Hanuman
Who is Hanuman?
What role does Hanuman play in the Ramayana?
What is the story of Hanuman and the magic herb mountain?
What happens in the Sundarakanda and why is it important to Hindus?
How do devotees worship Hanuman?
How does Hanuman appear in images and iconography?
What is Hanuman Jayanti and how is it observed?
What is the meaning of Hanuman’s name, and by what other names is he called?
Hanuman, in Hindu mythology, the monkey commander of the monkey army in the Sanskrit epic Ramayana (“Rama’s Journey”), and a deity fervently worshipped by Hindus. In the Ramayana Hanuman assists the titular Rama, an avatar of the god Vishnu, in rescuing Rama’s wife, Sita, and defeating the demon Ravana. Hanuman’s exploits in service of Rama are regarded as illustrative of the monkey god’s loyal service and heroism. In Hinduism Hanuman’s devotion to Rama is held up as an ideal form of bhakti (“devotion”) toward a deity. Hanuman appears in Hindu temples devoted to Rama and other deities, and he also has temples of his own. He is especially sought by worshippers for relief from suffering.
- Other names or epithets: Anjaneya, Bajrangbali, Sankat Mochan, Maruti; also spelled Hanumān
- Associated texts: Ramayana, Ramcharitmanas, Hanuman Chalisa
- Festivals: Hanuman Jayanti, Hanuman Puja
- Main feats: Leaping to Lanka, locating Sita, carrying the mountain with magic herbs, humbly serving Rama
- Iconography: Erect on two legs and heroic or humble, simian visage; holding a mace, carrying a mountain, opening chest to reveal Rama and Sita
Tales in the Ramayana
Birth and childhood of Hanuman
Hanuman is born as the child of the wind god Vayu and the nymph (apsaras) Anjana, who had been cursed to become a monkey (Sanskrit: vanara). While still a baby Hanuman tries to fly up and grab the Sun, which he mistakes for a fruit. Indra, the king of the gods, strikes Hanuman with a thunderbolt on the jaw (hanu), thus inspiring the name Hanuman (“he who has a prominent [or unique] jaw”). Some devotees prefer an etymology of his name from the Sanskrit words han and mana, which they take to mean “one whose pride has been destroyed.” When Hanuman continues to misbehave, powerful sages curse him to forget his magic powers, such as the ability to fly or to become infinitely large, until he is eventually reminded of them later in the narrative by the bear Jambavan. The full story of Hanuman’s birth is not narrated at the beginning of the Ramayana epic but told to Hanuman—and the reader or audience—at the end of Book IV when his great powers become necessary.
In the Shiva Purana (c. 8th century ce) Hanuman is born from the wind (Vayu) carrying the god Shiva’s semen to the apsaras Anjana. The Shaiva tradition reveres Hanuman as a portion of Shiva and as an avatar of Shiva’s angry form Rudra. Hanuman is sometimes called the 11th Rudra.
Hanuman and the monkeys join Rama and Lakshmana
Hanuman joins the entourage of Rama and his half brother, Lakshmana, at the beginning of Book IV of the Ramayana, Kishkindhakanda (Book of the Monkey Empire). By that point in the story, Rama’s wife, Sita, has been abducted by Ravana, king of Lanka. A forlorn Rama, searching everywhere for his beloved, comes to Lake Pampa in the Kishkindha forest, where the monkey kingdom lies. Sugriva, the king of the monkeys, has been deposed by his brother Vali (Bali)—who also stole Sugriva’s wife—and Hanuman is Sugriva’s minister. Hanuman is sent by Sugriva to meet Rama and Lakshmana, and the monkey initially takes on the guise of a mendicant. Once introductions are complete and a mutual trust is established, Hanuman turns back into his monkey form, places Rama and Lakshmana on his shoulders, and carries them to Sugriva.
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Sugriva and other monkeys had recovered jewels and a shawl that Sita had dropped when Ravana passed over Kishkindha carrying her away to Lanka. Seeing them delights and saddens the bereft Rama. Sugriva and Rama commiserate over their stolen wives and agree to join forces. Rama hides in the woods while Sugriva instigates a fight with Vali during which Rama shoots an arrow that fells Vali. After regaining his kingdom and then dawdling, much to Rama’s annoyance, Sugriva calls all the monkeys and bears together to help Rama find Sita. The search party learns from the vulture Sampati (brother of Jatayu, who had tried to save Sita from Ravana during her abduction) that Sita is in Lanka, the island bastion of Ravana and his fellow demons (rakshasas).
