Garuda

The egg had lain unbroken for five hundred years before it finally split, and what came out of it filled the sky with light. Garuda emerged fully grown, his body the color of molten gold, his wings throwing heat like a furnace door swung open. The gods, watching from their high seats, mistook the glare for Agni himself and bowed to it, chanting hymns to the fire. When they understood their error they asked the new creature to dim himself, and he did, folding his brilliance down to something the world could bear to look at. Even then he was enormous. Spread wide, his wings could shadow the sun.

He was born into a quarrel older than himself. His father was the sage Kashyapa, and his mother was Vinata, who had a sister and a rival in Kadru. Kadru had asked for a thousand serpent sons; Vinata had asked for only two, but two who would outmatch all the rest. The sisters fell to wagering. They argued over the color of the tail of Uchchaihshravas, the white horse churned up from the ocean of milk, and Kadru, to win, sent her serpent children to coil through the horse’s tail and darken it. Vinata, certain the tail was white, lost the bet and her freedom with it. She became her sister’s servant. Garuda hatched into that bondage, and the first thing he learned about the world was that his mother belonged to someone else.

The serpents named their price. They would release Vinata if Garuda brought them amrita, the elixir of immortality, which the gods kept and guarded. His father gave him provisions for the road and told him he might eat an elephant and a tortoise he would find locked in combat in a lake, two creatures who had once been brothers cursed into beasts. Garuda took them up, one in each foot, and looked for somewhere to settle and feed. He chose a great branch, and the branch cracked under his weight. Hanging from it head down were the Valakhilyas, sages no larger than a thumb, deep in their penance. Rather than let them fall, Garuda carried the broken branch with the tiny ascetics still clinging to it, flying with great care until he could lay it down on a mountain where no one would be harmed. Then he ate.

The heavens knew he was coming. He arrived in a noise like a storm breaking, and reached the amrita past a wall of fire, a spinning wheel of blades, and two serpents whose gaze could burn a body to ash. He swallowed rivers to drown the flames, shrank himself small to slip between the turning spokes, and threw up a storm of dust to blind the guardian serpents before tearing them apart. He lifted the pot and flew. Indra hurled the vajra, the thunderbolt that had killed the great drought-serpent Vritra, and it struck Garuda full on. He shed a single feather. Nothing else. The gods, watching this, gave him a new name out of something close to awe: Suparna, the one with beautiful wings.

Somewhere on that flight he met Vishnu, who offered him a boon, impressed that he had carried the elixir without drinking it. He did not drink it. He had the immortality of the gods in his own talons, alone, on a long flight, and he brought it to the serpents untasted. What he asked for instead was to be placed above Vishnu and to be deathless without the amrita’s help. Vishnu granted both, taking Garuda as his mount and setting the bird’s image on his banner, so that Garuda rides higher than the god he serves. Vishnu asked a boon in return, and from then on Garuda carried the preserver of the universe across the worlds.

He brought the pot to the serpents at last and set it down on a bed of sharp kusha grass. He had freed his mother; the bargain was kept. But he told the serpents to bathe and purify themselves before they drank, and while they were gone Indra swept down and carried the amrita back to heaven. The serpents returned to bare grass. Desperate, they licked the blades where the pot had rested, hoping for some trace of the elixir, and the edges of the grass split their tongues down the middle. That is the reason Hindu myth gives for why every snake since has carried a forked tongue.

Garuda is usually shown as a being caught between man and bird: a human torso and arms, the head, beak, talons and wings of an eagle or a kite, his face white, his wings a deep red, the rest of him gold. Some images give him four arms, two folded in worship and two holding a parasol and the pot of amrita. He can be the size of a mountain or small enough to pass through a wheel’s spokes, and he moves between the two whenever it suits him. When he hunts, the change is almost invisible from the ground. A serpent sunning itself on a warm rock sees the light dim, feels the air move, and is gone before the sound of the wings arrives. That is what he exists to do.

His strength is the kind of thing other strength gets measured against. Warriors in the Mahabharata are likened to him when they fall on an enemy fast enough to end a fight before it has properly started. He carried a mountain when the gods and demons together could not shift it. His speed crosses realms. He is said to have taught people the cure for snake venom, and meditation on Garuda is still held to clear serpents from a road. Fire does not burn him. The thunderbolt did not break him.

What he cannot do is escape the shape of his own beginning. His war on serpents is not a calling he chose; it is an inheritance, the long aftershock of his mother’s humiliation, and it does not end, because there is always another snake. He is immortal, but by a boon and not by his own theft, and the distinction holds weight: his deathlessness is a gift kept at Vishnu’s pleasure, and his life is spent in the service of the god whose banner he decorates. Even his power has an edge it cannot cross. The branch full of tiny sages taught him that some weights cannot be shaken off by force, only carried with care. Buddhist tradition took him up as well, recasting the garudas as an entire race of golden birds locked in endless war with the naga serpents, and there too the war has no final battle. It only continues.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Garuda in Hindu mythology?

Garuda is the king of the birds in Hindu mythology and the divine mount, or vahana, of the god Vishnu. He is the son of the sage Kashyapa and his wife Vinata, and he is famous for stealing the elixir of immortality from the gods to free his mother from slavery.

Why are Garuda and the serpents enemies?

Garuda and the nagas are enemies because of a quarrel between their mothers. Vinata, Garuda’s mother, lost a bet to her sister Kadru, the mother of the serpents, and was forced into slavery. The bird-serpent enmity that began with that wager became Garuda’s permanent inheritance, and he is depicted as a devourer of snakes.

Why didn’t Garuda drink the amrita he carried?

Garuda carried the elixir of immortality but never drank it, even though he flew with it alone over a long journey. Vishnu was so impressed by this restraint that he offered Garuda a boon. Garuda asked to be immortal without the amrita and to be placed above Vishnu, and Vishnu granted both wishes.

What are Garuda’s powers?

Garuda possesses immense strength, great speed, and the ability to change his size at will, from mountain-large to small enough to slip through a spinning wheel. He is unharmed by fire and once withstood Indra’s thunderbolt, losing only a single feather. He is also credited with teaching humankind the cure for snake venom.

What does Garuda look like?

Garuda is portrayed as part man and part eagle, with a human torso and arms combined with the head, hooked beak, wings and talons of a bird of prey. His face is white, his wings are deep red, and his body is golden. In some images he has four arms and holds a parasol and the pot of amrita.

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