Garuda
கருடன் गरुड
Also Garutman, Vainateya, Periya Thiruvadi, Suparna.
Vaishnava
Who this is
Garuda is the eagle Vishnu rides, and he has a temple presence no other vehicle has: in every Vishnu temple he faces the sanctum from outside, on his own pillar or in his own small shrine, and the devotee looks at the god over his shoulder. He was born to free his mother from slavery and fought the gods for the nectar to do it, which is a origin no other servant of a god has. He is the enemy of serpents by inheritance, and that is why he is invoked against snakebite and against poison of every kind, including the figurative.
How to recognise them
A man with an eagle’s beak, wings and talons, kneeling with hands folded before Vishnu, or flying with the god on his shoulders. Gold or green. In the Tamil temples he is carved kneeling on his pillar directly in the line of sight to the sanctum, and the alignment is deliberate.
Family and companions
Son of the sage Kasyapa and Vinata. Half brother of Aruna, the charioteer of the sun, who was born prematurely and legless because his mother broke the egg early. The serpents are the children of Kadru, Vinata’s co wife, and his enmity with them starts in that household. Vehicle of Vishnu.
How they are worshipped
The Garuda Seva of the Brahmotsavam; Sunday; the Panchami tithi with the nagas.
The Garuda Seva, when the deity is carried out on him in procession, is the great night of the Brahmotsavam at Tirumala and at the Tamil temples. The Garuda Panchakshari and the Garuda Dandakam are said against poison and snakebite. He is saluted before the sanctum is approached, and in some temples the devotee does not pass between him and the god.
The stories
As they are told, with the disagreements left in
The bet that enslaved his mother
Vinata and Kadru bet on the colour of the celestial horse’s tail, the loser to be the winner’s slave. Kadru had her serpent sons coil themselves black around the tail, and Vinata lost and was made a slave. Garuda, hatched later, asked what would free her and was told: the nectar of immortality. He fought the gods for it, took it, and carried it away, and Indra’s thunderbolt could only dislodge a single feather. Vishnu, meeting him, offered him a boon for his strength and he asked to be above Vishnu; Vishnu gave him the flagstaff, which stands higher than the god, and asked to be carried, which is the arrangement still.
Why he never drank it
He had the nectar in his hands and did not touch it, because he had not taken it for himself. He set it down for the serpents to free his mother, and Indra took it back before they could drink, leaving only the sharp grass it had rested on, which split their tongues when they licked it. Garuda kept nothing. The Vaishnava tradition makes a great deal of this: he is the model of the servant who has the thing in his hands and carries it past himself, which is why he is the first figure a devotee meets at the temple door.
Where the regions differ
- Tamil
- Kerala
- Telugu
- Kannada
- North
- Maharashtra
- Bengal
- Punjab
- Assam
- Sri Lanka
- Nepal
- Gujarat
- Odisha
- Mithila
- Kashmir
- Tulu Nadu
- manipur
- rajasthan
- konkani
- sindhi
- jharkhand
- himalayan
- kodava
- Tamil Nadu
- Carved kneeling on his pillar in the line of sight to the sanctum at every Divya Desam, and the Garuda Sevai at Srirangam and Alagar Koil are the great nights.
- Andhra and Telangana
- The Garuda Seva is the most attended night of the Tirumala Brahmotsavam, with the deity carried out on him before lakhs.
- Kerala
- The Garuda Thookkam, in which devotees are suspended as Garuda in fulfilment of a vow, is kept at some Bhagavathy temples.
- Nepal
- The Changu Narayan Garuda, a fifth century stone kneeling figure, is among the oldest dated sculptures in the valley.
Their days
Every one of these has a page of its own
Where to see them
From the temple directory
- Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam Srirangam, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu
- Tirumala Sri Venkateswara Temple Tirumala, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh
- Nagaraja Temple, Nagercoil Nagercoil, Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu
What is said
From the mantra library