Durvasas

In Hindu mythology, a sage who is a partial incarnation of the god Shiva.
Durvasas is the son of Anasuya, who for
her influence in persuading another
woman to remove a curse has been
given boons by the gods Brahma,
Vishnu, and Shiva. Anasuya requests
that each be born as one of her sons,
and Vishnu is born as Dattatreya, Shiva
as Durvasas, and Brahma as Chandra. As
a mythic figure, Durvasas is noted for his
magic powers, which are not surprising
given his background. He is also known
for his bad temper and for his tendency
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Durvasas
Worshipers immerse an image of the goddess Durga in the Yamuna River, near New Delhi.
Durga is depicted riding a lion and holding a weapon in each of her eight hands.
to curse anyone who makes him angry.
One victim of his wrath is the maiden
Shakuntala, who in her reverie on her
newfound love with King Dushyanta
does not notice and pay homage to
Durvasas. She is cursed that her love
would completely forget her. In another
case Durvasas curses all the gods to be
subject to old age and death. This is
provoked by an “insult” from Indra’s
elephant Airavata, which had flung a
garland given by Durvasas to the
ground. As with most curses in Hindu
mythology, neither of these curses can
be withdrawn, but their severity is
reduced by mitigating conditions.
Shakuntala is told that King Dushyanta
will remember her if she shows him
some sign of their relationship, which
she does. The gods can avoid old age
and death by obtaining and consuming
the nectar of immortality (amrta).
As with all the sages, Durvasas can
also grant wonderful boons to people
with whom he is pleased. One such beneficiary was Kunti, one of the heroines
in the epic Mahabharata. Durvasas
gives Kunti a powerful mantra (sacred
sound), which will allow her to have a
child by any of the gods simply by thinking about him. As soon as Kunti receives
this mantra, she tests it while looking at
the sun, and immediately bears the
golden child Karna. In her panic at
unexpectedly becoming a mother—she
is still unmarried, and understandably
concerned about what people might
think—she puts the child in a box and
abandons him in the Ganges. After her
marriage to Pandu (son of the sage
Vyasa and queen Ambalika), this
mantra is the only way that she is able to
have children, since Pandu has been
cursed to die the moment he sleeps with
one of his wives. She uses this mantra to
bear Yudhishthira, Arjuna, and Bhima,
then teaches it to her co-wife Madri,
who bears Nakula and Sahadeva. Thus,
through the gift of Durvasas, all the
Pandava brothers—the epic’s protagonists—are children of the gods.