This print showing Garuda dates to 1913. Garuda, in Hindu mythology, the bird (a kite or an eagle) and the vahana (mount) of the god Vishnu. In the Rigveda, the sun is compared to a bird in its flight across the sky, and an eagle carries the ambrosial soma plant from heaven to earth. The mythological account of Garuda's birth in the Mahabharata identifies him as the younger brother of Aruna, the charioteer of the sun god, Surya.