Article Credit: Rama Chintakunta Sage Dadhichi also known as Dhyancha was the son of Sage Atharvan who is one of the authors of Atharvana Veda along with Sage Angirasa. Sage Atharvan is also known as Sage Brigu (attained the name “Atharvan” as his authored it). Sage Atharvan is one of the wish-born sons’ of Lord Brahma. Mother of Sage Dadhichi is Chitti, Kardama Prajapati’s daughter. We have already discussed in Sage Angirasa’s article that Kardama Prajapati got his 9 daughters married to nine Brahmins known as Nava Brahmas who among one is Sage Brigu or Sage Atharvan, father of Sage Dadhichi. Sage Dadhichi was an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. He adored Lord Shiva to such extent that he cannot tolerate the insult of his Lord at any cost. As evidence, one legend goes like this. When Daksha Prajapati was performing a Yagna and he did not invite one of his Sons-in-law Lord Shiva because of his non-affluence but he invited the other two of Trimurthis, all Demi-gods, and Sages. Being a daughter of Daksha Prajapati Sati, Lord Shiva’s consort, wanted to join the ceremony conducted by her father. Lord Shiva tried to stop her that it is an insult for them to visit the ceremony without invitation but Sati/Parvati insisted to go as she wanted to see her sisters and parents. Lord Shiva tried his best to explain her seriousness of the situation but she did not listen. Lord Shiva let her go, aftermath, it is a well-known story where Sati could not bear the insult done to her Consort by her father and she burnt herself into ashes. Everybody present there were afraid of the power and status of Daksha Prajapati and nobody objected when Lord Shiva was insulted. It was Sage Dadhichi alone not caring the authority of Daksha Prajapati left the ceremony and place as he could not digest the insult caused to his Ishta Daiva (Favorite form of God). When Lord Shiva got to know after the self-sacrifice of Sati through his sixth sense he got enraged and threw one of his jata(hair strands) on the ground which gave birth to Veerabhadra Swamy and taught the lesson to Daksha Prajapati. Sage Dadhichi is personification of learnedness, severe penance, sacrifice and strong will-power (Vajra Sankalpam). Once there was a king by name Kshuva who was good friend of Sage Dadhichi. As a part of their friendly talk once they started a point of who is superior, Brahmins or Kshtriyas which took a bad turn and changed its course into big argument. Both of them were enraged and led into physical abuse. Sage Dadhichi considered himself superior as he is a Brahmin and learned in Vedas. King Kshuva regarded himself high because of his affluence and valor. Hence Kshuva hit Sage Dadhichi with his weapon by name Vajra which made him to get hurt badly and started to bleed. Sage Dadhichi sought the help of Sage Shukracharya who treated his wounds with the help of mantras. Once he got better, performed severe penance for Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva appeared before him and blessed him with three boons. The first one being that his body became as strong as Vajra (Diamond) and the other two were that he would never be defeated by anybody and he would never be humiliated by anybody. He went back to Kshuva to fight again and this time Kshuva became helpless and he prayed Lord Vishnu through severe penance. On the word of Lord Vishnu, Sage Dadhichi pardoned Kshuva but cursed all the deities that they would be defeated at the rage of Rudra on one of the important occasions which was actually fulfilled when Veerabhadra took birth from the hair strands of Lord Shiva and he defeated everybody including Lord Vishnu who were present at Daksha Prajapati’s Yagna. As a proof of his learnedness one legend goes like this: Sage Dadhichi was good at many types of Vedic arts and one among them was Madhu Vidya or Brahma Vidya. This was knowledge which can actually enable mortals to become immortals. Ashwini Devatas (Horse-formed sons of Lord Surya) wanted to attain this knowledge through sage Dadhichi to become Demi-gods. Lord Indra got to know about this and felt insecure that he might lose his position in Swargha (Heaven), hence he got enraged and wanted to kill the Guru who was teaching them this Vidya. Ashwini Devatas being aware of this, took off the head of Sage Dadhichi (separated his head from the body through the aid of mantras) and fixed a horse head to his neck. In rage, Lord Indra came there and beheaded him. Once he is gone, Ashwini Devatas fixed his original head and brought him back to life again through Madhu Vidya. Since then Sage Dadhichi is also known as Ashwashira (One with a Horse head). Sage Dadhichi is believed to have framed/authored Narayana Kavacham, a famous hymn in South India sung for power and peace.
When it comes to sacrificing attitude, there is a very popular legend about Sage Dadhichi. Suras and Asuras always waged in war with each other. They are natural enemies. Similarly, once there was time when Devas became very powerful and were able to destroy the Demons/Danavas in every war they waged which lead in the decrease of population of Demons. This became a reason of worry to Sage Shukracharya, Guru of Danavas. He was not able to find any way out to save the Danava race even though he was a Great Sage with many Vedic and Yogic abilities attained because of severe penance. At last he decided to seek the help of Lord Shiva and he instructed all the demons not to wage any war on Devas and lead a religious life. So there were no wars between them for quite some time. At this time, Devas wanted to hide their lustrous weapons in a safe place so that Danavas would not be able to find and destroy them. Sage Dadhichi was strong with the three boons he attained from Lord Shiva and no danava/demon was able to dare to come near his hermitage. Hence Devas decided to keep them under his guard ship. Even though Lord Indra harmed him once, being a saint Sage Dadhichi agreed to help Devas. The weapons kept lying in Sage Dadhichi’s hermitage and slowly started losing their luster because of non-usage. Sage Dadhichi did not wanted them to lose their power any more and hence dissolved them in water through his Yogic abilities and drank that water which made him store the power of these weapons in his bones. Meanwhile, Vishwarupa who acted as a Guru of Devas in the absence of Sage Brihaspati because of insult caused to him by Lord Indra because of his haughtiness was killed by Lord Indra in rage. Lord Indra was enraged by acting Deva-Guru Vishwarupa praying for the well-being of Danavas as a part of his religious practice as his mother was from Asura lineage. Sage Vishwarupa was son was sage Tshvata. Being angry by the act of Lord Indra Sage Tshvata performed a Yagna and created a Dragon-formed asura by name Vritta which could not killed by any weapon made of metal or wood. It attacked Lord Indra and no Demi-god was able to save Lord Indra and they approached Lord Vishnu for help. He advised them to sought help from Sage Dadhichi. As the sage has already dissolved the power of Deva weapons into his bones was ready to sacrifice his life and donate his bones to make weapons as they are stronger than Vajra because of his boon from Lord Shiva. Sage Dadhichi had a wish to visit the entire pilgrim place and take bath in holy waters. Lord Indra through his powers made all the holy waters to come and join at one place by name Naimisharanya and the pool of waters in which Sage Dadhichi took bath is known as Dadhichi Kund henceforth and it became a sacred pilgrim place. Sage Dadhichi sacrificed his physical body by going into fire and once his bones were the remnants, Vishwakarma, official architect of Devas, designed many powerful weapons for Devas and he designed Vajrayudha (Thunder-bolt) from the spine of Sage Dadhichi through which Lord Indra was able to kill Vrittasura. Hence by this act, Sage Dadhichi stands as a stalwart example of superior sacrifice for the welfare of the world.
