Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c25.19

c25.19

Durvāsas Ātreya is called Datta’s brother,¹⁰ but his position is not definite, because he is not certainly connected with any king, and he appears often in tales, introduced at all stages of traditional history, especially in brahmanical stories.¹¹ He is nearly always presented as a very irascible and furious rishi,¹² and his character is well taken off in a story about Kṛṣṇa.¹ Curses imprecated by him serve at times to explain pitiable misfortunes and hardly-merited sufferings.² He is called an incarnation of Śiva.³ No gotras appear to have claimed descent from him.