In the Mahabharata, Garutman is stated to be same as Garuda, then described as the one who is fast, who can shapeshift into any form and enter anywhere.

[14] He is a powerful creature in the epics, whose wing flapping can stop the spinning of heaven, earth and hell.

[15] He is a metaphor in the Vedic literature for Rik (rhythms), Saman (sounds), Yajna (sacrifices), and the atman (Self, deepest level of consciousness).

In the Puranas, states Williams, Garuda becomes a literal embodiment of the idea, and the Self who attached to and inseparable from the Supreme Self (Vishnu).

[8] In part human-form, he may have an eagle-like nose, beak or legs, his eyes are open and big, his body is the color of emerald, and his wings are golden-yellow.

[8] In Sritatvanidhi text, the recommended iconography for Garuda is a kneeling figure, who wears one or more serpents, pointed bird-beak like nose, his two hands in namaste posture.

[22][23] Aruna chided his mother Vinata for her impatience, and warned her to not break open the second egg, cursing her to be a slave until his brother rescued her.

Indra requested that Garuda not give the Amrita to the Nagas though, as it would bring great trouble later, so they forged a plan.

[27] The Suparṇākhyāna, a late Vedic period poem considered to be among the "earliest traces of epic poetry in India," relates the legend of Garuda, and provides the basis for a later, expanded version which appears within the Mahābhārata.

Powerful warriors advancing rapidly on doomed foes are likened to Garuda swooping down on a serpent.

Nearby the main temple is a rare subsidiary shrine dedicated to the Kurma avatar of Lord Vishnu.

This temple was believed to have been constructed after Garuda himself manifested in eagle form in front of the devotees during the consecration ceremony.

[1] In Buddhism, the Garuda (Sanskrit; Pāli: garuḷā) are enormous predatory birds with a wingspan of 330 yojanas.

This secret was divulged to one of the Garudas by the ascetic Karambiya, who taught him how to seize a nāga by the tail and force him to vomit up his stone (Pandara Jātaka, J.518).

The Garudas were among the beings appointed by Śakra to guard Mount Sumeru and the Trāyastriṃśa heaven from the attacks of the asuras.

In the Maha-samaya Sutta (Digha Nikaya 20), the Buddha is shown making temporary peace between the Nagas and the Garudas.

In the Qing dynasty fiction The Story of Yue Fei (1684), Garuda sits at the head of the Buddha's throne.

But when a celestial bat (an embodiment of the Aquarius constellation) flatulates during the Buddha's expounding of the Lotus Sutra, Garuda kills her and is exiled from paradise.

The bat is reborn as Lady Wang, wife of the traitor Prime Minister Qin Hui, and is instrumental in formulating the "Eastern Window" plot that leads to Yue's eventual political execution.

[33] Literary critic C. T. Hsia explains the reason why Qian Cai, the book's author, linked Yue with Garuda is because of the homology in their Chinese names.

[36] In India and the rest of Southeast Asia the eagle symbolism is represented by Garuda, a large bird with eagle-like features that appears in both Hindu and Buddhist epic as the vahana (vehicle) of the god Vishnu.

The Garuda Pancasila is coloured black or gilded, symbolising both the greatness of the nation and the elang Jawa (Javan hawk-eagle Nisaetus bartelsi).

The shield it carries bears the motto Panca Sila, which symbolises self-defense and protection in struggle.