Hanuman’s leap and search for Sita
Faced with the challenge of getting to Lanka across the ocean, the bear king Jambavan tells Hanuman of his childhood and special abilities, thereby unlocking them from memory. Hanuman grows to a massive size and crosses in one leap from India to Lanka, which is said to be a distance of 100 yojanas (a yojana is an uncertain unit of distance in Sanskrit sources estimated to be about 5–9 miles, or 8–15 kilometers). During his flight the watery mountain Mainaka arises from the ocean and offers him rest, though he merely brushes it with his hand and flies on. The gods decide to test him and send Surasa, the mother of nagas (watery serpentine creatures), who takes on the form of a rakshasa to devour him. But as that terrifying being opens its mouth bigger and wider, Hanuman increasingly expands his own size until he suddenly shrinks to the size of a thumb, goes in its gaping maw, and reemerges, thus fulfilling the divine boon that he should enter Surasa’s mouth. Next Hanuman is faced with the massive sea rakshasi (female demon) Simhika, who swallows his shadow, but Hanuman makes himself hard as a diamond, dives into her mouth, and destroys her body from the inside. The divine flying monkey then completes his leap to Lanka but reduces his size to be more inconspicuous as he alights in the hostile kingdom of demons.
Book V of the Ramayana, entitled Sundarakanda (Book of Beauty), includes Hanuman’s leap to Lanka, his interactions with Sita, and his destruction of Lanka with his fiery tail. Of the seven books of the Ramayana, the Sundarakanda alone features a principal hero other than Rama, and that hero is Hanuman. Some devotees recite the Sundarakanda as part of their devotional worship of Hanuman and consider it the heart of the epic.
In Lanka he moves about furtively, observes and narrates the beauty of the city, and eventually locates Sita in a garden surrounded by rakshasis. He finds her deeply consumed by sorrow and distress, missing Rama horribly, but steadfast in her devotion to her husband and anger at Ravana. Hidden there in a tree, Hanuman observes Ravana’s attempts to seduce Sita, her bitter refusal of the demon’s advances, and her brutal chastisement of his evil behavior.
Hanuman meets Sita and burns Lanka
After Ravana departs, the rakshasis guard and harass Sita in the grove, and although one demoness has a dream portending destruction at Rama’s hands, Sita remains distraught. She goes to sit under a tree and removes the cord in her hair with a thought to commit suicide. With luck, it happens to be the tree in which Hanuman is perched, and the monkey senses both urgency and an opening to speak to her. Hanuman addresses Sita gently and sweetly using Sanskrit—the first instance of that term in a Sanskrit text, with the adjectival meaning of properly composed language. He tells her of Rama with praise and introduces himself as his messenger. The monkey earns her trust slowly by filling her in on the events that have taken place since her abduction and showing her Rama’s signet ring that he is carrying, thereby proving he is a trustworthy emissary of her husband. Hanuman reassures Sita that she will be rescued, and she gives him a jewel from her hair in return.
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Hanuman then instigates a quarrel with the rakshasas, killing many of them, including Ravana’s youngest son, Aksha, until the rakshasas bind the marauding monkey and take him to the castle to appear before Ravana. The demons set Hanuman’s tail on fire, but he escapes and uses that blazing rear appendage to burn down Lanka.
After he returns to Rama with the good news of locating a healthy, if forlorn, Sita, the monkey army constructs a bridge between India and Lanka to initiate the great war between simian and demon armies. As they set off to battle, Rama rides upon Hanuman’s shoulders while Lakshmana is carried upon the shoulders of Angada, the son of Vali and nephew of Sugriva.
The Ramayana addresses this understandable question directly. Hanuman offers to take Sita back to Rama, but she demurs. She fears that she might fall off his back, that the rakshasas might attack Hanuman and her as he flees, and, most importantly, that it would be improper for her to touch another man—even if that man is a monkey. She insists instead that Hanuman return to Rama and Lakshmana and bring them to Lanka to defeat Ravana and rescue her.
