Dattatreya Jayanti 2026

Margashirsha full-moon celebration of Lord Dattatreya.

Dattatreya Jayanti honours Dattatreya, revered as the son of the sage Atri and his wife Anasuya and understood in many traditions as embodying Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. A popular devotional account tells how the three divine powers came to test Anasuya's fidelity and hospitality. She faced an impossible demand but answered through her spiritual discipline, transforming the visitors into infants and feeding them as a mother. The divine consorts then sought their return, and the deities blessed Anasuya and Atri. Variants recount the birth of Dattatreya and, in some tellings, his brothers Chandra and Durvasa differently. These are sacred stories, not documentary biography.

Dattatreya is also portrayed as an avadhuta, a liberated teacher who learns from the world. In the Bhagavata Purana's account of the avadhuta's twenty-four teachers, lessons come from the patient earth, the unattached wind, clear water, fire, the moon and sun, birds and animals, a child and ordinary human encounters. The pigeon teaches about destructive attachment, the python about accepting what comes, and the arrow-maker about concentration. The teaching invites humility: wisdom need not be confined to formal classrooms or a single human guru.

Devotees mark Margashirsha Purnima with Datta worship, mantra recitation, bhajans and remembrance of the guru tradition. Pilgrimage centres such as Ganagapur, Narsobawadi and Audumbar maintain distinctive practices. Exact worship periods depend on regional panchang conventions; a dusk-based full-moon rule needs checking against actual temple schedules.

Honours Dattatreya as a divine teacher and symbol of wisdom, humility and learning from nature.

Datta puja, mantra recitation, bhajans and guru remembrance; timings follow local panchang.

Especially observed in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Datta pilgrimage centres including Ganagapur, Audumbar and Narsobawadi.