by Vanamali
“Where can I meet Hanuman?” he asked.
“He is always present wherever the story of Rama is told. The Ramayana is being sung at a certain place right now. You will surely find him there. But remember he will not be in his own form. I have often noticed that a Brahmin dressed in tatters is always present at the discourse. He is the first to come and the last to leave. No one knows who he is or where he lives. I suspect that he is indeed Hanuman. Catch hold of him. Never leave him and he will be able to give you the vision of the Lord.”
Tulsiram went daily to the discourse and observed the old Brahmin carefully. However, every time he tried to follow him, he found that the old man disappeared instantly. However, nothing could deter his urgency to meet Rama. The same determination that compelled him to risk his life in order to reach the side of his beloved on that stormy night was now directed to meeting the divine beloved! One day he jumped and caught hold of the Brahmin’s dhoti (cloth worn by men) that was around his waist and tied his hand to it. The old man ran very fast into the dense forest and very soon Tulsiram could not keep up with his speed. But he hung on to the cloth and was dragged over the rough ground until he was torn and bleeding. All the while he kept repeating the mantra of Rama. He was determined never to let him go until his wish was fulfilled. At last the Brahmin stopped. Tulsiram grabbed hold of his feet and said.
“My Lord, I know who you are. I will not let you go until you give me a vision of Rama!”
Anjaneya now took his own form and raised him up and said, “Indeed, I am pleased with your devotion. You shall have a vision of the Lord tomorrow!”
Thus saying, he vanished. Tulsiram returned to his abode and spent the night in ecstasy thinking of the joy in store for him in the morning. The next day he cleaned his whole hut and compound and waited anxiously for his Lord to come. However, the only ones who came were two hunters dressed in green and mounted on horseback. That evening he went to the Brahmin and cried loud and long, for he had not got the vision that had been promised.
Hanuman replied, “He did come, but you did not recognize him, for he was dressed as a common hunter! But fear not, tomorrow evening he will give you the darshan you are longing for.”
The local people heard about this and many were present in Tulsiram’s courtyard. The shades of night were falling, and the yard was filled with people all chanting, “Rama! Rama!” Suddenly all of them were thrilled to see Rama approaching with Lakshmana and Sita on either side. Tulsiram fell at Rama’s feet and was unable to get up. Rama lifted him up tenderly and told him,“My son, your love alone has brought me here. You are truly blessed. From now on you shall be known as Tulsidas. It is your duty to write the story of the Ramayana in simple language that the common people can understand.”
Tulsidas was astounded, “My Lord!” he said. “I am totally incapable of writing on such a great subject. All I know is to chant your name. How can I fulfill your command?”
Rama looked lovingly at him and said, “Fear not. You will be given guidance by Hanuman, who is not only erudite but also filled with devotion. He has been a living witness to the story of my life. He is the best person to guide you.”
Thus it happened that Tulsidas started writing the Ramayana in the common man’s language, Awadhi, which was a dialect of Hindi. It was written in the year AD 1575. When Valmiki wrote his Ramayana, India was at the peak of its cultural refinement, while Tulsidas produced his work at a time when there was a widespread degradation in moral values. There was rivalry between different faiths and sects. Through the story of Rama, Tulsidas sought to acquaint the masses with all that was best in the Hindu scriptures and to bring about synthesis and concordance among the various schools of religious thought. In North India, it gained instant popularity among laborers, peasants, and householders alike. It came to be known as the Ramacharitamanas.
Many miracles were attributed to Tulsidas. Hearing about these, the Mogul emperor Akbar sent for him and asked him to perform a miracle for him. Tulsidas replied, “I am only a humble servant of Rama. He alone is the worker of miracles.”
“Show me your Rama, then,” said the emperor.
Tulsidas remained silent. The emperor became angry at his silence and ordered him to be put in jail. It is said that Tulsidas composed the Hanuman Chalisa when he was in prison at Fatepur Sikri, which was Akbar’s fortress at the time. During those forty days when he was composing the verses, he prayed to Hanuman to save him from this predicament. At the end of the forty days, the whole of the emperor’s fort was swarming with monkeys. They clawed people, tore their clothes, entered houses, and destroyed gardens. At last the emperor realized that this must be the work of the man he had thrown in jail. He ran to him and fell at his feet, begging him to order the monkeys to go away. Tulsidas prayed to Hanuman and immediately the monkeys vanished, but he told the emperor, “You should leave this spot and take up your residence at some other place, for this is Rama’s abode and no one should stay here except the monkeys.”
Hearing this, the emperor is said to have changed the location of his fortress. Tulsidas died in the year 1624. Two copies of his Ramayana, written in his own handwriting, are said to be in existence. One is preserved at Rajpur, and the other is in the temple of Sita-Rama, which he himself had constructed at Kashi. Although many of the Sanskrit pundits of his time attacked him for having lowered the dignity of his subject by clothing it in vulgar vernacular, the fact remains that his book is found everywhere from the court to the cottage and is read or heard and appreciated by every class of the Hindu community, high and low, rich and poor, young and old.
Says Tulsidas, Hari’s constant servant,
“Lord! Make your abode in my heart.”
HANUMAN CHALISA BY TULSIDAS
Aum Sri Hanumathe Namaha!
Aum Mangalaaya Namaha!
36
Mangala Murti
The Auspicious Form
Then Sita spoke, greatly pleased,
“Son of the wind, wherever you reside, by my decree,
You will receive abundant offerings.
In villages, fields, cities and cowsheds,
By roadsides, in hamlets and homes.
Forests and forts, on hilltops and in temples,
By rivers and pilgrim places,
By tanks and towns.
In gardens and groves, under fig and banyan trees,
And in sacred sites.
Men will worship your image to assuage their afflictions,
When you are remembered, ghosts, goblins and ghouls will flee.”
ANANDA RAMAYANA
Sita’s blessing to Hanuman proved to be prophetic, since all the blessings she gave him have come to pass over the years. Hanuman’s shrines are in keeping with his personality and are rarely elaborate. They are humble structures built by ordinary people without the help of priests. He is often seen in the open, under trees or on the walls of temples, forts, and palaces. His idols are mainly carved out of stone or sometimes out of roots of trees with stubs that vaguely resemble simian features. They are often covered with vermillion or saffron paste and sometimes decorated with silver foil. Images normally show him carrying the mountain of herbs or standing guard in front of a Rama temple holding his mace. It is rare to see him in a meditative posture like a yogi.
His images are also seen at the gateways to settlements and villages to keep out malevolent forest spirits or at crossroads, thought to be where ghosts lurk, or at the entrance to forts, palaces, temples, monasteries, and gymnasiums. So in this sense he can be seen as a liminal god, a god who negotiates between different realms or guards the uncertain space between two places. In the famous Krishna shrine of Nathdwara, in Rajasthan, Hanuman stands guard before the four gates to the temple.
In both Jaipur and Vrindavan, there are many Hanuman shrines. During the early twentieth century, many of the little-known shrines to Hanuman that purported to be ancient and self-formed suddenly sprang into prominence. The city of Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh, claims
many such shrines. The small roadside shrines of Nichi Bagh and Kabir Choura are so crowded on Tuesdays and Saturdays that all traffic comes to a grinding halt. A small shrine in a lane behind Assi Ghat in the midst of a dalit (low caste) settlement sprang into prominence when the great nationalist leader, Madan Mohan Malaviya, began stopping there for prayers after his morning ablutions in the ghat (bathing place on the river). He kept a forty-day vigil to get Hanuman’s blessing for establishing the nearby Benaras Hindu University, and naturally, with Maruti’s blessings, the world-famous university was established in 1916.
Of course, the most well-known shrine in Varanasi is the huge murti (idol) in the Sankat Mochan temple. The story of this is closely connected with Tulsidas. Tulsidas used to pray to a small Hanuman idol under the twisted roots of a peepul tree after his ablutions in the Ganga. This tree was the abode of a tormented spirit who was grateful for the water that Tulsidas used to pour over it daily. In return, he offered Tulsidas a boon. The saint asked for some darshan of Rama but, of course, the poor ghost could not arrange this. However, he told him that the only one who could help him was Hanuman himself. He told him that Maruti used to come daily to the ghat in the form of an old leper to listen to the narration of the Ramayana. He sat at the back and was always the last to leave. Tulsidas followed the leper, who led him deep into the forest. He fell at his feet and hailed him as “Vayu Putra!” The leper denied vehemently that he was nothing but an old, sick man, but Tulsidas persisted and eventually Hanuman revealed his own glorious form. Raising one hand over his shoulder he pointed southwest and said, “Go to Chitrakut,” and placing the other hand over his heart he added, “I promise that you will see Rama.” This is supposed to have taken place at the very spot where the Sankata Mochana temple now stands, and the posture of the idol there has the same gestures that are mentioned above.
It is said that Tulsidas entreated Hanuman to stay in that spot for the benefit of his devotees. Maruti agreed but dived into the ground and disappeared. Tulsidas dug frantically into the sand throughout the night and finally, as dawn was breaking, he unearthed a swayambhu murti (self-formed idol) with the same posture in which Hanuman had addressed him. He established this murti and thus created the first temple to Hanuman. This miracle is supposed to have occurred on the eighth day of the dark fortnight of the month of Margashirsha (November/December) in 1550. The Bara Hanuman or the Great Hanuman is seen in the Hanuman ghat of the city.
The very popular temple at Mehndipur is located in Rajasthan and situated in a small valley, five kilometers from the Agra-Jaipur highway. It is said to be the place where Bala (baby) Hanuman was returned to the lap of his mother by the wind god after he had been chastised by Indra for daring to swallow the sun. Hence, Hanuman’s childhood is especially regarded in this region and he is known as Balaji. There are many stories connected with this place. It is said that one of the priests had a dream in which he saw the idol of Balaji. Suddenly he saw thousands of flickering lamps approaching from afar. When they came near, he discovered that the lights were being carried by a huge army of men accompanied by horses and elephants. They circumambulated Balaji and the commander came and prostrated himself to him. After this striking performance, all of them disappeared the way they had come. At that very spot the priest saw three murtis and heard a voice saying, “Rise up and attend to my pujas; I intend to perform many miracles here.” When he woke up, the Brahmin started to search and eventually located the site he had seen in his dream. He discovered the three idols and started offering ritualistic worship to them. Very soon, miracles started to occur in the temple and many people began to come. During the time of Muslim rule, the temple fell into decline, and one king even tried to uproot the idol of Balaji, but he could never find its base. He soon realized that the whole mountain was its body! With the passing of time, the temple rose to its present state of fame and glory.
Actually, there are three main deities here. The first is Balaji himself. This idol is carved out of the boulder and covered with sindoor (vermilion) and silver foil. In the hall upstairs, there is the idol to Pretaraj, or the king of ghosts. He is sometimes referred to as Yamaraj, or the king of death. Balaji is thought to be a most powerful deity for exorcising people from evil spirits. Petitions are offered to Balaji by those who seem to be possessed of spirits, and healing occurs in many ways. It is said that the afflicted person starts speaking in the voice of the spirit and is exhorted by Balaji and Pretaraj to leave the sufferer in peace.
In Ayodhya, it is said that Rama turned over the city to Hanuman when he left the earth, and thus Hanuman is the present-day king of Ayodhya. His most important temples here are in Hanuman Garhi, which is a cave temple, and Nageshwarnath, which is thought to have been established by one of Lord Rama’s sons.
Lucknow is noted for two temples in the Aliganj area. The Sri Hanuman temple is the more renowned, and the Mahavir Mela festival held there every spring is said to attract all the different religious communities. The famous recumbent Hanuman lies near the Triveni Sangam, or triple confluence, where the visible rivers of Ganga and Yamuna meet the invisible Saraswati in the place known as Prayaga, near modern Allahabad. The huge figure, half-buried in the sandy riverbank, is approached by going down a flight of steps. It is said that two hundred years ago, when the idol was being transported down the river by a wealthy merchant, the boat ran aground and the figure tipped over into the sand. All attempts to dislodge it failed and Hanuman revealed in a dream that he wished to remain at this spiritually potent confluence of rivers.