Hanuman and the magic herb mountain
One of Hanuman’s best-known exploits is his carrying back to the battlefield a mountain, typically identified as Dronagiri, laden with medicinal herbs, including the life-restoring sanjivani. During the battle between the factions of Rama and Ravana, Ravana’s son Indrajit launches a massive attack that kills many monkeys and knocks Rama and Lakshmana unconscious. Jambavan informs Hanuman of a Himalayan mountain on which grow medicinal herbs that can restore life. Hanuman flies off to find the life-saving plants, but after arriving at the mountain, he fails to locate them—the magical herbs, aware that Hanuman has come to collect them, make themselves invisible. Angry at being foiled, Hanuman lifts up the entire mountain and carries it back, along with the herbs, to restore the wounded monkeys and revive Rama and Lakshmana.
In a later reprise of this episode, after Ravana strikes down Lakshmana with a spear, Hanuman goes back to the magic herb mountain. This time the monkey is unable to recognize which plants on the mountain are the correct medicinal herbs. In a rush to save Lakshmana, he brings the summit back to revive Rama’s devoted brother. In the 16th-century telling of Rama’s story Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas includes an episode in which Hanuman returns with the mountain at night and flies over Rama’s native Ayodhya. Rama’s half brother Bharata, who had remained behind in Ayodhya during Rama’s exile in the forest, espies the mountain-bearing airborne simian. Thinking him a demon in the dark of night, Bharata shoots at Hanuman, albeit with a tipless arrow. Hanuman is knocked unconscious, but Bharata successfully prays for his resuscitation. Rama’s associate quickly fills Bharata in on all the events that had transpired during Rama’s exile thus far before speeding back to the battlefield with the mountain of magic herbs for Lakshmana.
Hanuman after the war
After Rama defeats Ravana, Hanuman returns to Ayodhya, Rama’s birthplace and kingdom, with the prince as a part of his entourage along with Sita, Lakshmana, and simian allies. After Rama’s coronation as king, Sita gives Hanuman a pearl necklace. In later literary elaborations of this necklace scene, albeit not in the original Ramayana by Valmiki, Hanuman bites open the pearls in search of something of value, such as Rama, within them. When incredulous onlookers of this pearl-munching spectacle ask Hanuman if his own body has value, the monkey god responds by tearing open his chest to reveal images of Rama and Sita in his heart.
At the very end of the Ramayana, as Rama prepares to leave the world, he requests that Hanuman remain alive as long as Rama’s stories are told. It is sometimes said in Hindu cultural settings that whenever and wherever Rama’s story is recounted, the monkey god Hanuman is present.
“Then Rāma turned to Hanumān. ‘You had decided to live on earth. Do not break that vow now! As long as my story prevails on earth, best of monkeys, so long shall you live and keep your promise!’” —from the Ramayana, Book VII (Uttarakanda), chapter 108, as translated by Arshia Sattar
Devotion and depiction
Hanuman is worshipped as a subsidiary figure in temples dedicated to Rama, and he is worshipped directly in shrines dedicated to the monkey god himself. Some Hanuman temples are thronged by monkeys, who may sense that they cannot be mistreated there. For his service to Rama, Hanuman is upheld as a model for all human devotion (bhakti). In art and literature about Hanuman, he embodies the qualities of both heroism (vira) and service (dasa), as well as power (shakti) and devotion (bhakti). He is particularly revered by devotees as a reliever of suffering. Although Hanuman is widely worshipped by Hindus across the globe, he is especially important to wrestlers, for whom Hanuman is a model of strength and devotion; Hanuman shrines are found in wrestlers’ gymnasiums. Ascetics of the Natha sect, who are traditionally associated with Shiva, revere Hanuman for his immortality, celibacy, ability to fly, and connection to healing herbs.
