Lord Hanuman is the Monkey God renowned for his courage, power, strength, self-discipline and devotion. He is believed to remove all obstacles in life and protects all his devotees. He is half-monkey and half-human. Some say Hanuman was born as the son of the King Kesari who is the King of the monkeys and Queen Anjana, a female Apsara who had been transformed into a monkey by a curse. Both of them performed penance for 12 years and Lord Shiva granted them a child, Hanuman as a boon. Hence it is believed that Lord Hanuman is a reflection of Lord Shiva. He is fondly called Bajarangabali or Maruti by his devotees.

Another legend mentions that Lord Hanuman is the son of Anjana and Vayu Dev, the wind god. The myth says that Vayu Dev delivered a sacred pudding to Anjana while she was praying to Lord Shiva, who steered Vayu Dev’s energy to Anjana’s womb. Hence Vayu Dev is known to be Hanuman’s spiritual father and Lord Hanuman is also addressed as Vayuputra (Vayu means wind and putra means son). Lord Hanuman received the ability to fly from Vayu Dev.

As a child, Hanuman was very adventurous. One day, he mistook the Sun to be a ripe yellow mango and jumped at it to eat it. On the way, he met Rahu, a planet who was pursuing the Sun for an eclipse, but Lord Hanuman thrashed Rahu so he could eat his mango. Lord Indra saw this and got angry and stuck Hanuman with his thunderbolt. Hanuman fell on the ground in an unconscious state and the thunderbolt damaged his chin permanently. Seeing his son hurt, Vayu Dev got furious and sucked all the air from the Universe making humans, animals, birds to struggle for breath. Lord Indra withdrew his thunderbolt and all the Gods and Goddesses blessed Hanuman with multiple boons. This pacified Vayu Dev and he resumed the Universe to normal life. The thunderbolt is the reason for the round jaws of Lord Hanuman.

Lord Hanuman is one of the key characters in the Ramayana and was the greatest devotee of Lord Rama. Once he saw Sita Mata apply vermilion on her forehead. He asked her why she was doing so. Sita Mata replied that she was applying vermilion to ensure a long life for Lord Rama. As soon as he heard this, Lord Hanuman applied the vermilion to his entire body. Lord Rama was pleased with the devotion and love and blessed him that people will fondly call him Bajrangbali (bajrang means orange).

In Ramayana, there is one interesting story where Hanuman goes to visit Sita Mata in Lanka and give the good news to her that Lord Rama is coming to Lanka with his army to rescue her. He gets caught by Meghnad who was Ravana’s brave warrior son, while Hanuman was leaving Lanka. Meghnad had to use the powerful Brahmastra weapon to catch Hanuman.  Ravana’s guards bring him to the main hall where Ravana questions him and speaks negative of Lord Rama and Ravana’s younger brother, Vibhishana. The guards then wrapped Lord Hanuman’s tail in cloth and dipped it in oil to light fire to his tail. Using his power, the tail kept growing until all the cloth and oil in Lanka was finished. When the fire was lit, Lord Hanuman kept growing in size and eventually jumped all over Lanka and lit fire everywhere and burnt the streets. While leaving, he mentioned to Ravana that Lord Rama was soon to enter Lanka and kill Ravana. Such was the devotion of Lord Hanuman who was ready to risk his life, but not hear anything negative about his Lord Rama.

Lord Hanuman’s Panchmukhi (five faces) avataar is said to be very powerful, representing five directions (east, west, north, south and heaven). The five faces are faces of a lion, eagle, horse, monkey and varaha form.