GANDHARA, 2ND/3RD CENTURY

This scene depicts Garuda, the bird-like creature and mount of Vishnu. He eats snakes daily in vengeance against the Naga tribes, the snakes who had turned his mother into a slave. Here he is depicted capturing a nagini, a beautiful female representation of a naga. This scene mirrors the event in Greek mythology when Zeus turns into an eagle and kidnaps the boy Ganymede. This motif is often depicted in the headdresses of images of Avalokiteshvara and Padmapani, see I. Kurita, Gandharan Art II: The World of the Buddha, 2003, p.311