A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c4.s3.11

c4.s3.11

(ii) The sage Dadhyach who, like Vāmadeva, is a sage of Vedic repute, as referred to in Ṛgveda I. 116. 12, is also a sage who occupies a prominent place in Bṛhadāraṇyaka II. The “Madhuvidyā” referred to in the Ṛgveda is in this Upanishad expounded in great detail. As regards his personal history, we are told in the Ṛgveda that he knew the secret of the “Madhuvidyā,” and that he had been enjoined upon by Indra, on pain of capital punishment, not to disclose the secret to anybody. The Aśvins wanted to learn that wisdom from Dadhyach, and, because they were convinced that Indra would fulfil his threat, they first cut off the head of Dadhyach themselves, and substituted on his trunk the head of a horse. Dadhyach thereupon spoke by the horse’s head to the Aśvins, and taught them the “Madhuvidyā.” Indra was very wroth to see that the secret had been imparted by Dadhyach, and so he cut off the head from the body of Dadhyach, upon which, the Aśvins re-substituted the original head, and Dadhyach became whole again! It was this sage Dadhyach who is introduced in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka as having held the doctrine of the mutual interdependence of things, because all of them are indissolubly connected in and through the Self. To quote from the History of Indian Philosophy Volume II, “all things are in mutuum commercium, because they are bound together by the same vinculum substantiale, namely, the Self. The earth, says Dadhyach, is the honey of all beings, and all beings are the honey of