It is celebrated on the full moon day of the Margashirsha (Agrahayana) month according to the Hindu calendar (December/January) throughout the country, and in particular in Maharashtra.

Anasuya, an archetypal chaste and virtuous wife, did severe tapas (austerities) to beget a son equal in merits as Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, the Hindu male trinity (Trimurti).

The Trimurti then appeared in their true form, before Atri and Anasuya, and blessed them with a son named Dattatreya.

[3] According to another account, Anasuya persuaded a woman named Shilavati to restore the sunrise, after her husband had been cursed to die the following day.

[6] On Datta Jayanti, people take bath early in the morning in holy rivers or streams, and observe fasting.

[3] Other sacred texts like the Datta Prabodh (1860) by Kavadi Baba and the Datta Mahatmya by Param Pujya Vasudevananda Saraswati (Tembe Swami Maharaj), both of which are based on Dattatreya's life, as well as the Guru-charita based on the life of Narasimha Saraswati (1378−1458), considered an avatar of Dattatreya, are read by devotees.