Devotees of Hanuman most commonly show praise to him through recitations of the Hanuman Chalisa, a 40-verse Hindi prayer attributed to the 16th-century poet Tulsidas, author of the Ramcharitmanas. The hymn praises Hanuman for his exploits, wisdom, and devotion to Rama. It also suggests that Hanuman has the ability to alleviate suffering, provide healing, assist his devotees in times of distress, exorcise malevolent spirits, and grant devotees fortitude and tenacity. For this reason Hanuman is also called Sankat Mochan, “reliever of suffering.” Another prayer of eight verses to Hanuman, Sankat Mochan Ashtak (also attributed to Tulsidas), expresses the belief that just as Hanuman comes to the aid of Rama and his companions in the Ramayana, the monkey god can deliver devotees from illness and other dire straits:
You’ve done great work for the gods,
Great hero, so look here and consider this:
What troubles afflict a poor wretch like me
that can’t be removed by you?
Quickly dispel, O Great Lord Hanuman,
Whatever afflictions are mine.
Who in the world doesn’t know, Monkey,
that your name is Sankat Mochan?
Hanuman’s birth is celebrated annually on the holiday Hanuman Jayanti. In northern India it is typically celebrated on the full moon day of the Hindu month Chaitra (March–April), although dates for Hanuman’s birthday vary across southern Indian states. In some regions there is a tradition of celebrating Hanuman Jayanti or Hanuman Puja on the 14th day of the dark lunar fortnight of Karttika, the day prior to Diwali. Devotees typically celebrate Hanuman Jayanti by fasting, visiting temples and offering puja, and singing songs and reciting prayers. Some devotees attend recitations of the Sundarakanda, Book V of the Ramayana, in which Hanuman is the main hero.
Hanuman’s names and their meanings
- Hanuman: “He who has a prominent [or unique] jaw.” This name is based on the story of Indra striking the precocious young monkey.
- Maruti: “Son of the wind god.” This patronymic relates Hanuman to his father, Vayu, who is one of the Maruts, a group of Vedic wind deities.
- Anjaneya: “Son of Anjana.” This matronymic relating Hanuman to his apsaras mother is common in southern India.
- Bajrangbali: “One who has diamond-hard limbs.” This name is more common in northern India.
- Sankat Mochan: “Reliever of suffering.” This name relates to Hanuman’s capacity, according to devotees, to relieve illness and distress.
Iconography
In temples throughout India, Hanuman appears in the form of a monkey with a red face who stands erect like a human. Depictions of him appear to increase significantly in frequency and popularity beginning from the 15th century. He typically is shown with a distinctly heroic aspect, and in some images he appears with a fierce visage or in a five-faced form (panchamukha). Some images show him with a mace or club (gada), about to give a slap, or with one foot crushing a demon. In artwork and sculpture throughout India, Hanuman is often depicted heroically carrying a mountain of restorative medicinal herbs. There is a lengthy tradition in art and textual elaborations that feature Hanuman bearing Rama and Lakshmana on his shoulders. Another common Hanuman image features the monkey tearing open his breast to reveal Rama and Sita in his heart, symbolizing his devotion to the couple.
In much early iconography and worship of Hanuman, the emphasis was on his devotion to Rama and his great feats, and illustrations showed either a heroic figure or a humble servant. In the 20th century and into the 21st century, however, Hanuman iconography has gained significant muscle mass, and he is increasingly depicted in ways that emphasize his strength and bodybuilder physique. A hypermasculine Hanuman appears also as a fierce superhero in popular series of comic books. Larger-than-life statues of a buff Hanuman have sprung up across India and beyond. A 90-foot- (27-meter-) tall Hanuman statue inaugurated in 2024 at the Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple in Sugar Land, Texas, has met with backlash and protests from alt-right and Christian neighbors, as well as online commentators, as reported widely in the media.
Cultural and political influences
Hanuman is also a popular figure among Buddhists in Central, Southeast, and East Asia, and throughout those areas many temples have been erected for his worship and districts of towns bear his name. Outside India, however, rather different tales are told of him. Although steadfastly chaste in the Sanskrit tradition, for instance, he has wives and children in other traditions. Some scholars have suggested that he might be the inspiration for the monkey hero Sun Wukong in the great Chinese novel Xiyouji (“Journey to the West”). In Indian politics Hanuman is revered by the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and especially by the related militant group Bajrang Dal (“Brigade of Hanuman”). The Hanuman of Hindu nationalism tends to be the hypermasculine version, reflecting its ideal of Hindu political might. The Hanuman langur (Semnopithecus entellus), one of the most common Indian monkeys, is named after the Ramayana character.