Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.188

c7.188

11) *Garuḍa, Saubhari and Kāliya.* Garuḍa had always entertained great hatred against the nāgas, and now Indra's permission having been obtained by him to eat the nāgas for food, Garuḍa decided to launch a regular nāga-hunting expedition. He began eating the nāgas one by one. Alarmed at this the nāgas planned for their security in a conclave, and approached Garuḍa with the proposal that one nāga would go to him daily to serve as his food instead of his indiscriminate killing of them. Garuḍa accepted their proposal. After some time the nāgas proposed to Garuḍa that they would conduct a sarpa-bali (sacrifice of serpents) and submit the food out of the bali to him so that his nāga-hunting might be stopped for ever. Garuḍa agreed to this also. According to the new agreement daily one nāga began going to Garuḍa with the food out of the bali.