When I was writing "The Man
Who Found Birds among the Stars," (see the Prologue and first three
chapters
here),
I made Capt. Robbin Nikalishin a birder. What better qualification for the man
who will head up the mission that encountered the first intelligent lifeform
known to humanity -- and who happened to be big birds? During the mission out,
there was a lot of boring downtime and one way the crew entertained itself was
by telling bird myths, each crewmember telling tales from his or her own
culture. Now, this section will be cut or drastically emended if I ever get
that monster ready for publication, but I did too much research and had too
much fun writing it to let it all disappear, so what better place to display it
than on a blog devoted partially to myth in literature?
The following has been abridged.
I left in the Captain's preamble about
Survivor because it ties in with the book’s “Prologue.”
GARUDA, KING OF THE BIRDS
Robbie, coffee cup in hand, stood up at a
vacant table at the front of the assemblage and banged his spoon for order.
“Your Captain cooked up this get-together
today so he could inflict his fascination with birds on all of you.
It’s show-and-tell time, children! – and I’ve
got the visual aids to prove it.”
He opened
the big port hidden in the bulwark behind him and displayed a short vid of a
martial eagle soaring over the savanna and swooping down to land on a branch
and mantle fiercely.
“Later we’re going
to hear fantastic tales of mythological birds, but I don’t know any of those,
so I’m going to tell a tale that really happened – it’s become for me almost
mythical in its implications.”
And he proceeded to speak of the martial eagle
Survivor and how he was brought to the Islands for breeding purposes, only to
escape and be shot in both wings for attacking newborn lambs in Kent. And he told how a small boy had viewed that crippled
but unbowed eagle in the Lunden Zoo and been spiritually drawn to him, and how,
when his own wings had been clipped, an older version of that boy had re-experienced
that kinship. “And the odd thing is,” concluded
Robbie, “two years ago, while I was visiting the Zoo right before I left Britan
for the Phenix Project, I ran into the ornithologist who had rescued Survivor
and he introduced me to the vet who had been involved, who now teaches avian surgery
at NWQC. I’ve become fast friends with
both of those fine men. If that’s not a
strange coincidence, I don’t know what is!”
And Robbie added, “That’s the end of my own
presentation …
please, please – no
applause necessary!
But I have another visual
aid … ”
And he tapped the remote programmer
and displayed a scanned image of his Garuda picture.
Most of the crew stared in befuddlement at
the bizarre representation.
“Lt. Cmdr.
Das, the floor is yours!”
 |
I have no idea if I'm violating copyright, since
I copied this some years ago from a Japanese website that's
no longer available. However, since this is the picture
on which I based the description, I'm presenting it here!
|
The Captain handed the remote to his Ops
Officer and took a seat.
A shyly smiling
Nani sat down on the edge of the table.
“All of you know I’m from Ind, and some of you know I was brought up
with remnant traditions of the Indu religion.
One time the Captain asked me if the Indus had
any bird gods and one thing led to another until he found the picture you’re
looking at here ...
“The bird-man on the port there is named
Garuda and the blue chap with the four arms who’s riding on his back is
Vishnu. Vishnu is one of the three
principal Indu gods and Garuda is his vahanam,
or mount. When I was home over the
Midwinter holiday, I talked to my grandmother and one of my uncles, who are
both more into Indu culture than the rest of my family. They helped me work up my tale and they got
me into what we call in Ind the Data Basement, certain underground links that
EarthGov knows exist but chooses to overlook.
From that I got these additional pictures that I’m going to show you
now. Depictions of Garuda are quite
common wherever Induism influenced the culture over millennia. How do you like this one?” And Nani flashed up a frontal view of a sculpted
figure squatting on clawed feet, with a loincloth, impressive spread wings and
man-arms, and a huge head with an intimidating beak. He also had pointed ears adorned with large,
round earrings and he was painted a fiery orange and red.
This applies worldwide.
There was astonished laughter and Robbie exclaimed,
“Holy cry, Nani!
That’s Garuda?
He doesn’t look a thing like the pleasant
little fellow in my icon!”
“Well, Garuda can be benevolent, but he
can also be really fierce – in fact, he’s considered the very symbol of
fierceness and speed and martial ability.
