Stealing of the Amrita: Page from a Mahabharata Manuscript

This folio tells the story from the Adi Parva, the first book of the Mahabharata, of the eagle Garuda, who became the vahana (animal mount) for the god Vishnu. Garuda's mother Vinata and her co-wife Kadru had engaged in a wager that Vinata lost, which resulted in her life-long servitude to Kadru's serpent sons. The serpents told Garuda that he and his mother would be released from servitude only if he would bring to them the amrita (the nectar of immortality) that lay in the hands of the gods.

Knowing he would have to fight the gods to procure the amrita, Garuda asked his father Kashyapa for some food to strengthen him. His father directed him towards a tortoise and elephant that were fighting at a nearby lake; they were, he explained, two fighting brothers who had been sages. In their anger, one sage had cursed the other to become an elephant and the other cursed his brother to become a tortoise. Eating these, Kashyapa assured his son, would give him the strength he required to obtain the amrita.

Garuda grabbed the elephant in one claw and the tortoise in the other and flew with them to a magnificent tree. The tree trembled under his weight and he realized the branch upon which he was sitting was filled with Brahmans performing penance. He broke off the large limb they were inhabiting and carried it in his beak to a great mountain, where he gently put them down and proceeded to eat the elephant and tortoise.

To retrieve the amrita, Garuda battled Indra and the other gods. He defeated all of them except for Vishnu, who was himself injured. Vishnu promised, then, that Garuda would become immortal and become his vahana.

The folio pictures Garuda picking up the elephant and tortoise, the thousand-eyed Indra, and Garuda battling the gods for the amrita.