Garuda is considered to be king of the birds mentioned in the Vedas. He was the son of a sage named Kasyapa. In regards to Garuda’s birth, his father Kasyapa had two beautiful wives, Kadru and Vinata. The sage asked his wives to choose what their heirs would be like. Kadru chose to give birth to 1,000 splendid serpents, whereas Vinata asked for only two sons with strength and prowess that would surpass that of Kadru’s offspring.Eventually, Kadru laid 1,000 eggs and Vinata laid two. After 500 years, 1,000 serpents emerged from Kadru’s eggs. However, Vinata’s two sons failed to emerge from their shells. Vinata broke open one of her eggs and found an embryo with only the upper half-developed. The embryo became Aruna, the red light that appears at dawn. Aruna cursed his mother and ascended into the sky, where he remains to this day as the chariot driver of the sun god. Another 500 years passed and Vinata’s remaining egg finally broke open to reveal Garuda.
To be freed from the curse, Vinata was forced to acquire Amrita (a lot like ambrosia) the elixir of immortality and to give it to her nephews, the 1,000 serpents. Vinata asked Garuda to seize the drink from the gods and, after a mighty struggle, he succeeded in doing so. He put the drink(covered with grass) down in front of the serpents, but said that they must purify themselves before drinking it. While they were cleansing themselves, the king of the Gods took back the Amrita and the snakes tried to lick the grass which had covered the dish, but it was sharp and they cut their tongues...thats why snakes are supposed to have forked tongues.
Garuda is rarely woshipped as a seperate entity, but as the servent bird carrier of Sri Vishnu, the preserver of the universe. This was because Sri Vishnu was the only God who could defeat him in battle and he was granted immortality in exchange for this service. He appeared whenever summoned by Vishnu's thought, and fought with him against demons. Garuda is depicted with the head, wings and claws of an eagle.
