Asni’s Art Blog: Garuda

asni_garuda_01
Garuda, King of Birds: temple statue in Belur, Karnataka, India: Photograph by sownak on DeviantArt.

Continuing my survey of magical bird creatures from West to East, the next stop is India. Garuda is the mount of the Hindu deity Vishnu, but also regarded as a deity in his own right. He is most commonly depicted with a human body and a bird’s beak and wings, though he can also take true bird form. His size is enormous – he can darken the sun.

Like the Simurgh, Garuda is perpetually at war with snakes – the Naga of Indian mythology. He is also credited with successfully stealing the elixir of immortality from the Gods – motives that seem to link this legend to the Sumerian Gilgamesh epos.

Garuda features in several Hindu religious texts, and in the Indian epic Mahabharata. There, it is told that “when Garuda first burst forth from his egg, he appeared as a raging inferno equal to the cosmic conflagration that consumes the world at the end of every age. Frightened, the gods begged him for mercy. Garuda, hearing their plea, reduced himself in size and energy.” [source: Wikipedia]

Legends of Garuda are also found outside India, and not limited to Hinduism: in Buddhist legend, the Garuda are a race of predatory birds, rather than just one individual creature. Stories of Garuda can be found all through Southeast Asia, as well as in Mongolia, and in Indonesia, which has adopted Garuda as their national symbol.

Browsing for contemporary images on DeviantArt, this time I came up with a crop of mainly Asian artists: from Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, China, and the Philippines. Also in the mix are artists from Russia, Croatia, Luxembourgh, Venezuela, Canada and Australia, but the USA is under-represented this time. So is the Garuda’s native country India: only one artist contributed one of the photos of traditional representations of Garuda.

Many of the artists – particularly those from South and East Asia – emphasize Garuda’s strength: several of these images appear to fall somewhere between Conan the Barbarian and the Balrog. Others picture him more gracefully, and several artists have decided that Garuda is after all female. I have also chosen a few more abstract depictions, and one that appears to be inspired by Giger! Plus, there is also Lego Garuda.

asni_garuda_02
Garuda statue. Photograph by ViviGoh on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_03
Garuda: architectural detail, Beijing. Photograph by David McBride – davidmcb on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_04
Garuda: Indonesian statuary. Photograph by Achello on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_05
Waking Garuda, by Erika Harm – thrivis on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_06
Garuda, by shiptushaboo on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_07
Garuda, by JimHatama on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_09
Garuda, by Song Weng Foong – derrickSong on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_10
King of Garuda, by Jessada Sutthi – Jessada-Art on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_11
Hassadorn-Garuda Lord, by Gandharvasstudio on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_12
Garuda, by FreedomIsNow on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_08
Garuda, by KevAegis on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_13
Garuda and Nagas, by mariposa-nocturna on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_14
Garuda, by BeBelial on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_15
Garuda, by Tianhua Xu 徐天华 – FLOWERZZXU on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_16
The Garuda, by krhart on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_17
-garuda berserk-, by Bima Nurin-WANARA – madcat7777777 on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_18
untitled (a “Garuda”), by Rovi Jesher Salegumba – Rovi-Jesher on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_19
Garuda, by Ivana Kali – Kalinja on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_20
Garuda, by skull-bird on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_21
Garuda, by Carlos Solórzano Smith – solark on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_22
The Glory of Garuda, by Argi Kartika C – Hachiretsu on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_23
Young Garuda, by lilok-lilok on DeviantArt.
asni_garuda_24
Garuda, by mr-shazam on DeviantArt.

All images are copyright the respective artists, and may not be reproduced without permission.

Please take a moment to support Amazing Stories with a one-time or recurring donation via Patreon. We rely on donations to keep the site going, and we need your financial support to continue quality coverage of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres as well as supply free stories weekly for your reading pleasure. https://www.patreon.com/amazingstoriesmag

Previous Article

Amazingly Enough: Lost And Found – The Town That Doesn’t Exist

Next Article

Voting No Award

You might be interested in …

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.