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and Garuda went to the sea of milk and displayed his great 

 power in order to obtain the nectar. "Then the god Vishnu, 

 pleased with his might, deigned to say to him: 'I am pleased 

 with you, choose a boon'. Then Garuda, angry because his mother 

 was made a slave, asked a boon from Vishnu — 'May the snakes 

 become my food' ". Vishnu consented, and Garuda, after having 

 obtained the nectar, promised Indra to enable him to take it 

 away before the snakes should have consumed it. He put the 

 nectar on a bed of Kucja grass and invited the snakes to take 

 it there after having released his mother. They did so, and 

 Garuda departed with Vinata, but when the snakes were about 

 to take the nectar, Indra swooped down and carried off the vessel. 

 "Then the snakes in despair licked that bed of Darbha grass, 

 thinking that there mi_ght be a drop of spilt nectar on it, but 

 the effect was that their tongues were split, and they became 

 double-tongued for nothing. What but ridicule can ever be the 

 portion of the over-greedy? Then the snakes did not obtain the 

 nectar of immortality, and their enemy Garuda, on the strength 

 of Vishnu's boon, began to swoop down and devour them. And 

 this he did again and again. And while he was thus attacking 

 them, the snakes in Patala were dead with fear, the females 

 miscarried, and the whole serpent race was well-nigh destroyed. 

 And Vasuki the king of the snakes, seeing him there every day, 

 considered that the serpent world was ruined at one blow: then, 

 after reflecting, he preferred a petition to that Garuda of 

 irresistible might, and made this agreement with him — 'I will 

 send you every day one snake to eat, king of birds, on the 

 hill that rises out of the sand of the sea. But you must not act 

 so foolishly as to enter Patala, for by the destruction of the 

 serpent world your own object will be baflSed'. When Vasuki said 

 this to him, Garuda consented, and began to eat every day in 

 this place one snake sent by him: and in this way innumerable 

 serpents have met their death here". Thus spoke a snake, whose 

 turn it was to be devoured by Garuda, to Jlmutavahana, "the 

 compassionate incarnation of a Bodhisattva" ', son of Jimutaketu, 

 the king of the Vidyadharas on Mount Himavat. And Jlmuta- 

 vahana, "that treasure-house of compassion, considered that he 

 had gained an opportunity of offering himself up to save the 

 snake's life. He ascended the stone of execution and was carried 

 off by Garuda who began to devour him on the peak of the 

 mountain". At that moment a rain of flowers fell from Heaven, 



1 Vol. I, p. 174. 



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