Anasuya

Anasuya (अनसूया) is an ascetic, and the wife of Sage Atri in Hinduism. She is the daughter of Devahuti and the Prajapati Kardama in Hindu texts. In the Ramayana, she lives with her husband in a small hermitage on the southern border of the Chitrakuta forest. A pious woman who leads an austere life, she is described as having miraculous powers. Anasuya is the sister of the sage Kapila, who also served as her teacher. She is extolled as Sati Anasuya (Ascetic Anasuya) and Mata Anasuya (Mother Anasuya), the chaste wife of Sage Atri. She becomes the mother of Dattatreya, the sage-avatar of Vishnu, Chandra, a form of Brahma, and Durvasa, the irascible sage avatar of Shiva. When Sita and Rama visit her during their exile, Anasuya is very attentive to them, giving the former an unguent that would maintain her beauty forever. Anasuya is composed of two Sanskrit words: ana and asūya, translating to the 'one who is free from jealousy or envy'. The genealogy of Anasuya and her family is mentioned in the third book of the Bhagavata Purana. The Prajapati Kardama marries Devahuti, the daughter of the Svayambhu Manu. They are described to have ten children, a son named Kapila, and nine daughters, including Anasuya. Each daughter is married to a rishi; Anasuya is married to Atri. According to a legend from the Markandeya Purana, a Brahmin named Kaushika from Pratishthana used to visit a prostitute, despite being a Brahmin, and having a devoted wife, named Shandili, or Shilavati, in some versions. When he is unable to pay her for her services, the prostitute stopped seeing him, forcing him to return to his wife, who still cared for him. He still longed for the affection of the prostitute, so one day, he asked his wife to take him to her. The sage Mandavya had been impaled in lieu of a crime and was lying on a spike in the forest, still alive due to his yogic powers. While being led by his wife through the deep forest at night, Kaushika, mistaking the sage for a thief, pushes him. Furious, Mandavya curses him to die before the next sunrise.