SAGEDURVASA-Part1 Dearfriends,
This posting about sage Durvasa is compiled from Googlesearch asking many questions curious to me and posted in my style which isdesired by a few members than as QA posting. This posting is least intended to all knowing and criticizingand fault finding members. Hope the posting is interesting and informative to many of myfriends. Since the information is lengthy posted in parts. Gopalakrishnan 15-02-2026 Introduction In Hindu scriptures, sageDurvasa is a legendary rishi (sage). He was born as the son of sage Atri andhis wife sage Anasuya. According to Puranas,Durvasa was a partial avatar of Shiva, known for his irascibility and shorttempered behaviour. Whereverhe went he was received with great reverence by humans and devas alike. There are many reasons for his name Durvasa. The mostimportant and convincing is that he ate Durva grass during his ascetic life. Other reasons for namingare wearing torn out and dirty clothes and difficulty to move with. In spite he had thousands ofdisciples. He lived through Sathya Yuga, Thretha Yuga and Dwapara Yuga. Howeverhe was not a chiranjeevi. Inmost versions he took Samadhi after Dwapara Yuga. The sage married Kandali daughter of but their relation wasshort lived. She was also hot tempered and argued with Durvasa. After tolerating 100 times, Durvasa cursed her to becomeashes. There is a version sister of Soorapadman, the asura lady hadforcibly put him to sexual relation and two children were born to them. He was said to have createdthree manasaputhras. He was a sage giving boons as well as cursing. He was hottempered. Birth Mythological Origin: According to the Brahmanda Purana,the sage was born from the "deposited" anger of Lord Shiva. After aquarrel between Shiva and Brahma, Shiva’s rage became so great that hisconsort, Parvati, declared he was "impossible to live with." Shiva subsequently transferred thisportion of his anger into Anasuya (the wife of Sage Atri), resulting in thebirth of Durvasa. Other version 1 To test Anasuya's chastity, the Trimurti appeared asmendicants and asked for alms on the condition that she must serve them whilenude. The Transformation: Anasuya, through her spiritual power, turned them intoinfants so she could feed them as a mother, thus fulfilling theircondition without violating her modesty. The Boon: When the goddesses (Saraswati, Lakshmi, andParvati) came to retrieve their husbands, they were humbled by Anasuya'spurity. In gratitude and as a reward for her devotion, the Trimurti offered hera boon. The Promise of Birth: Anasuya asked that the three gods beborn to her as her own sons. They agreed, and according to the Markandeya Purana, theylater took birth from her womb as separate individuals: Durvasa: Born as a partial incarnation (amsha) of Lord Shiva(representing his "angry" aspect). Dattatreya: Born as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Chandra (Soma): Born as an incarnation of Lord Brahma. Other version-2 Brahmanda Purana: Shiva and Brahma once had a violentquarrel. Shiva realized his anger was causing chaos and decided to"deposit" that concentrated rage into Anasuya's womb, which thenmanifested as the short-tempered sage Durvasa. Srimad Bhagavatam: It simply states that Atri performed severe penance for ason like the Supreme Being, and the Trimurti appeared to grant him three sonsas partial manifestations of themselves. In all versions, the core message remains that Sage Durvasais the son of Atri and Anasuya as a result of their unparalleled penance andpurity. Marriage and children The Story of Durvasa andKandali Marriage Agreement: Durvasa, originally a celibate ascetic,was persuaded to marryKandali, the daughter of Sage Aurva. Knowing his own fierce temper, Durvasa promised Aurva that he wouldforgive 100 of Kandali's "offenses" (quarrels) before taking anydisciplinary action. Constant Conflict: Kandali was also known for hersharp tongue and quarrelsome nature. True to his word, Durvasa tolerated herinsults until the 101st occasion. The Curse: In a fit of uncontrollable rage during their finalargument,Durvasa cursed Kandali, reducing her to a heap of ashes. Kandali's Transformation: Deeply regretting his actions,Durvasa contemplated ending his own life. However, Lord Vishnu appeared and transformed Kandali’s ashes into aKandali tree (often identified as banana plantain or flowering tree), which wasblessed to bear fruit once a year. In the BrahmavaivartaPurana, Kandali did not follow Durvasa as a wandering ascetic; instead,the couple lived together in a settled ashram (hermitage) after their