Chapter 4 — Birth of Shri Dattatreya

Literal. The chapter describes the cosmogony — Hiranyagarbha (the cosmic egg), Brahma's emergence, the four classes of life (born of perspiration, of eggs, of placenta, of earth), and the seven mind-born sons of Brahma (Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulasti, Pulaha, Kratu, Vashishtha). It then narrates the test of Anasuya, wife of Atri: the three gods (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva), having been told that no one returns hungry from her door, come in mendicant disguise and demand to be served naked. Anasuya, pure in mind, transforms them into newborn babies, suckles them at her breast, and rocks them in a cradle. Atri returns, recognizes the Trimurti, and asks for them as sons. The three gods comply; thereafter Brahma is named Chandra, Vishnu is named Datta, and Shiva is named Durvas. Datta becomes Dattatreya — the founder of the Guru lineage.

Symbolic. Dattatreya as unified Trimurti — the structural claim that creation, preservation, and destruction are aspects of a single underlying agent, accessible through a single point of contact. The composite figure compresses a polytheistic cosmology into a single addressable teacher. Anasuya's chastity is the catalyst: purity of intent is what makes the Trimurti convertible into a single locus.

Structural. Brahma creates 14 lokas, 10 directions, 7 sons (the Saptarishi), and the four classes of life. The numerical structure of the cosmos is laid out compactly here.