Here’s another interpretation – a painted miniature from the 18th
century. The female figure there is
Lakshmi, Vishnu’s wife, riding on Garuda along with her husband.”
From Wikimedia Commons
“Oh, so your gods are like the Griek ones,”
said Robbie, “with spouses and families and all that.
In this one, Garuda doesn’t have the claws,
but his head is pretty impressive.”
“Not all the
iconography depicts exactly the same characteristics,” said Nani.
“I’ll show you one more – it’s a favorite of
mine.
It’s from some ancient temple – I’m
not sure which … ”
I copied this some years ago from
but the specific link is no longer available. My notes say,
"Picture source not given." So I have no way of knowing
if it's copyrighted, and I don't know where the sculpture is
located. But it's too great a depiction to pass up!
This image was a relief carving of a husky
man-bird, with thighs like barrels, heavily girded loins, clawed feet, and a
beaked head that resembled a snapping turtle more than an avian.
The figure’s huge arms were hoisting a giant
snake above his head.
The wings and
feathered headdress were intricately engraved.
"Yeah, that one really projects a sense of
power!” said Robbie.
“Why is he shown
with a snake in some of these?”
“You’ll find out as I tell my tale. You understand, the story of Garuda has a lot
of variations, so I synthesized my version out of elements my grandmother and
uncle provided. I’ve never really
studied any Indu literature. I can speak
and read a little Indi, but Sanskrit is way beyond me.
“Garuda
came from an impressive family. His
father was Kashyapa, who was one of the great Sages and a grandson of the
Creator-God Brahma. Kashyapa had many
wives – in fact, he married a set of thirteen sisters – but the two that
concern us were named Kadru and Vinata. Kadru asked the gods to give her many
offspring, but Vinata wanted only a few as long as they were more powerful than
her sister’s. Now, it happened that
instead of bearing live children, these two females laid eggs … ”
“Really?” interrupted Robbie. “So they were birds, too?”
“Well, I don’t think so,” said Nani,
obviously perplexed, “but as mythical beings, I suppose they wouldn't necessarity have to be like humans … ”
“Anyway, however it was, Kadru hurried to lay
about a thousand eggs, while Vinata laid only two. Kadru’s soon began to hatch, and what came
out of them were snake creatures. We
call them … ”
“The Nagas!” cried Lt. Chay in amazed
recognition. “I’m a Kampucheean – a Kemer
– and we believe ourselves to be descended from a Naga king! The Seven-Headed Naga was the symbol of our
nation in the days before Unification!
The seven heads represented the seven races of Kemer. Did you know that, Lt. Commander?”
“No, I didn’t,” said Nani. “Like I said, I’ve never studied this very
extensively. And, yes, we call the
creatures who emerged the ‘Nagas.’ They
are sort of a serpent-human mixture. They
can be good or evil, depending on the story.
“Vinata was jealous of how fast her sister’s
eggs were hatching while hers were still incubating, and she thought she would
hurry things along by breaking one of them open. And out came a shining, red-colored bird whom
they named ‘Aruna,’ or ‘reddish.’ But
there was a problem. Because his egg had
hatched prematurely, his body hadn’t completely developed and he had deformed
legs. Some say he had no feet and others
say he had no thighs. But just the same,
he could fly, and in a whole different story he went on to become the
Charioteer of Surya, the Sun God.
“When he first hatched, Aruna was very upset
at what his mother had done to him and he cursed her, predicting that she was
doomed to be enslaved. But then he
relented and said that if she would allow the second egg to develop for the
proper length of time, the being who would spring from it would save her. And Vinata was wise enough to follow his
advice.
“Now here is how Vinata came to be
enslaved. Her evil sister Kadru engaged
her in an argument over whether the celestial steed that had sprung from the
churning of the primeval Ocean of Milk (and that is yet another tale) was completely
white or had a black tail. And Kadru
made a bet with her sister – whichever one of them was wrong would be enslaved
to the other. Vinata had seen the horse
before and she was positive its tail was pure white, and yet when they went to
look, it did indeed have a black tail! The
truth was that Kadru had ordered her black Naga children to intermingle
themselves in the tail and make it appear black. And so Vinata became Kadru’s slave through
deceit.