marriage. After the wedding, Sage Aurva (Kandali’s father) departed,and Durvasa stayed in his own ashram to live with his new bride. Shift from Asceticism: For a period, the famouslywandering sage actually abandoned his austerities and "became attached tohousehold life" (grihastha), focusing entirely on his relationship withKandali. Brief Union: This settled life was short-lived.Their constant quarrelling reached a breaking point during a specific incidentat the ashram—often cited as Kandali failing to wake him for rituals or talkingback to him—which led to the curse that ended her life. After Kandali was reducedto ashes and subsequently transformed into a banana tree, Durvasa eventuallyreturned to his life of wandering and intense penance. In all major epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana,he is thereafter depicted as a lone traveller accompanied only by his thousandsof disciples Second marriage In most Hindu scriptures, Sage Durvasa is not mentioned ashaving married a second time. Following the tragic end of his marriage toKandali, he primarily returned to his life as a wandering ascetic(brahmachari). However, there are a few notable exceptions and specificsectarian accounts: The Second Wife (ShivaPurana): Someinterpretations of the Shiva Purana suggest that after Durvasa was separatedfrom his first wife (due to a curse involving Indra and the apsara Rambha), heeventually "took another woman as his wife" to end a thousand-yearperiod of suffering from separation. A specific tradition within the Brahmavaivarta Purana (4.7and 4.24) claims that Durvasa later married Ekanamsha (also known as Yogamaya), who was thesister of Lord Krishna and daughter of Nanda and Yashoda. This account isrelatively obscure and not found in the more mainstream versions of theMahabharata or Ramayana. Reunion in another Kalpa: In the Brahmavaivarta Purana, LordVishnu (in the form of a Brahmana boy) consoles the grieving Durvasa afterKandali’s death by promising that she would be born as his "exaltedwife" again in another Kalpa (aeon). Demoness Ajamukhi Ajamukhi was a demoness and the daughter of Surasa and thesage Kashyapa. Demoness Ajamukhiwas the sister of powerful demon Surapadman, who was vanquished by Murugan.The goat-faced demoness had two sons from Sage Durvasa. The way in which shegot the sons and their nefarious activities are mentioned in the below story. Demoness Ajamukhi went around killing handsome men. She also found pleasure in destroying the ashrams of therishis. Once she chanced upon the ashram of the powerful SageDurvasa. The sage was deep inmeditation. Ajamukhi wanted to have children from the sage. She tried toentice the sage but the angry sage declined her advancements and angrily told her he will notaccept her as his wife. Suddenly, Ajamukhi tightly embraced Sage Durvasa. The sagestruggled to get out from the embrace and in this process two sons emerged fromAjamukhi. She named the two sons,Vatapi and Vilvalan. The sons requested their father to grant them the power hehad accumulated through his tapas. Durvasa declined and told them to ask anyother boon. The two brothers were adamant and threatened to kill their father. A furious Durvasa cursed them to be killed by SageAgastya and returned back to his penance.Did sage Durvasa had anychildren from Ajamukhi According to another version, she met Durvasa at the foothills of the Himalayas and,through her charms, managed to marry him. The Children: Their sons, Ilvala and Vatapi, were born withdemonic tendencies. They famously demanded all the spiritual powers (siddhis)Durvasa had earned through his long years of meditation. The Curse: Outraged by their greed and demonic nature,Durvasa cursed his own sons, prophesying that they would eventually be killedby the great Sage Agastya. This curse later came to pass in a well-known storywhere Agastya digests Vatapi after the brothers try to kill the sage through atrick. Children While he had no biologicalchildren with Kandali, other traditions attribute different forms of"offspring" to him: Mind-Born Sons: In Kashmiri Shaivism, Durvasa is said to have created three sons—Tryambaka, Amardaka,and Shrinatha—through the power of his mind to preserve and teach differentspiritual doctrines. Tryambaka: Tasked with teaching the Abheda(non-dualism) doctrine. Amardaka: Tasked with teaching the Bheda(dualism) doctrine. Shrinatha: Tasked with teaching the Bhedabheda(unity-in-diversity) doctrine. I will continue aspart 2. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. 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