states Maitreyi is a young beauty who is an Advaita scholar but never marries.

Scharfstein considers Yajnavalkya to be one of the earliest philosophers in recorded history. Yajnavalkya is credited by Witzel for coining the term Advaita (non-duality of Atman and Brahman). The ideas attributed to him for renunciation of worldly attachments have been important to Hindu sannyasa traditions.