Vinata- Hindu GodDeity"Mother of Birds"

The Two Eggs

When the sage Kashyapa offered boons to his wives, Vinata asked for two sons who would surpass all others in power. Her co-wife Kadru asked for a thousand serpent sons. Kashyapa granted both wishes, and each wife received eggs: Kadru a thousand, Vinata two.

After five hundred years, Kadru's eggs hatched into the Nagas. Vinata's remained sealed. Impatience drove her to crack one open. Inside she found Aruna, half-formed from the waist down. He cursed his mother for her haste: she would serve as Kadru's slave for five hundred years. Then he rose into the sky and became the charioteer of Surya, the red glow that precedes the sun.

The Wager

Vinata's enslavement came through a bet with Kadru over the color of Uchchaihshravas, the divine horse that had emerged from the churning of the ocean. Kadru said its tail was black. Vinata said white. The tail was white, but Kadru ordered her serpent sons to coil around it, darkening it with their bodies. Vinata saw the blackened tail, conceded, and became Kadru's slave.

Garuda's Ransom

Garuda, born from Vinata's second egg, found his mother carrying Kadru on her back. The Nagas set a price for her freedom: the amrita, the gods' nectar of immortality.

Garuda flew to heaven, fought past the divine guardians, defeated Indra, and seized the amrita. He brought it to the serpents and freed his mother. But on Vishnu's counsel, he set the vessel of amrita on a bed of kusha grass and told the Nagas to purify themselves before drinking. While they bathed, Indra snatched the vessel back. The serpents licked the kusha grass where the amrita had rested, and the blades split their tongues. They never tasted immortality. Vinata was free.