Vinatā

Vinatā was one of the thirteen wives of Kaśyapa Prajāpati. She was the mother of Aruṇa and Garuḍa. Her suffering, her patience and her freedom run through the whole Sauparṇopākhyāna, the account of Garuḍa in the Mahābhārata.

She chose as her vara (boon) two sons mightier than the thousand sons of her sister wife Kadrū. She lost a bet to Kadrū through deceit and served Kadrū as a slave for five hundred years. Her grief at opening one egg too early cost her one son’s wholeness. Her patient wait for the second egg ended when Garuḍa, born complete and with great power, won her freedom.

The boon and the eggs

After the Samudramanthana (the churning of the ocean), Kaśyapa offered boons to his wives. Vinatā chose: “Two sons mightier and more glorious than all of Kadrū’s thousand serpents.” She received two eggs.

Five hundred years passed. Kadrū’s thousand eggs had already hatched, and her serpent sons were born and grown. Vinatā’s two eggs had not yet hatched. (Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva)

The bet with Kadrū

One day Vinatā and Kadrū saw the divine horse Uccaiḥśravas, who had risen from the Samudramanthana. Kadrū proposed a bet: what was the colour of the horse’s tail? Vinatā said white. Kadrū said black. Whoever lost would become the other’s slave.

Vinatā looked at the horse and was sure that the tail was white. She agreed to the bet.

She did not know that Kadrū had already ordered some of her serpent sons to disguise themselves as black hairs on the horse’s tail. The next day the two wives went to see the horse, and the tail looked black. Vinatā had lost. It was not her fault. It was Kadrū’s deliberate deceit. She became Kadrū’s dāsī (slave-servant). (Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva)

The first egg opened too early

Before or around the time of the bet, Vinatā grew impatient. She saw Kadrū’s sons already born and thriving, while her own eggs lay unopened. She broke one of her eggs, but the child inside was not yet ready.

Aruṇa came out of the egg that was opened too early. His upper body was blazing and complete, but his lower body was missing or not yet formed. In his first moments Aruṇa cursed Vinatā for her impatience: “You shall serve Kadrū as her slave for five hundred years. But my younger brother, when he is born complete, will free you.”

Aruṇa then went upward and became the charioteer of Sūrya. Vinatā lost the bet, and she also caused her firstborn to be born before his time and received his śāpa (curse). After that she left her second egg untouched and waited. (Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva)

Five hundred years as a slave

Vinatā served Kadrū faithfully through all five hundred years of her slavery. The Mahābhārata gives no details of this service. Her bondage is always in the background: everything Garuḍa does, he does to free his mother. (Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva)

Freed by Garuḍa

The second egg at last hatched. Garuḍa was born complete and huge, blazing like a second sun. When he learned that his mother was a slave, he asked the nāgas what price they wanted for her freedom. They said: bring us amṛta, the nectar of immortality, from svarga.

Before he set out, Garuḍa met Bhagavān Vishṇu, who offered him a boon. Garuḍa asked for three things: Vinatā’s freedom, great strength, and immortality without drinking the amṛta himself. Bhagavān Vishṇu gave all three.

Garuḍa defeated all the devas who guarded the amṛta, took it, and brought it to the nāgas. As agreed, he placed it on darbha grass. The nāgas set Vinatā free. Indra then took the amṛta back before the nāgas could drink it, but Vinatā was already free after her five hundred years of waiting. (Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva)

Her name and the commentary

The name Vinatā means “bowed” or “humble.” It is the opposite of Kadrū’s force and cunning.

Nīlakaṇṭha Caturdhara reads Vinatā as subuddhi (right and upright understanding). He reads her bondage under Kadrū as kubuddhi (crooked understanding) and sees in it the lasting struggle of the righteous mind bound by the crooked. He reads Garuḍa’s freeing of her as the highest assertion of dharma.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Āstīka Parva, Sauparṇopākhyāna, Chapters 14–22
• Commentary of Nīlakaṇṭha Caturdhara on the Mahābhārata