Sauparṇopākhyāna: Garuḍa and the Amṛta

The Sauparṇopākhyāna is the account of Suparṇa, who is Garuḍa. It sits inside the Āstīka Upākhyāna of the Āstīka Parva, in the Ādi Parva of the Mahābhārata (Chapters 14–34). It tells how Garuḍa was born, why serpents and Garuḍa are enemies, and how Garuḍa brought amṛta (the drink of immortality) from svarga to free his mother Vinatā from the slavery of Kadrū. Along the way it speaks of the Samudramanthana (the churning of the ocean), the birth of Aruṇa, the Vālakhilyas, and Garuḍa’s meeting with Bhagavān Vishṇu, which made him Vishṇu’s vāhana (vehicle) for ever.

Part I: Kadrū, Vinatā and the bet (Chapters 14–17)

Kaśyapa’s wives and their boons

Kaśyapa Prajāpati asked his two wives, Kadrū and Vinatā, to choose a vara (a boon) each. Kadrū chose a thousand serpents equal in strength. Vinatā chose two sons who would be stronger and more glorious than all of Kadrū’s thousand. Both varas were granted. Kadrū received a thousand eggs and Vinatā received two. Five hundred years went by. Kadrū’s eggs hatched, and the thousand nāgas were born. Vinatā’s eggs had not yet hatched.

The bet about Uccaiḥśravas

The divine horse Uccaiḥśravas rose from the Samudramanthana and Indra took him. The two wives made a bet about the colour of the horse’s tail. Vinatā said white. Kadrū said black. The one who lost would become the slave of the winner. Kadrū knew that the tail was white. She told her serpent sons to disguise themselves as black hairs on the tail. She gave a śāpa (a curse) to those who refused: they would die in Janamejaya’s sarpa-yajña (the serpent sacrifice). Those who obeyed covered the tail. When the two wives came to look at the horse, the tail looked black. Vinatā lost and became Kadrū’s slave.

The early birth of Aruṇa

Vinatā was impatient. She saw Kadrū’s sons born while her own eggs lay unopened, and she cracked one egg before its time. Aruṇa came out. His upper body was whole and blazing, but his lower body was not formed. He gave Vinatā a śāpa: “You shall be Kadrū’s slave for five hundred years. My younger brother will set you free.” Then Aruṇa went up into the sky. He was placed in front of Sūrya as his charioteer. His half body softened the Sun’s heat, which would otherwise burn everything. He is the dawn.

Part II: Garuḍa’s birth and the journey for amṛta (Chapters 17–22)

Garuḍa’s birth

Vinatā’s second egg hatched at last. Garuḍa came into the world whole. He was huge and blazing, and his wings spread out like two suns. He rose at once into the sky, a being of vast size. Brahmā and the devas knew him, and they stood in awe and fear. Brahmā asked the fire devas and the devas of the directions to step back, and he praised Garuḍa. The devas understood that this was Garuḍa, the son of Kaśyapa and Vinatā.

Garuḍa came down and learned from his mother that she was Kadrū’s slave. He asked the nāgas what price they would take for her freedom. They said: “Bring us amṛta.” He set out.

Eating the Nishādas

On the way Garuḍa was hungry. His father Kaśyapa told him to eat a large group of Nishādas (a forest people). Garuḍa gathered them and ate them. But one rule was absolute: a brāhmaṇa must never be eaten. A brāhmaṇa among the Nishādas made himself known by burning in Garuḍa’s throat. Garuḍa carefully opened his mouth and let him out.

The elephant and the tortoise

Garuḍa then ate a great elephant and a tortoise that were fighting at a lake. Both were very large, and they had been locked in this fight since long ago. They had once been two brāhmaṇa brothers, Vibhāvasu and Supratīka. After a quarrel over their inheritance, each had given the other a śāpa, so that one became an elephant and the other a tortoise. Garuḍa lifted both in a single claw. He flew to the Rohiṇī tree to eat them. There he found thousands of tiny ṛshis the size of a thumb, the Vālakhilyas, hanging from the branches and performing tapas (austerity). He did not want to harm them, so he flew elsewhere. He found another great tree, landed, and ate both the elephant and the tortoise.

Part III: The Vālakhilyas and Garuḍa’s name (Chapters 23–25)

The wrong done to the Vālakhilyas

Earlier, when the devas were preparing a great yajña, Indra was given the task of gathering grass for the sacred fire. He met the Vālakhilyas. There were sixty thousand of them, each the size of a thumb, performing the hardest tapas, and with great effort they were carrying a single blade of grass between them. They were barely visible on the ground, and Indra stepped over them in contempt. The Vālakhilyas were angry. They performed a rival tapas to make a “second Indra”, greater than the first. Kaśyapa stepped in and worked out an agreement. The second Indra, born of the Vālakhilyas’ tapas, would be Garuḍa. He would be king of the birds and stronger than Indra, but he would not rule the three worlds. The Vālakhilyas accepted this.

