Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.1129

c8.1129

Āyus was an emperor of righteousness. After the marriage, for a long time he was childless. Once he visited the hermit Dattātreya, in his hermitage. Dattātreya who was the son of Atri and the most famous and the noblest of all the hermits, was quite senseless and red-eyed because of drinking, and without even the Brahmasūtra, was playing with a young woman, seating her in his lap. His body was besmeared with sandalwood and aloe and adorned with garlands and necklaces of pearl and he was surrounded by many women. The King seeing the divine hermit bowed him with reverence and fear. The moment the hermit saw the King, he sat in deep meditation. This continued for a hundred years, at the end of which period, seeing the devotion of the King, he said, “Oh King! why do you take this trouble. I have left off the customs and manners of Brahmins. I have no Brāhmaṇya (Brahminism). I am immersed in liquor, meat and women. So you had better go and serve another Brahmin.”