Two Sisters

In the age of the gods, there were two lovely sisters, daughters of Dakṣa, Kadrū and Vinatā, and they were the wives of Kaśyapa. He was pleased with them and offered each a boon. Kadrū asked for a thousand serpents as her sons, all equal in power. Vinatā asked for two sons, stronger than Kadrū's sons in might and splendour and courage. Kaśyapa granted her a son and a half. So be it, said Vinatā. Carry your children with care, said the great ascetic, and he went away into the forest.

After a long time Kadrū laid a thousand eggs and Vinatā two, and their servants kept them in warm pots for five hundred years. Then Kadrū's sons came out, but nothing came from Vinatā's two eggs. Ashamed and longing for a son, Vinatā broke one egg open, and saw a son with only the upper half of his body formed. In anger the half-formed son cursed his mother: Because you were greedy and left me unfinished, you will be a slave for five hundred years to the woman you are vying with, your sister Kadrū. And this other son will free you from slavery, if you do not break his egg too, but wait patiently five hundred years more for his time. Then he rose into the sky; he is Aruṇa, who is seen at dawn. And in his time Garuḍa was born, the destroyer of serpents, and flew up into the sky to find his food.