God Tvashtar, the All-Creator, owned a cow, whose udder exuded wonderful moisture - soma. Tvashtar was the guardian of Soma, but he hid the name of his wonderful cow and her place of residence even from the 6ogs. And only the wise Dadhyanch from the Apgiras clan knew this secret. But he did not reveal it to the gods. He, like Tvashtar, was close to the asuras, who drew strength from his secret knowledge.
Meanwhile, the cunning Ashvins, divine healers, the only gods excommunicated from Soma libations for their closeness to people, planned to penetrate the secret kept by Dadhyanch. They came to the sage and said: “We want to be your students.” “What do you want to learn from me?” “We want to comprehend the secret of the libations of Soma,” the Ashwins answered Dadhyanchu. “And we want to find out where the magic cow Tvashtara resides.” But the sage objected: “Indra, the king of the gods, threatened me that if I revealed this secret to anyone other than himself, he would cut off my head with his weapon. I fear his anger, O sons of Vivasvat, and therefore I cannot take you as my disciple.”
Then the Ashwins told him: “Do not be afraid, we will protect you from Indra’s wrath.” - “How can you protect me?” “If you make us your disciples,” said the Ashvins, “we will hide your head so that Indra will not know about it. We will put a horse’s head in its place, and when Indra cuts it off, we will return the real one to you.”
The sage agreed, and they hid his head, and put a horse's head in its place. And through the mouth of the horse Dadhyanch told them the secrets that they wanted to know; he revealed to them that the divine cow Tvashtara was hiding on the moon.
Soon Indra found out that Dadhyanch disobeyed him and told the secrets hidden from him to the Ashvins. In anger, he cut off the sage's head with his vajra. The horse's head flew far away and fell into a lake located on Mount Sharyanavat at the end of the world. But the Ashvins healed the beheaded Dadhyanch by placing his real head on his shoulders again.
Then the wise Dadhyanch ascended to heaven. And the power of the asuras on earth increased immeasurably, and the king of the gods could no longer cope with them. “The strength of the asuras depends on Dadhyanch,” Indra learned. The divine sages told him that only with the help of the horse's head, which he cut off from Dadhyanch, would he be able to defeat his enemies. Indra went in search, and in a mountain lake he found a horse's head that fulfilled wishes. With weapons created from the bones of that head, the ruler of the heavenly kingdom destroyed the asuras. And he then learned the secret of Tvashtar and stole his soma.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru