According to Sanskrit lexicographers, letters in this name denote the following: ‘Hanuman’ would thus mean ‘the one with excellent chin’. 'Hanu' means ‘chin’ and the suffix 'mat' denotes ‘possession’, and implicitly ‘excellence’ or ‘superiority’, atiśāyana. In Tulsidas’s Hanuman Chalisa, Hanuman is ‘adorned with earrings, holy thread, and muñja’. He is also described as being born with mauñjī-mekhalā, a three-string girdle of muñja grass. Somewhere in this crowd-perhaps among the simplest folks, listening reverentially to the Ramayana-sits Hanuman: his head bent, folded hands raised to the forehead in salutation, and eyes moist with tears of love for Rama.Īccording to some versions of the Ramayana, Hanuman was born with bejeweled earrings. Brahma’s blessings could not have been truer.
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May this body of mine remain as long as thy name is remembered in this world.’ So, Hanuman lives incognito among us as one of the eight cirañjīvins, immortals, listening to rāmakathā, the story of Rama, wherever it is sung.ĭown the millennia, the story of Ramayana and of Hanuman has continued to flow and flower in a myriad forms-through epics and Upanishads, Itihasas and Puranas, legend and folklore, history and hearsay through paintings, dance forms, and folk art through feature flms and animations in small villages as well as busy metros in artless rural rāmlīlās and sophisticated urban stage plays in temples, auditoria, and improvised pandāls through the narrations of simple storytellers, professional kathāvāchakas, erudite pandits, spiritual leaders, and even child prodigies in India, Cambodia, Thailand, Java, Sumatra, Bali, Myanmar, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad, Suriname, Siberia, Mongolia, Malaysia, and lately, the West-and people listen: men, women, and children the illiterate and the learned, skeptics as well as sentimental devotees. Therefore, I wish to remain always on this earth repeating thy name. Today, ages later, this story abides and as its integral part lives Hanuman and his legend, actualizing the boon that he had sought from Sri Rama: ‘I am never satisfied with repeating thy name. Who, in the world, is superior to Hanuman in valour, energy, intelligence, prowess, character, charm, discernment, composure, dexterity, vigour, and fortitude? īlessing Valmiki, the ādikavi, Brahma had prophesied that ‘as long as mountains stand on earth and rivers flow, the story of Ramayana (narrated by Valmiki) would remain current in all the worlds’: Yāvat-sthāsyanti girayah saritaśca mahītale Tāvad-rāmāyanakathā lokesu pracarisyati. Gāmbhīrya-cāturya-suvīrya-dhairyair-hanūmatah ko’bhyadhiko’sti loke. By A P N Pankaj Parākramotsāha-mati-pratāpa-sauśīlya-mādhurya-nayānayaiśca