https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/brdup/brhad_II-05.htmlSo, this is the interesting story behind the Vidyā called Madhu-Vidyā. But whatever the story is behind this enunciation of the Vidyā, it is a magnificent statement of the Upaniṣhad, where it tells us that everything is organically related to everything. When you touch anything, you are touching everything. If I touch a table, I am touching the sun at once. Nobody can understand the mystery behind this thing. Everything is vitally connected, not merely artificially related, so that when I see anything, I am seeing everything. When I speak to anyone, I am speaking to everybody. When I touch anything, I touch all things, and when I know one thing, I know everything. This point is really a magnificent theme in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣhad. No wonder Indra was very fond of it and did not want others to know it.
There is an interesting story behind this knowledge. It is a very secret knowledge which cannot be imparted to all people. And Indra got this knowledge from Sage Dadhyaṅṅ. Greedy that he was, he did not want others to know this. He wanted to have this knowledge only for himself. He had told his Guru, "If you tell this to anybody else, I will cut off your head." He was a very strange disciple, and the Guru said nothing. He kept quiet. Indra desired to be the only knower of it. Such a great secret it is! Then two other gods known as the Aśvinis – they are the twin celestial physicians – wanted to have this knowledge. They knew that this Guru knows this – the Madhu-Vidyā. So they came and said: "Will you teach us Madhu-Vidyā?" The Guru Dadhyaṅṅ ātharvaṇa Rishi said: "You know the danger behind my telling what I know? I will lose my head." "Why?" they asked. He told them: "This is what happened. That foolish Indra, I taught him something, and this threat is the gratitude he gave me. He says, if I tell this to anybody else, he will sever my head. So, if I tell you, my head will go." "Oh, you do not bother about it," the twins said, "We shall look to it. We shall take care of this matter. You do not be afraid of losing your head." "How are you going to save me?" "You start teaching. Then, we cut off your head. Then, we will bring the head of a horse and place it on the trunk of your body, and you speak through the horse's mouth. Then Indra will get angry and cut off your head. But what he will cut off is the horse's head only. Afterwards he will go away and we will replace your real head and join it so that you become all right. Thereby you will not have lost anything." That was a very good idea. Then Sage Dadhyaṅṅ began to speak and the Aśvinis cut off his head and kept it safe somewhere, in secret. They brought the head of a horse from somewhere, fixed it on the sage's trunk and gave it life. Immediately the horse started speaking the Madhu-Vidyā, and through the mouth of the horse it is that this wisdom has come. Indra got enraged on seeing that the sage had started imparting the Madhu-Vidyā. He went and cut off that head he found on the sage's neck – the horse's head. Then the Aśvinis came and put back the original head on the sage and made him whole again.
The Ashvins (Sanskrit: अश्विन्, lit. 'horse possessors', IAST: Aśvin), also known as the Ashvini Kumaras and Asvinau,[3] are Hindu twin gods associated with medicine, health, dawn, and the sciences.[4] In the Rigveda, they are described as youthful divine twin horsemen, travelling in a chariot drawn by horses that are never weary, and portrayed as guardian deities that safeguard and rescue people by aiding them in various situations.[2][5] The Ashvins are an instance of the Indo-European divine horse twins.[12][13][5] Reflexes in other Indo-European religions include the Lithuanian Ašvieniai, the Latvian Dieva Dēli, the Greek Castor and Pollux; and possibly the English Hengist and Horsa, and the Welsh Bran and Manawydan.[12][7] The first mention of the Nasatya twins is from a Mitanni treaty (c.1350 BCE), between Suppiluliuma and Shattiwaza, respectively kings of the Hittites and the Mitanni.[14]
There are varying accounts, but Ashvins are generally mentioned as the sons of the sun god Surya and his wife Sanjna. In the epic Mahabharata, the Pandava twins Nakula and Sahadeva were the children of the Ashvins.
The Sanskrit name Aśvín (अश्विन्) derives from the Indo-Iranian stem *Haćwa- (cf. Avestan aspā), itself from the Indo-European word for the horse, *H1éḱwos, from which also descends the Lithuanian name Ašvieniai.[6]
In the Rigveda, the Ashvins are always referred to in the dual, without individual names,[5] although Vedic texts differentiate between the two Ashvins: "one of you is respected as the victorious lord of Sumakha, and the other as the fortunate son of heaven" (RV 1.181.4). They are called several times divó nápātā, that is 'grandsons of Dyaús (the sky-god)'. This formula is comparable with the Lithuanian Dievo sūneliai, 'sons of Dievas (the sky-god'), attached to the Ašvieniai; the Latvian Dieva Dēli, the 'sons of Dievs (the sky-god)'; and the Greek Diós-kouroi, the 'boys of Zeus', designating Castor and Pollux.[7][8]
The twin gods are also referred to as Nā́satyā (possibly 'saviours'; a derivative of nasatí, 'safe return home'), a name that appears 99 times in the Rigveda.[8] The epithet probably derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *nes- ('to return home [safely]'), with cognates in the Avestan Nā̊ŋhaiθya, the name of a demon – as a result of a Zoroastrian religious reformation that changed the status of prior deities –, and also in the Greek hero Nestor and in the Gothic verb nasjan ('save, heal').[9][10]
In the later Mahabharata, the Ashvins are often called the Nasatyas or Dasras. Sometimes one of them is referred to as Nasatya and one as Dasra.[11]
The Ashvins are often associated with rescuing mortals and bringing them back to life.[30]
The Rigveda also describes the Ashvins as "bringing light": they gave "light-bringing help" (svàrvatīr…ūtī́r, 1.119.
to Bhujyu, and "raised (Rebha) up to see the sun" (úd…aírayataṃ svàr dṛśé, 1.112.5).[31][5]
The Ashvins are associated with honey, which was likely offered to them in a sacrifice. They are the chief deities in the Pravargya rite, in which they are offered hot milk. They are also associated with the morning pressing of Soma, because they are dual deities, along with Indra-Vāyu and Mitra-Varuṇa. They also are the last deities to receive Soma in the Atirātra, or Overnight Soma Ritual.[32]
The Ashvins are invoked at dawn, the time of their principal sacrifice, and have a close connection with the dawn goddess, Uṣas: she is bidden to awaken them (8.9.17), they follow her in their chariot (8.5.2), she is born when they hitch their steeds (10.39.12), and their chariot is once said to arrive before her (1.34.10). They are consequently associated with the "return from darkness": the twins are called “darkness slayers” (tamohánā, 3.39.3), they are invoked with the formula "you who have made light for mankind" (yā́v…jyótir jánāya cakráthuḥ, 1.92.17), and their horses and chariot are described as "uncovering the covered darkness" (aporṇuvántas táma ā́ párīvṛtam, 4.45.2).[33]
The chariot of the Ashvins is repeatedly mentioned in the Rigveda. Their chariot has three chariot-boxes, three wheels, three turnings, and three wheel rims. The emphasis on the number 3 is symbolized in the sacrifice with its three soma pressings. The chariot is pulled by bulls, buffaloes, horses, birds, geese, and falcons. The chariot allows the Ashvins to be quick and mobile and travel to a number of places, which is necessary to fulfill their role of rescuing people. Sūryā, the daughter of the Sun, is sometimes mentioned as the wife of the Ashvins, and she rides with them in their chariot.[2]
It is also believed that the Ashvins were the first one to prepare the chayavanprasham formulation for Sage Chyavana believed in local tradition to be located at his ashram on Dhosi Hill near Narnaul, Haryana, India, the etymology behind the modern rendering of chyavanprash.[34]