How he was named Garuḍa

Garuḍa lifted the great branch of the Rohiṇī tree with the Vālakhilyas still hanging from it. He carried them carefully to safety on a peak of the Himālaya. Kaśyapa gave him the name Garuḍa, which means “he who bears” or “the winged one”. The word garuḍa is also linked with garutmān (the bearer of wings).

Part IV: The battle for amṛta (Chapters 26–32)

Defeating the devas

Garuḍa came down to the place where the amṛta was kept. All the devas guarded it with weapons. There was also a great cakra-yantra (a spinning wheel of razor-sharp blades) and two serpents who could destroy with a glance. Garuḍa did the following:

He raised a great storm of dust and wind with his wings, and it blinded the devas.
He defeated all the devas in battle. Among them were Viśvakarmā and nine yakshas: Aśvakranda, Reṇuka, Kradhana, Tapana, Ulūka, Śvasana, Nimisha, Praruja and Pulina.
He put out the guarding fire with water that he carried in his beak from ninety rivers.
He made his body small enough to pass through the gaps in the spinning cakra-yantra.
He blinded the two serpent guards with his wings and killed them.
He took the amṛta.

Meeting Bhagavān Vishṇu

Garuḍa flew up from the earth with the amṛta, and in the sky he met Bhagavān Vishṇu. Bhagavān Vishṇu was pleased with Garuḍa’s power and was not threatened by it. He offered Garuḍa a vara. Garuḍa asked: “Let me be immortal even without drinking amṛta, and let me be above Indra.” Bhagavān Vishṇu granted it. Garuḍa then asked Bhagavān Vishṇu what he wished in return. Bhagavān Vishṇu said: “Be my vāhana (vehicle) always.” Garuḍa agreed. Bhagavān Vishṇu placed Garuḍa on his dhvaja (banner), so that Garuḍa became both his vāhana and his banner.

Part V: The return of the amṛta and Indra’s friendship (Chapters 32–34)

The amṛta is set down

Garuḍa brought the amṛta to the nāgas as they had agreed. He set it on darbha grass and asked them to free Vinatā. The nāgas agreed and set her free. They ran towards the amṛta. Before they could drink it, Indra swooped down and took it back to svarga. The nāgas were left without amṛta, but the agreement had already been kept, and Vinatā was free.

The nāgas thought that they might at least cleanse themselves by licking the place where the amṛta had rested. They licked the sharp darbha grass, and their tongues were split. This is how the serpents came to have forked tongues.

Indra’s friendship with Garuḍa

Indra was struck by Garuḍa’s power and moved by his noble nature, for Garuḍa had not drunk the amṛta himself even though he held it. Indra offered Garuḍa a vara of friendship and said: “Ask for anything.” Garuḍa said: “Let serpents always be my food.” Indra agreed. From then on Garuḍa and the serpents were enemies.

The name Suparṇa

During all this, as Garuḍa flew, he dropped a beautiful feather. Those who saw it were struck by its beauty and said: “What a beautiful wing (suparṇa)!” From this Garuḍa received the name Suparṇa, “he of the beautiful feathers”.

Nīlakaṇṭha’s reading

Nīlakaṇṭha Caturdhara gives a reading of the Sauparṇopākhyāna on several levels. He explains:

Kadrū is kubuddhi (twisted intelligence) and Vinatā is subuddhi (right intelligence).
The serpents are the parts of the mind that rest on kāma (desire), which coil and bind.
Aruṇa is the light that is not complete but is needed, because it makes the full power bearable.
Garuḍa is the jīvātman (the individual self) when it is free. He is born of right intelligence, able to defeat all that binds, and in the end he rests on the Paramātman, Vishṇu, as his vāhana.
Indra is the individual ego (ahaṃkāra). He is powerful, but in the end he gives up the amṛta of liberation to Garuḍa, who brings it to the world and then returns it to the devas.
The amṛta on darbha grass is the availability of liberation through tapas and right means.
The forked tongues of the serpents result from trying to receive liberation through an impure or indirect act.

Sources

Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Āstīka Parva, Chapters 14–34
Nīlakaṇṭha Caturdhara’s commentary on the Mahābhārata (his reading of the Sauparṇopākhyāna)