4

The Hanumayana
Forty Tales of Hanuman

My research into the lore of Hanuman has yielded too many stories
and variants to include all of them in this book. In this chapter, I
offer synopses of a representative sample of tales that recur with
only minor variation in multiple sources. However, since recent
popular literature continues to display diversity, I occasionally include an anomalous storyfound in only one or two sources, or an
old story that is less well known todaysimply because I nd it interesting or striking, or because it illuminates themes that surface
elsewhere in Hanumans cult (additional tales of this sort will be
found in chapter 5). Such stories may reect regional traditions
that enjoy local popularity or may simply show the creativity of individual storytellersindicative of the license that devotees still
feel comfortable taking with a beloved and not-yet-too-dignied god.
Because my sample is limited and there is hardly a story about
Hanuman that does not admit of variations, I apologize in advance
to readers who may nd that (in their view) there are errors in
these pages or, perhaps worse, that one of their favorite tales has
been left out.
Accounts of Hanumans life nearly always include a retelling
of the Rama story. Since this lengthy tale is already widely available in English versions, I assume some familiarity with it on the
part of my readers, and merely summarize its narrative in italicized
passages set in brackets. As in my source collections, the emphasis here is on those parts of the story that directly concern Hanuman
or that signicantly expand his role beyond what is described in
the standard Rama narrative. The whole of my offering is more
comprehensive than any of my sources and translates no single

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gure 4.1. A late-twentieth-century poster celebrates Hanumans acts

one of them, although it attempts to convey something of their tone and
occasionally features excerpts from their dialog.
Since I offer, in many cases, more than one version of a story, I have ordered the narrative into chronological and thematic sets, which I have numbered sequentially (happily, the total came to the Hanumanically signicant
forty); within each numbered set, individual tales are assigned letters in alphabetical order (1.a, 1.b, etc.). Chapter 5 is arranged according to the same
numbering scheme and comprises a set of extended notes on the tales. To
save space in the notes, each Hindi and English primary source is referenced
by a code (H1, H2, etc.), the key to which is found at the beginning of the
bibliography. I have settled on this two-chapter format because of what I
perceive to be the charm of the stories and because I do not want readers who
are not academically inclined to have to leap over oceans of analysis or be lost
in forests of footnotes just to get to the next tale. To make it easy to move back
and forth between the stories and their notes, page numbers referencing the

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latter appear in brackets following the titles. I apologize for any inconvenience
caused to scholarly readers by my approach, which permits me to preserve, in
this chapter, something of the look as well as the feel of a Hindi compendium
of Hanumans caritra, which I hope that at least some readers may savor, as
I do. And now, to the tales!
[Synopsis 1: The demonic king Ravana and his brothers terrorize the universe,
dethroning gods and persecuting and killing sages. Oppressed by their excesses, Earth
appeals to the creator, Brahma, for relief. Pointing out a loophole in the demons
boon of limited immortality, Brahma prophesies the birth of Vishnu as the human
prince Rama, who will be Ravanas slayer. He then commands the other gods to
descend to the southern mountains and be born to monkey-women, in order to spawn
a fantastic cohort of warriors who will assist in Ramas task.]

1. Prologue: Causes of Hanumans Birth [see notes on page 177]

(a) Atop Mount Kailash, Lord Shiva emerges from meditation and repeats
the mantra Rama. His wife, Sati, asks why he, the supreme Lord, is repeating
the name of another god. Shiva replies that Rama is both the designation
of the ultimate reality as well as the name of an earthly prince and avatara of
Vishnu. Declaring the embodied Rama to be his own chosen deity, Shiva announces his intention to incarnate on earth in order to serve him. When Sati
protests that she will miss him, Shiva promises to send only a portion of
himself and hence to remain with her on Kailash. The two then discuss the
problem of what form Shiva should take; if he assumes human shape, it will
violate the dharma of service, for the servant should be lower than the master.
Shiva nally decides on monkey form because it is humble and has simple
needs and lifestyle: no shelter, no cooked food, and no observance of the rules of
caste and stage of life. This will allow maximum scope for service.
(b) Although Parvati is initially shocked by Shivas choice of incarnate
vehicle (Why not take birth as something nice? she asks), Shiva convinces
her that the monkey form is ideal for avoiding the allurements of maya (maya),
cosmic illusion. Parvati then asks to accompany Shiva to earth and volunteers
to become his tail, for the wife is the ornament of her husband, as the tail is
of a monkey. Shiva agrees to this request. This is why Hanumans tail is so
beautiful and so imbued with shaktithe power of the goddess.
(c) Parvati asks Shiva how, as Hanuman, he can ght Ravana, since
Ravana is known to be his own fervent devotee. Shiva replies that when
Ravana propitiated him to obtain boons, he cut off his heads one by one and
offered them into a sacricial re. However, Shiva has eleven ferocious
Rudra manifestations, and since Ravana had only ten heads, the eleventh
Rudra remained unsatised by his offering. This eleventh Rudra will incarnate as Hanuman and be instrumental in bringing about Ravanas death.
(d) Ravana and his gargantuan brother Kumbhakarna are incarnations
of two of Shivas devoted attendants; hence he is obliged to protect them.

