Garuḍadaṇḍaka and Garuḍapañcāśat

I recently came across these two poetic  compositions by the 14th century Śrīvaiṣṇava luminary Vedāntadeśika.   He was an initiate of the five-syllable “Garuḍa Mantra,” about which a chapter of my dissertation is largely devoted.  I have been scouring the web for modern knowledge of this mantra, which I had thought was long forgotten, and have been pleased to discover that it is quite widely known–just not among scholars.   In another post I will discuss some of the other interesting sites where this mantra surfaces on the web, but here I want to point out that the majority of hits for search terms like “garuda mantra” return results related to Swami Desikan. These two pieces are dedicated to Garuḍa, and make special mention of his five-syllable mantra in the beginning and end.  The five divisions of the Garuḍapañcāśat correlate to the five syllables of the mantra.  Deśika’s consummate skill as a poet is evident in verses like:

kiṃ nirghātaḥ kim arkaḥ paripatati divaḥ kiṃ samiddho ‘yam aurvaḥ
kiṃsvit kārasvarādrir nanu viditam idaṃ vyomavartmā garutmān /
āsīdaty ājihīrṣaty abhipatati haraty atti hā tāta hāmbeti
ālāpodyuktabhillākulajaṭharapuṭaḥ pātu naḥ patrināthaḥ // 15 //

You can download typed Unicode versions of these texts by clicking the links in the etexts section of my CV.  The images above are hyperlinked to the ebook versions which have English explanations of the verses, background about Swami Desikan, and many nice pictures.  Lastly, below is an audio recording of Sunder Kidambi reciting the Garuḍadaṇḍakam. Enjoy!