“In the meantime, Vinata’s second egg had
hatched into an astonishing creature. It
was, of course, Garuda. Some say he
burst forth as a lightning flash and others say he showed himself as a raging
conflagration big enough to consume the world.
It scared even the gods themselves, and so Garuda obligingly made
himself smaller and took on a milder form.
Then he was seen to have a golden body, a white face, and red wings. The beak, wings, and talons were those of an
eagle but the body and arms were those of a man. He was so large that men could hide in his
plumage and he blocked out the sun when he flew; his wingspan was measured in
kilometers. He could fly faster than the
wind; indeed, when his wings flapped, they made winds of cyclonic force, and
his strength was such that he could tear up trees by the roots and carry them
off!”
Everybody was hooting at this hyperbole,
but Nani shook her finger at them.
“Well, it shouldn’t surprise you that myths tend to exaggerate things! Besides, it’s said that before the hatching
of Garuda Kashyapa was making a sacrificial offering for the purpose of
increasing his progeny, and the King of the Gods Indra – another of Kashyapa’s sons
– laughed at the assembled Sages, who were having trouble carrying in a log of
wood that Indra could throw around like a toothpick. So the Sages plotted to make a son of
Kashyapa stronger and more powerful than Indra himself and, what’s more, to
make him able to change his shape. This
scared Indra, who feared losing his kingship, and he begged his father to offer
an apology on his behalf. The Sages were
mollified and decreed that the offspring should still be a King, but he would
be King of the Birds. And that is what
we call Garuda today and why he is always depicted with a crown; and he was indeed
born with a shape-shifter’s abilities.
And he had six sons himself, from whom all birds are descended.
“Now, here is how Garuda came to be Vishnu’s
mount. Garuda sometimes didn’t have
enough to occupy his spare time, so one day he flew up and seized the moon and
hid it under his wings. This act of
vandalism annoyed the Gods and especially Indra, who still resented his sibling’s
power. The King of the Gods led an
attack on the big bird-man, but Garuda was able to overcome them all except for
Vishnu. Now Vishnu had always admired
Garuda’s power and speed in spite of the bird-man’s tendency to wreak mischief,
and so after Garuda had agreed to restore the moon to its proper setting,
Vishnu made him his steed. After that, Garuda
had no more problems with too much leisure!
“Now
I must return to the part of the tale concerning the curse on Garuda’s mother. Even fearsome as Garuda was when he was first
hatched, he emitted a loud, concerned chirp and ran immediately to his mother to
see if there was any way he could help her.
She told him about how her sister Kadru had enslaved her through deceit
and she asked him to help appease her. Garuda
agreed, but actually he was furious, and he resolved to do something to end
this outrageous situation.
“Now I should make clear that this next
adventure took place before the incident of the stolen moon. It happened that one day Kadru wanted to take
her serpent children for a holiday on an island, and she demanded that Garuda
and Vinata carry them there. Vinata
carried Kadru while Garuda carried all thousand of the Nagas. Yes, that does seems to imply that Vinata had
wings, so maybe she was something
like a bird. But however that was,
Garuda decided this was a good opportunity to kill all the Nagas and he flew up
near the sun so that the cold-blooded snakes would be roasted to death. But they cried out to their mother and she
prayed to Indra for help, and the enemy of Garuda sent a torrential rainfall
that cooled the Nagas and saved them.
Garuda was forced to set them down on the island.
“But once there, according to a
prearranged plan with their mother, the Nagas seized Vinata and whisked her off
to a demon-infested region called Patala.
There they imprisoned her and stood guard over her. Garuda was enraged, but he could see that the
curse was too strong for him to overcome the Nagas by physical power alone, so
he decided to try negotiation. He went
to his Naga half-brothers and asked them what he had to do to free his mother
from Kadru’s curse. They told him that,
if he would bring them a cup of amrita,
they would release her in spite of their mother’s wishes. Amrita is the elixir of
immortality – what the Grieks call ‘ambrosia.’
“Garuda knew it would not be an easy
ransom, because the gods jealously guarded this source of their own
immortality. But no amount of adversity
could ever daunt the King of the Birds and so he set off for the celestial
mountain where the amrita was
kept. The gods met him in full battle
dress, but he scattered them all and arrived at the mountain’s gate.
