Vedic sage, credited with composing numerous shlokas to Agni, Indra, and other Vedic deities of Hinduism.
Atri is one of the Saptarishi (seven great Vedic sages) in the Hindu tradition, and the one most mentioned in the Rigveda.
Rama visiting Atri's hermitage. As Atri talks to Rama and his brother Lakshmana, Anusuya talks with his wife Sita
Book 5 of the Rigveda is called the Atri Mandala in his honour, and the eighty seven shlokas in it are attributed to him and his descendants.
Atri is also mentioned in the Puranas and the Hindu epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad elaborates that each of the satparshis symbolize one sense or organ of Brahma. As such, Atri symbolizes the tongue, which emphasizes his wisdom and knowledge of the Vedas.
According to legends of the Vedic era, Atri was married to Anasuya Devi.
They had three sons: Dattatreya, Durvasa, and Chandra.
Mandala 5 comprises 87 shlokas, mainly to Agni and Indra, but also to the Visvedevas ("all the gods'), the Maruts, the twin-deity Mitra-Varuna and the Asvins.[11] Two shlokas each are dedicated to Ushas (the dawn) and to Savitr. Most shlokas in this book are attributed to the Atri clan composers, called the Atreyas.
The Atri shlokas of the Rigveda are significant for their melodic structure as well as for featuring spiritual ideas in the form of riddles. These shlokas include lexical, syntactic, morphological and verb play utilizing the flexibility of the Sanskrit language.
The shloka 5.44 of the Rigveda in Atri Mandala is considered by scholars such as Geldner to be the most difficult riddle shloka in all of the Rigveda.
The verses are also known for their elegant presentation of natural phenomenon through divinely inspired poems, such as poetically presenting dawn as a cheerful woman in shloka 5.80.
While the fifth mandala is attributed to Atri and his associates, sage Atri is mentioned or credited with numerous other verses of the Rigveda in other Mandalas, such as 10.137.4.
Ramayana
In the Ramayana, Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana visit the hermitage of Atri and Anasuya during their fourteen-year exile in the forest. Atri's hut is described to be in Chitrakuta,
near a lake with divine music and songs, the water loaded with flowers, green water leaves, and with many "cranes, fisherbirds, floating tortoises, swans, frogs and pink geese."
During the visit, Anusuya tells Sita to ask for a boon. However, Sita does not wish for anything, so Anusuya gives her a "precious robe" made of "heavenly fabric, rich and rare" as well as
some pure and heavenly ornaments