Dadhīci (Dadhichi)

In classical Vedic and Puranic narratives Dadhīci is a rishi of the line of Atharvan who plays decisive roles in divine conflicts. In the prominent Vajrayudha episode he consents to surrender his life so that his bones may be fashioned into the vajra, the thunderbolt weapon by which Indra can slay the asura Vritra. Other narratives present him as custodian of the devas' weapons, teacher of secret mantras (including the Aśvaśira motif and episodes involving the Mahāmṛtyuñjaya mantra), and as a figure who is dismembered or struck down in disputes with kings or gods and in some variants subsequently restored by figures such as Shukra or the Aśvins.

Sources provide little consistent physical description beyond his status as a venerable rishi. A narrative variant attested in Jaiminya Brahmana and later retellings records an episode in which, after a curse causes his original head to be destroyed, the Aśvins restore his life with a horse head; this horse‑head motif is not a universal Rigvedic portrait but a specific variant in Brahmana/Purana material.

Dadhīci is depicted as a master of Vedic and mantric knowledge, a potent ascetic whose discipline enables extraordinary outcomes, and a teacher/custodian who can transmit or withhold dangerous ritual formulae. He performs an act of willing self‑sacrifice in the Vajra narrative (offering his body/bones for the devas' weapon), and in some accounts benefits from restorative miracles (Shukra's instruction in the Mahāmṛtyuñjaya and the Aśvins' intervention). He also functions as a curser and adversary in certain episodes (for example, conflicts with King Kṣuva and with Indra are attested in Puranic sources), showing that he can issue injurious spiritual effects in disputes.