“Garuda found this gate to be surrounded
by a ring of flames that soared up to the sky.
He overcame this obstacle by taking the water of many rivers into his
mouth and spitting it onto the fire to extinguish it.
“Then at the gate itself, he discovered a
great rotating wheel with sharp blades on its spokes that would cut to pieces anyone
who tried to pass through. Garuda solved
that problem easily by exercising his shape-shifting abilities and making
himself small enough to slip between the blades.
“And finally he reached the amrita only to discover that it was
guarded by a pair of monstrous fire-spitting serpents. These he defeated by fanning his wings and
blowing dust into the serpents’ eyes, then attacking them and cutting them to
bits with his sharp beak.
“Quickly, Garuda seized the amrita in his beak, being careful not to
swallow any of it, although surely he must have been tempted, for who doesn’t
desire immortality and the status of a god?
He then flew as quickly as possible back toward Patala. On the way he met Vishnu, who didn’t attack
him, having been favorably impressed by the bird-man from the moment of his
hatching. Instead, Vishnu made a bargain
with him; because Garuda had refrained from consuming any of the amrita, Vishnu would give him
immortality as a gift on condition that Garuda should become Vishnu’s mount sometime
in the future. Vishnu also warned Garuda
that Indra and the other gods were lying in wait for him on his return path.
“Garuda flew on, prepared for the
confrontation. As soon as he came in
sight of the gods’ army, Indra hurled a thunderbolt at him, but Garuda was able
to dodge it. Then he called out to Indra
that he would like to negotiate a truce.
If he were allowed to deliver the amrita
to the Nagas, he would contrive a way for the gods to get it back. If the plot that he and Indra would concoct
was successful, then in return the gods would have to allow Garuda and his
descendents to take snakes as their primary food source
“Indra agreed to this and Garuda continued
on his journey. When he reached Patala
and came into the presence of the Nagas, he laid the amrita on the grass in front of the overjoyed serpents, but he continued
to hover over it, saying that he would release the amrita to them only after they had set his mother Vinata free. Quickly the Nagas released their prisoner,
who ran to take refuge among her son’s feathers.
“At that moment, Indra, who had followed
Garuda, rushed in with his warriors, seized the amrita, and made off with it.
Garuda flew away with his mother, leaving the Nagas wailing in despair
behind him.
“However, a few drops of amrita remained on the grass. The Nagas licked it up and this was enough to
add them to the role of Immortals. The
substance was so potent that it split their tongues, and that is why to this very
day all snakes have forked tongues. And Garuda
and his descendants became the implacable enemies of snakes; that is why so
many of today’s birds are snake-eaters.
“This was not the end of Garuda’s
adventures, but it’s the last I’ll say about him right now. I’ll add only that Aruna, the deformed
charioteer of Indra, himself had two bird-sons – Garuda’s nephews – who
performed great deeds in their own right.
“They were called Sampati and Jatayu. When they were young, they would compete to
see which of them could fly higher, but Jatayu overdid it and flew so near the
sun that he seared his wings. His
brother saved his life by spreading his own wings between Jatayu and the sun,
but in the process Sampati’s wings were destroyed and he was forced to live flightless
for the rest of his life, like the eagle in your tale, Capt. Nikalishin.
“And later in Jatayu’s life, he performed
a selfless act of courage that is narrated in my people’s epic the Ramayana. When Rama’s wife Sita was abducted by the
demon lord Ravana, Jatayu engaged the demon in battle in order to save her, but
by that time he was old and although he fought with supernatural heroism, he
couldn’t win. Ravana tore off his wings
and then escaped with Sita. Rama soon
arrived, but it was too late. The
mortally wounded Jitayu died in the hero’s arms and was deeply mourned.
“And that really is the end of my presentation.” Nani looked self-conscious. “I just hope I haven’t bored all of you too
much.
THE END OF THE GARUDA TALE
NEXT: AFRICAN BIRD MYTHS
You may have noticed that the tale of Garuda
employs elements of the heroic epic as well as folklore. Garuda is both noble hero and trickster, he
makes a descent into the Underworld, and he’s a shape-shifter.
Here is one more picture that I didn't use in the text, but it has such a nice look to it that I thought I ought to share it with you, too!
