Rishi Atri

The Atri Vedic sage Rishi, born by the power of the mind of the Creator God Brahma, is one of the mythical authors of the Rig Veda.

Brahma commissioned Atri to help him in the work on the Creation according to the grhastha-dharma. Atri's wife was the pious Anasuya.

Atri and Anasuya made an excellent pair, but Brahma's order to assist him in the act of creation remained unfulfilled. Then Atri, accompanied by his wife, went to the banks of the Nirvindya River and began a very severe tapas. Standing on one leg in garudasana, controlling breathing according to the rules of pranayama and eating air, he plunged into nirvikalpa samadhi for a hundred years.

While her husband was busy with strict tapas, Anasuya, the ideal wife, guarded his tapas vigilantly so that no obstacles could get in the way of the best of the best. Atri's achievements have caused astonishment in all worlds. Dattatreya was born from this tapas.

Once in Satya Yuga, when misfortunes and diseases spread and the world of living beings was destroyed, it was Atri who attained the vision of Ayurveda. Another time, when people felt that the Dharma Shastra, compiled by Manu, became incomprehensible, Atri himself wrote smrti in beautiful, clear and easy to understand words.
So he did many great things for the prosperity of the world.