One of the Saptarishi — husband of Ahalya, whose story of a curse and eventual liberation by Rama is among the Ramayana's most retold episodes.
सप्तर्षि · Saptarishi
Gautama is credited with hymns in the Rigveda's first mandala and with an early code of law, the Gautama Dharmasutra. He is best known through his wife Ahalya, whom tradition holds he cursed to stone after being deceived by Indra.
The Ramayana holds that Ahalya's curse was lifted by the touch of Rama's foot as he passed through Gautama's abandoned ashram — a moment often read as a story of redemption reaching even the most severely punished.