Who is Garuḍa?

Garuḍa’s affiliation with the Hindu god Viṣṇu goes back to the first few centuries of our era, and it is so ingrained that an unknown image might be reliably deemed Viṣṇu, or a temple Vaiṣṇava, merely by Garuḍa’s avian presence. Popularly he is the “mount” or “vehicle” of Viṣṇu, or is portrayed nearby in a posture of devotion. But this is not the Garuḍa of the Gāruḍa Tantras, and my research has discovered that few

texts outside the Vaiṣṇava fold associate Garuḍa with Viṣṇu. He is a solar deity in the Veda, and an independent protector in Buddhism and Jainism. In the Śaiva Gāruḍa Tantras, he is a powerful aspect of Śiva’s identity, just as supreme as Bhairava or the Goddess, and invoked for specific purposes that suit his character.

Like other Hindu deities, Garuḍa goes by many names. He is often called Suparṇa, “the one with good wings,” in the Veda, and his matronymic Vainateya (son of Vinatā) is quite popular. As the lord of birds he is Pakṣirāja, a name that has been misunderstood as peculiarly Śaiva, while in fact it is common throughout Sanskrit literature. Tārkṣya is also a quite common name for Garuḍa. I translate Svarṇagrāma Vāsudeva’s alliterative etymology of the name Tārkṣya found in his commentary on Nārāyaṇīya Tantrasārasaṃgraha 3.7:

He is called Tārkṣya because he saves (tārayati) his devotees from the fearsome world, he strikes (kṣipati) their ignorance at its root, and he grants (prayacchati) them access to full self-awareness. Therefore Tārkṣya is Supreme Śiva.

That being the case, it is counterintuitive that the presiding deity of Gāruḍa Tantra rituals is often not Garuḍa; snakebite mantras may be directed to various gods and goddesses, such as Rudra, Bhairava, Nīlakaṇṭha, Tvaritā, Kurukullā, and the divine nāga serpents.

Aside from Garuḍa’s lofty status in the Gāruḍa Tantras, he shows up in several other Śaiva contexts: he is an interlocutor with Śiva in the Kiraṇa Tantra; he is also listed in the Śivadharmaśāstra among beings who are supremely devoted to Śiva and intent upon his worship. In the

unpublished Jayadrathayāmala, the goddess Ekavīrā is visualized as mounted on Garuḍa for the destruction of poison. In the same text, a Kālī form named “Queen of Birds” (Khageśvarī) is visualized as mounted upon him. Still, Vaiṣṇava claims to Garuḍa have proven quite tenacious in modern times. Suresh Chandra’s Encyclopaedia of Hindu Gods and Goddesses (2001)i

claims that “Garuḍa is not separately worshipped widely as an independent god; he is worshipped together with Vishnu.” The odd placement of the adverb “widely” suggests that it was added as an afterthought. One website called Indian Divinity copies Chandra’s exact entry, but highlights in red that Garuḍa is not worshipped as separate from Viṣṇu a case of proscription masquerading as description.

Encyclopedias and other sources consistently classify Garuḍa as a “minor god,” but this is a category that does violence to Hinduism’s kathenotheistic nature. In other words, when a Hindu worships any deity, it is treated as supreme for the duration of its worship. There is nothing inconsistent about this—it is simply based on a radically different theology from that of the Abrahamic religions. As the

evidence of Chapters 2 and 3 demonstrates, Garuḍa is certainly not conceived of as minor in the Gāruḍa Tantras and the scores of texts that drew on them. He has his own scriptures, his own major Purāṇa, an Upaniṣad, a history

extending back to the Veda, and is an important figure in Buddhism and Jainism. Consider this opening verse by an anonymous commentator on Śaṅkuka’s Saṃhitāsāra: Garuḍa yearned to break the Egg of Brahma (i.e., the universe) which seemed to be reminding him of his past enclosure in his own egg as it was filled by his body which was rapidly expanding to steal the nectar-essence. But Śiva approached him and made him

once again come back to his normal form by reprimanding him with the words “ Tārkṣya, give up this form which inspires fear in the triple universe of an untimely world destruction.” May Garuḍa protect you.

Here the entire universe is imagined as Garuḍa’s fetal egg.

His status in the Mahābhārata is similarly impressive. The Book of Āstīka contains some of the best-known lore about Garuḍa’s genealogy and principal acts: his birth, his animosity toward snakes, freeing his mother from slavery, and stealing the nectar

(amṛta/soma) from the gods. After taking the nectar, Garuḍa meets with Viṣṇu who was impressed with the feat and tells him to choose two boons. First, Garuḍa chooses immortality—thus his apotheosis—and second, to always

fly above Viṣṇu. Read closely, this scene reveals a power struggle. Garuḍa was already described as god-like in stature from his birth, terrifying to all the gods with his splendor that surpasses even the sun, and so on. Choosing to remain above Viṣṇu implies his desire to remain free and superior to him; physical elevation is a mark of primacy

Introduction in Hindu iconography. Viṣṇu grants the boon whereupon Garuḍa offers one in return. Viṣṇu then cleverly chooses Garuḍa as his mount (vāhana), places him on a flagpole, and says, mockingly I assume, “You will be above me.” The Mahābhārata’s narrative captures Garuḍa’s ambiguous status nicely: he is born god-like, yet not a god (until granted immortality by Viṣṇu); he is subservient to Viṣṇu, but reluctantly so until coerced with a boon; and he is a “mount,” but one that “flies” above his master.

As a result of the narrow sectarian view that Garuḍa is simply the vehicle of another god, very few studies have been dedicated to him. In his 1992 monograph Garuḍa: The Celestial Bird, Shantilal Nagar recognizes the historicity of Garuḍa’s appropriation by the Vaiṣṇavas. He thinks broadly about Garuḍa and bird symbols in other cultures, and considers the art history record seriously, if

somewhat superficially. Nagar has a chapter on Garuḍa “As a Tantric Deity,” but it is more like a note, because it has only three pages of text, where half is a general introduction to the Tantras. Chandramohan’s more recent monograph Garuḍa in Medieval Art and Mythology (2008) is less developed than his predecessor, and neither book mentions the existence of the Gāruḍa Tantras.