Why Vajra is inscribed on Param Veer Chakra?

The Sage Dadhichi lived with his wife Suvarcha and her sister Dudhimati in his hermitage by the banks of the holy river Ganga. The hermitage was pious and provided an energy of positivity. So no demons or asuras could step into the hermitage and create nuisance.

Once after a great Deva-asura Sangraam or the war between gods and demons, the victorious gods came to Sage Dadhichi’s hermitage. They proposed to keep their celestial weapons in the custody of the sage as it would always remain safe from the demons.

The Sage happily agreed and hid the weapons in his hermitage.

After the gods went back to the heaven, Survacha, the sage’s wife was not happy with his decision to keep someone’s property. She told him that if something happens to those weapons, the sage would be responsible for it. Although the determined sage accepted his mistake, but said that he had given his word to the gods so he must keep the weapons safe in the hermitage.

Many years passed by, the gods didn’t come back to collect their weapons. The sage saw that the weapons were losing their lustre and power. As he washed them with the holy water and saw that its powers were dissolving in it. In order to preserve the powers and energy of the weapons he drank up the water. In a while he saw that weapons were useless as all the energy and powers were dissolved in the water which he drank.

Then came the twist to the tale. Again a fierce demon name Vritra attacked the gods. He blocked the rivers and brought in drought all over the earth. The gods wanted to attack the demon, but they realised that their weapons were in the Sage’s hermitage.

They went back to the hermitage and asked for their weapons. The Sage gave them back their weapons. Gods saw their languid weapons. They knew that these were ineffective against the attacks of the demon Vritra.

As the demon grew stronger and attacked the gods, they couldn’t stop his annihilation using their ineffective weapons. Finally Indra the king of the gods, went back to the Sage. With folded hands asked for a solution. Sage Dadhichi told him

that he had drank up the energies and powers of all their weapons when they were losing there lustre. So all its powers and celestial energies are stored in his bones. Indra was flabbergasted to hear this from the sage. As he was wondering on how he can get the celestial energies back, the sage proposed something supreme. He said that he would die and Indra could ask god’s architect Vishwakarma to craft a celestial weapon from his bones which would carry the powers and energies of all celestial weapons. Indra was befuddled to hear this and was reluctant. Finally, looking at the deteriorating morale of the gods and a certain loss at Vritra’s hands he reluctantly agreed. Sage Dadhichi sat in padmasana and his body exploded exposing his bones which was lustrous and shiny from absorbing the energies and powers of the celestial weapons. Vishwakarma immedia

tely collected all the bones from the sage’s dead body and crafted a deadly weapon named “Vajra” or the Thunderbolt. Indra used this supremely powerful weapon to defeat Vritra and his hordes and brought victory to the gods. Sage Dadhichi’s greatest sacrifice is immortalised in the form of the powerful weapon Vajra.