Dattatreya
There was once a dutiful wife whose husband was, however, a licentious wretch. This couple unwittingly dis- turbed Rishi Mandavya, who had been placed on a spear by a misguided king. The Rishi, who was in agony but not dying, cursed them, saying that the husband would die at sunrise and the wife be left a widow. Widowhood is most abhorrent to a Hindu lady and considered worse than death. By the force of her intense loyalty to her husband she resisted the curse of the Rishi: The Sun could not rise, and the Gods were rendered impotent.
The Gods in council resolved to approach Anasuya — the ideal of wifehood — to ask her to prevail on the other
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