Madālasā

Madālasā was the daughter of Viśvāvasu, king of the gandharvas. A dānava, a demon, carried her off to the underworld, and a mortal prince, Ṛtadhvaja, rode down into the earth after a boar and found her there. She married him, died of grief at a false report of his death, and was born again from the hood of a nāga king, remembering her former birth, a yoginī, a woman perfected in yoga, and a mother of yoga. As queen she sang her first three sons awake to the Self while they lay in the cradle. At her husband's asking she taught the fourth, Alarka, the duties of a king, and when she left for the forest she gave him a ring with a message hidden inside it. Years later, in his worst hour, he opened it, and it sent him to the sage Dattātreya, the son of Atri and Anasūyā, a master of yoga.