāṇḍa.

The drought and the Gaṅgā: the Śiva Purāṇa, Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā

The Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā tells of a drought of fifty-four years that afflicted the three worlds. Anasūyā was the one who saw the suffering of the world and acted. She saw that Atri’s tapas could bring the Gaṅgā down from svarga (heaven). She went to her husband, described the world’s suffering and urged him to do the tapas. It was at her urging that Atri did the tapas that brought down the Gaṅgā and set up the Atrīśvara liṅga. In this way her urging began the event that saved the world.

The caru vara: the Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva

In the Anuśāsana Parva, Upamanyu tells Kṛshṇa about the great devotees of Bhagavān Śiva. This account holds a third episode about Anasūyā. It is separate from the Kauśikī and stopped-sun account and from the account of the three sons of the Trimūrti. Anasūyā once became angry with her husband Atri and resolved that she would never again submit to him. She took refuge in Mahādeva alone. Bhagavān Śiva was pleased with her and told her with a smile that by his grace she would have a son without union with her husband, merely by drinking a caru (a consecrated offering of cooked grain). He said this son would become well known in her own line under her own name.

Sources

• Mārkaṇḍeya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 16
• Śiva Purāṇa, Śata Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapter 19
• Śiva Purāṇa, Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapter 4
• Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 117–118
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 14