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However, once they obtain power through austerities and boons, they become
arrogant and oppress even the gods. Eventually they anger Shiva by imprisoning two of his favorite servants: Mahakala, the Lord of Death, and Shani,
the planet Saturn. For this reason, Shiva heeds the gods plea that he incarnate on earth as Hanuman in order to help destroy the arrogant rakshasa
brothers.
(e) Nandi, Shivas bull, is an embodiment of his eleventh Rudramanifestation. During Ravanas campaign of universal conquest, he attacks
even Mount Kailash, where he encounters Nandi. Although himself devoted
to Shiva, Ravana cannot resist making fun of Nandis animal shape and laughingly remarks that his face resembles that of a monkey. In anger at this insult,
Nandi curses Ravana to eventually die through the intervention of monkeyfaced beings. Later, he requests of Shiva the boon of expressing his devotion
through the lowly monkey form, and incarnates on earth as Hanuman, the bull
among monkeys.
(f) In the Svayambhuva eon at the beginning of creation, a sage named
Shilada does penance to please Shiva and requests the boon of having a
son like him. Accordingly, Shivas eleventh Rudra manifestation is born as
Shiladas son, Nandi. Nandi in turn performs penance and obtains the boon
of being Shivas devotee in the lowly form of a monkey.
(g) The wind god, Vayu, assists Shiva in slaying the demon Jalandhara.
Shiva offers him a boon, and Vayu requests that Shiva be born on earth as his
own son, to which Shiva consents.
(h) Vishnu realizes that he will need the help of his own favorite deity,
Shiva, in order to slay Ravana. He propitiates Shiva with hymns of praise and
an offering of thousand-petaled red lotuses. Shiva appears and informs him
that he has already given the monkey-woman Anjana the boon that he will
be born as her son. Now he adds that this son will become Vishnus helper in
the war with Ravana. Shiva adds, Of course, Ravana is also my devotee, but in
the excess of his power he has forgotten right and wrong. Vishnu is delighted
and readies himself for his incarnation as Rama.

2. Anjanas Pregnancy [see notes on page 178]

(a) A heavenly nymph named Punjikasthala is capricious and naughty; she
makes fun of a sage, who curses her to be born on earth as Anjana, the
daughter of the monkey ruler Kunjara. Later he takes pity on her and softens
the curse so that, although in ugly and inauspicious monkey form, she will
have the ability to change her appearance at will. When she grows up, Anjana
is married to another monkey ruler, Kesari, who dwells on Mount Gokarna.
She longs for a son. One day, in the prime of her youth, she assumes a lovely
human form and, wearing beautiful garments and ornaments, wanders on the
summit of a mountain. The wind god sees her and gently blows aside her
garments. Beholding her breasts and thighs, he is overcome with desire and

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embraces her, remaining invisible to earthly eyes. But Anjana knows that
someone has touched her and cries out in alarm, Who wishes me to break
my vow as a faithful wife? The wind replies that he has no wish to harm
her but has united with her inwardly and that she will bear a wise and
mighty son. Anjana is delighted and repairs to a cave, where she gives birth
to Hanuman.
(b) A heavenly maiden named Anjana mocks Indra for having a thousand eyes. He curses her to be born on earth with a monkey face. Her girlfriend, Adrika, likewise annoys Indra by meowing like a cat, and is similarly
cursed, except that her face resembles that of a cat. Both are born among
monkeys, remain friends, and marry the monkey ruler Kesari. In the course
of time, they please the sage Agastya with acts of service, and he grants them
each the boon of having a son. While playing in the woods one day, scantily
clad, the two women are seen by supernatural beings who fall in love with
them and enter their bodies. Anjana is raped by the wind, and Adrika by a
rakshasa named Nirrti. In due course, Anjana gives birth to Hanuman, and
her friend to a being named Adri or Ghora (terrible), who is destined to
become the king of ghosts. The sons, being divine, grow up quickly, and their
supernatural fathers advise them to take their mothers on a pilgrimage to the
Godavari River. Hanuman bathes his mother at the place known as A~
njana
trtha, and Adri bathes his mother at Marjar trtha (cat ford); both women
obtain release from Indras curse and regain their heavenly forms.
(c) Anjana is the daughter of sage Gautama and his wife, Ahalya. The
latter, in her husbands absence, is seduced by Indra, who is enamored of her
beauty and who also seeks to reduce the accumulated power of her husbands
austerities. Indra takes Gautamas form for this purpose, but the sage returns
to discover the amorous couple and angrily curses them both. Ahalya believes
that her daughter reported her indiscretion and so curses Anjana to give
birth to a monkey. Anjana decides to forswear marriage and to perform austerities to overcome the curse. Standing on one leg, she becomes so absorbed
in meditation that an anthill grows around her. Vayu, the wind, takes pity on
her and feeds her once a week through a hole in the anthill. Meanwhile, Shiva
and Parvati visit the forest for amorous play, taking the form of animals of
various species. While they are both in monkey form, Shiva ejaculates, and
Parvati cannot bear the intensity of his ery semen. Vayu picks it up and carries
it to Anjana. Three months later, Hanuman emerges from her mouth in the
form of a baby monkey.
(d) Kesari is a powerful monkey ruler who lives on a mountain in the South. He slays a demon named Sambasadana, who was tormenting the sages of the coastal forest of Gokarna, and they reward him with
a boon. Childless despite his marriage to the beautiful monkey princess Anjana, Kesari requests a powerful son. The sages teach him the Shiva mantra
and advise him to repeat it. As a result, Shiva is pleased and enters into him in
his Rudra form; the wind god Vayu enters him as well. Kesari then unites
with Anjana, and she becomes pregnant.