The Hanuman Dhara (Hanuman Stream), about seventy miles south of Allahabad, sits on a hill and is arrived at by climbing several hundred stairs. It looks over the area where Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana are said to have lived for twelve years. The large idol is carved into the back wall of the cliff and over it a stream of water emerges and constantly bathes him, with the thought of helping to cool him off after he had burned Lanka.
In the temple of Lord Jagannath in Puri, Orissa, Hanuman guards all the four gates of the temple in order to prevent the sound of the sea from entering the shrine and disturbing his master. There are many other famous shrines to Maruti in Puri apart from the four that guard the gates. The Dariya Hanuman (Hanuman of the Sea) was installed so that he would protect the city from onslaughts by the ocean. However, Maruti abandoned his post to go and have darshan of his Lord. When the citizens complained to Lord Jagannath, he told them to chain him to his post. Since no ordinary chains could bind him, he was secured with a stout chain of gold links on which were inscribed Rama’s name.
However, the most famous Hanuman in Orissa is in the village of Siruli on the Puri-Bhuvaneswar road and it is known as Mahavir. It is a black stone idol believed to have emerged from the earth. Its left eye gazes through a small window toward Puri and the right eye stares balefully toward Lanka in the south.
In the very heart of modern Delhi, just behind the bustling circle known as Connaught Place, stands a most vibrant Hanuman temple known as Sri Hanumanji Maharaj. The main statue is fairly recent and is of white marble, but the actual murti is on one side and placed at the right side of the statues of Rama and Sita. Normally, the features are hidden by a heavy coating of sindoor but now and again this falls off to reveal the original idol. It is a small bas relief of a simian profile with head facing south and bared teeth. One raised fist brandishes a tiny club and the other rests on his heart. He wears a tapering crown and a sacred thread over his right shoulder and he has a loincloth hanging between his short legs. The murti is said to have been established by the Pandavas when their capital was in Indraprastha—modern Delhi.
Another important Hanuman temple in Delhi is found in Old Delhi in the place known as Yamuna bazaar, near the river next to the burning ghats. It is known as the Marghat Baba Hanuman. The small but busy complex contains a modest shrine, and beyond that lies a dark narrow staircase leading down to the sanctum in which the small figure stands. The descent to this subterranean sanctuary creates a myste
rious atmosphere. During the monsoons, the waters of the Yamuna seep into the room, and at times Hanuman stands neck-deep in water, but the temple never closes, as the site is said to be a very powerful place and what is more, is thought to have been founded by Bhima himself, the strongman among the Pandavas. These two Hanuman temples provide a great contrast. They denote the two aspects of Hanuman—bhakti and shakti.
Maharashtra abounds in Hanuman shrines and they are even said to exceed the Ganesha shrines. In South India, the medieval city of Vijayanagara is supposed to have been the place of the ancient monkey kingdom of Kishkinda. The small hill known as Ajanadri (hill of Anjana) is supposed to mark the birthplace of Hanuman.
One of the most important shrines to Hanuman is found in Suchindram in Tamil Nadu. It has a twenty-foot statue that is said to be growing. Abhishekam, or the ritual bath, has to be done by priests who must climb up ladders. This image is purported to be the form that he took to reassure Sita. There is another shrine to him in Kanyakumari, close to Suchindram, at the tip of the Indian subcontinent.
Another important Hanuman shrine in South India is located at the place known as Namakkal, near Salem. Carved out of a single stone, the imposing and colorful Hanuman idol is plastered with butter on Saturdays, and even on hot days the butter is said to remain without melting until the next morning. The priests make fascinating designs on the butter with leaves and flowers. Hanuman stands facing a temple to Narasimha Murti, the fourth avatara of Vishnu. Since Narasimha has no roof over his head, Hanuman also refused to have a cover above him and stands exposed to the elements.
