Editing Atri (section)

== Seer of Rig Veda ==
[[File:Bhagavata_Purana_manuscript,_18_century.jpg|left|thumb|250x250px|A Bhagavata Purana manuscript page depicting the story of Atri and Anasuya meeting the [[Trimurti]] (PhP 4.1.21–25) (paper, late 18th century, [[Jaipur]])]]
He is the seer of the fifth Mandala (Book 5) of the [[Rigveda]]. Atri had many sons and disciples who have also contributed in the compilation of the Rig Veda and other Vedic texts. 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]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Stephanie W. Jamison|author2=Joel P. Brereton|title=The Rigveda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-PRAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA659|year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-937018-4|pages=659–771}}</ref> 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''.<ref name="Dalal2010p49" />

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.<ref name=brereton2014p660>{{cite book|author1=Stephanie W. Jamison|author2=Joel P. Brereton|title=The Rigveda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-PRAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA659|year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-937018-4|page=660}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Stephanie W. Jamison|author2=Joel P. Brereton|title=The Rigveda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-PRAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA659|year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-937018-4|pages=660, 714–715}}</ref> 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.<ref name=brereton2014p660/>

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.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Stephanie W. Jamison|author2=Joel P. Brereton|title=The Rigveda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-PRAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA659|year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-937018-4|pages=1622–1623}}</ref>