Sage Dadheechi

Dadheechi was a great sage who was the son of Sage Atharva. Dadheechi is famed as the one who sacrificed his life for safeguarding righteousness and justice. He was so devoted that Indra taught him Brahma Jnana.

Once the devas went to Dadheechi and asked him to safeguard their weapons from the asuras. The gods didn't return for a long time and the weapons started rusting. In order to preserve the weapons, Dadheechi used his spiritual powers to dissolve the weapons in water and drank it. When the devas finally came to him to take their weapons, Dadheechi told them that since he had swallowed their weapons, they could take his backbone and make weapons out of it. The devas were pleased with his determination and told him to continue with his life until the day comes when they would really need the weapons in war.

When the devas really needed the weapons to defeat Vritra, they again came to Dadheechi, who willingly sacrificed his life so that they could take his backbone and make the weapon that would destroy Vritra.