Books on Dattatreya
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"Of all the mystical treatises of ancient Indian literature, The Avadhut Gita, or "Song of the Avadhut", is one of the most eloquent and compelling. Its theme is the unitive knowledge obtained through mystical vision, the knowledge of the eternal self. This knowledge is not limited to the mystics of any one cultural tradition, but is universal among all those who have attained to mystical vision.
"The author is The Avadhut Gita was enlightened by the same direct revelation which inspired the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and other such works. It must be read, therefore, not as the reiteration of a conceptual position, or as an argument for the Vedantic viewpoint, but as the sharing by an illumined sage of directly revealed truth. His aim in this sharing is not to convince us, but to awaken us to the truth, and liberate us from error.
"The Avadhut Gita is a call to knowledge, the supreme knowledge of ultimate truth. The Avadhut holds out no compromise with illusion, he offers no foothold on separation, he allows no semblance of duality at all to creep into our perception of reality. Perhaps has knowledge is, for mere men, too sublime, too austere, too simplistic; but it is the knowledge of the ultimate indisputable truth of existence; and it is this very truth which has the power to make us free."
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2. Dattatreya :
The Immortal Guru, Yogin, and Avatara : 
A Study of the Transformative and Inclusive Character of a Multi-Faceted Hindu Deity/Antonio Rigopoulos. Reprint. First published in 1998. Delhi, Satguru, 2000, 342 p., pic., ISBN 81-7030-673-6.
Price: Rs. 300
Contents: Preface. 1. The genealogy of Dattatreya. 2. Puranic mythology of Dattatreya. 3. Dattatreya in minor Upanisads. 4. Dattatreya in the literature of the Mahanubhavas. 5. The Guru-caritra and the rise of the Dattatreya cult. 6. Eknath, Dasopant, and the unfolding of the Dattatreya movement. 7. The Tripura-rahasya. 8. The Avadhuta-gita. 9. The development of Dattatreya’s iconography. Conclusion. General bibliography. Selected bibliography on Dattatreya and his movement. Index.
From the preface: “This study presents the main phases in the making of the Hindu deity Dattatreya, from its Puranic emergence as an immortal Guru, Yogin, and Avatara, up to its celebration as the trimurti of Brahma, Visnu, and Siva. Focusing on the origin and development of this particular deity, one is brought into touch with virtually all major religious strands of that complex network of religions called Hinduism. Its assimilative force is witnessed by the variety of communities which appropriated Dattatreya from within an overall nondual philosophical framework: from the world of antinomian Tantrism to the world of Brahminical ritual orthodoxy, passing through the renunciatory milieux of Yoga, the Mahanubhava sect, Vaisnava devotionalism, Saiva asceticism, Saktism and Devi worship. Although one might envision the presence of plural Dattatreyas, construed in different ways within each given community, I would rather opt for the existence of a single multifaceted deity, constantly absorbing new traits in an ongoing process of cross-fertilization. Significantly, Dattatreya’s catalyzing force extends beyond the boundaries of Hinduism, also being linked to popular Sufism and Jainism.”
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