Loading...
← Back to Bestiary
Garuda
Vaikuntha (Vishnu's Realm)
Danger Level: 7/10
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Abilities
Divine FlightNaga SlayingThought-Speed Travel
Lore & Legend
Enemy of Serpents, Mount of Vishnu
Garuda, son of Vinata, wins amrita from the gods to free his mother from Kadru's naga-slavery, then becomes Vishnu's vahana. The Mahabharata's Adi Parva tells the raid; the Suparṇādhyāya and later Puranas expand the genealogy. He is both person and species-king.
Thai and Khmer courts reused him as a royal emblem. The Sanskrit core is still the bird who outflies thought to steal nectar.
Primary Sources
“Garuda, son of Vinata, seized the amrita from the gods to ransom his mother, then took Vishnu as lord and became the bane of nagas.”