Dadhichi

Dadhichi (दधीचि), also rendered Dadhyanga and Dadhyancha, is a sage in Hinduism. He is best known for his sacrifice in the Puranas, where he gives up his life so that his bones could be used to manufacture the Vajra, the diamond-like celestial thunderbolt of the deity Indra, in order to slay Vritra. In the Bhagavata Purana, Dadhichi is described as the son of the sage Atharvan and his wife, Chitti. Atharvan is said to be the author of Atharvaveda, which is one of the four Vedas. Chitti was the daughter of the sage Kardama. The names of Dadhichi's wife and son were Suvarcas and Pippalada, respectively. After the death of Dadhichi, when Suvarcas was about to ascend the funeral pyre, she heard an aśarīriṇī vāṇī (a celestial voice) that informed her that she was pregnant. Suvarcas removed the foetus from her womb with a stone, and placed it near a banyan tree, proceeding to end her life. Her child, Pippalada, became a famous rishi, associated with the Pippalada school of thought in Hinduism, and he is best known for being attributed with the Praśna Upanishad. Dadhichi is also mentioned in the various hymns (Richas–Suktas) of the Rigveda. Dadhichi is featured in many Hindu legends, and is sometimes portrayed as having a horse's head. According to the Rigveda, when Dadhichi resided in Devaloka, he observed that the earth was populated by numerous asuras. He urged Indra to destroy them, and towards this endeavour, offered him a head of a horse, which he had located in a lake in the country of Śaraṇya. Using the bones taken from the horse's head, the duo destroyed a number of asuras. In a variation of this legend featured in the Jaiminya Brahmana, the devas are said to have refused to bestow the Aśvaśira mantra of the Vedas to the Ashvini Twins. They declared that the being who would divulge this secret to the twins would have their head burst into a thousand pieces. The twin doctors of medicine sought out the sage Dadhichi, who offered to divulge this mantra. He only asked that the Ashvins replace his head with one of a horse when he reaped the consequences of the curse.