The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c22.s1.24

v1.c22.s1.24

A special figure is that of Dadhyañc Ātharvaṇa, who is mentioned once in book vi, which is specially fond of the Atharvans, and elsewhere only in books i, ix, and x. The essential legend of him is that with the head of a horse he declared to the Açvins the mead.⁵ Further, Indra is said to have found in Çaryaṇāvant the head of the horse hidden in the mountains, and to have slain ninety-nine Vṛtras with the bones of Dadhyañc. He is the son of Atharvan and the kindler of fire, and he obtains cows from Indra, and opens cowstalls by Soma's power. It is clearly difficult to make much of this figure; the telling of the mead which is made into the delivery of philosophic doctrine by the theologians is interpreted more prosaically by Hillebrandt⁶ as referring to the use of honey in the ritual by the Atharvans, which seems clearly attested. But the horse-head suggests connexion with the steed Dadhikrāvan, and the name may either mean 'united with curd' or 'turning towards curd in pleasure'. Bergaigne⁷ considers that he is to be taken as the Soma, but this is hardly enough to account for his curious form and myth. It has been suggested that he is the lightning, the horse's head indicating speed, the voice the thunder, and the bones the thunderbolts; the connexion of lightning with Soma would explain the reference to Soma, to Indra, and to Agni. The suggestion is ingenious, but the mixed form of the deity suggests that there is at work some conception of demoniac kind: the demons of the Vedic religion often have the confusion of human and animal form, but not the deities.