Once upon a time there lived a great sage called as “Adharva”. The Adharva veda which is one of the 4 vedas is named after him. His son Dadhichi performed austerities and Indra – The King of the Gods blessed him with the highest knowledge of immortality known as “Madhu Vidya”

Indra taught Madhu-vidya to Rishi Dadhichi with a warning that it should not be communicated to anyone else. He also Dadhichi that he would cut off his head if he tried to teach it to anyone else.

Every God in heaven wanted to know this, especially the Ashvin Brothers (Doctors of the Gods). The Ashvins already knew a lot of secrets about holistic health and were the ancient practitioners of Ayurveda! They approached Dadhichi and tricked him to give the most precious knowledge to them. They told him that they will give Dadhichi a horse head, and through the mouth of the horse he should expound the Madhu-Vidya and Indra would come and cut off the horse head, after which they would replace it with his real head. The Ashvins have miraculous power to even bring back the dead alive!

Dadhichi agreed, and as soon as he gave the knowledge to The Ashvins, Indra slew the horse head, and then later The Ashvins replaced it with Dadhichi’s own head.

The horse’s head became the constellation “Ashvini – The Healing Star”
In Ayurveda the horse’s head is a symbol of “Prana” or “Life force energy”.
In Yoga, the horse’s head is a symbol of soul’s ability to go beyond the body and merge with the ultimate power. The cut off head is a symbolic representation of bliss(honey) emanating from the crown chakra. So in essence, the madhu-vidya is the knowledge of the supreme bliss!

Madhu-vidya is described in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad II.v.1-19, and in the Chandogya Upanishad III 1-5. Madhu-vidya or ‘Honey-knowledge’ is that of the supreme Bliss of the Self; it is an important Vedic teaching.[1] – wikipedia