Garuda- Hindu CreatureCreature · Hybrid"King of Birds"

Birth and the Wager

The sage Kashyapa had two wives among the daughters of Daksha: Kadru, mother of the Nagas, and Vinata. The Adi Parva tells how the sisters wagered on the color of the celestial horse Uchchaihshravas, churned from the ocean of milk. Kadru claimed the horse had black hairs in its tail. Vinata insisted it was pure white. The loser would become the winner's slave.

Kadru commanded her serpent sons to cling to the horse's tail and pass for black hairs. When Vinata inspected the horse, she saw what looked like dark strands and lost the bet. She became Kadru's slave, and so would her children.

Vinata had received two eggs from Kashyapa. After five hundred years of waiting, she cracked one open too early. Out came Aruna, half-formed, his legs undeveloped. He cursed his mother for her impatience and rose to become the charioteer of Surya. The second egg she left alone. Five hundred more years passed. When it hatched, Garuda emerged blazing with such fire that the gods mistook him for Agni reborn. They trembled and begged him to diminish his splendor. He was born into slavery before he drew his first breath.

The Quest for Amrita

Garuda demanded to know what would free his mother. The serpents named their price: Amrita, the nectar of immortality, guarded in heaven by the gods. No creature had ever stolen it.

Before departing, Garuda asked Vinata for food sufficient for the journey. She directed him to the Nishadas but warned him to spare any Brahmins among them. Garuda swallowed the Nishadas whole, but a Brahmin couple lodged in his throat, their sacred power burning him until he released them.

He next consumed an enormous elephant and tortoise locked in combat: two brothers, the sages Vibhavasu and Supratika, cursed to animal form for quarreling over their inheritance. With this meal, Garuda had strength enough to assault heaven.

Storming Heaven

Garuda overwhelmed the guards at every gate and scattered every army the gods sent against him. When Indra attacked, his thunderbolt struck Garuda full. A single feather drifted from his wing. Mortals collected it and named it Suparna, "Beautiful."

The Amrita waited behind razor wheels and a wall of fire, guarded by two massive serpents. Garuda shrank to the size of an atom and slipped between the spinning blades. He killed the serpent guards and quenched the fire with river-water carried in his beak. The pot of Amrita was his.

On the flight home, Vishnu appeared before him. Impressed by Garuda's strength and devotion, he offered a boon. Garuda asked for immortality without drinking Amrita, and a position above Vishnu himself. Vishnu granted both. Garuda sits atop Vishnu's flagstaff, higher than the god he serves, and in return became his eternal vehicle.

Liberation of Vinata

Garuda brought the Amrita to the serpents and set the pot on kusha grass. He told them to purify themselves before drinking. While they bathed, Indra, who had struck a pact with Garuda during the flight, snatched the pot back to heaven.

The serpents returned to find the Amrita gone. They licked the kusha grass where the pot had rested. The sharp blades split their tongues. This is why snakes have forked tongues. Vinata was free. The serpents had been cheated by the same deception that had enslaved her.

The Nagapasha

Garuda's war against serpents carried into the Ramayana. Indrajit struck Rama and Lakshmana with the Nagapasha. The arrows became serpents that coiled around the brothers and drained their strength. Garuda arrived unbidden. At the sight of him, the serpent-bonds dissolved and the Nagas fled. He touched the fallen warriors and restored their strength, then vanished as suddenly as he had come.