Hanuman: Epic Characters of Ramayana

By Sri Hari

Hanuman was born to Anjana, a vanara woman who was cursed by Brihaspathi for having pestered him to marry her. Hanuman was extremely radiant at birth and as a little baby, had once jumped into the sky to eat up the sun thinking it was a fruit! During a scuffle among Devendra, Rahu and Hanuman, Indra injured the child Hanuman and Vayudeva got angry with him. In retaliation, he took away the child and went into a cave. The world became bereft of air and Brahma had to intervene to ease the situation. He and all the devas took turns to specially bless the child and bestow on him special powers. Later Hanuman used these powers in his search for Sita and during the great battle at Lanka. The whole of Lanka was petrified by his actions as he went about destroying Pramadavana and the 80,000-strong army of Ravana. His tail was set on fire and he was paraded through the streets of Lanka but he used this opportunity to observe each and every house and street of Lanka. During the battle when Rama and Lakshmana fell down unconscious, he brought the Sanjeevani mountain which contained life-saving herbs. Hanuman was a divine messenger as he carried the good news of Ravana's death to Sita as well as to Bharatha and Guha. Earlier he had carried the most comforting message of Rama and Lakshmana's search for Sita to her. After the coronation, Sri Rama gave expensive gifts to everyone. When he gave an exquisite necklace of pearls to Sita, she looked at him to be told that she could give it to anyone who had made her happy. Very rightly, she gave it to Hanuman. When Sri Rama was ready to go to his heavenly abode after completing the mission of his incarnation, he ordered Hanuman and Vibhishana to remain on earth as pillars of his victory and his righteousness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bharatha Samskruthi Prakashana
• Release date: May 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9789389020700

Book preview

EPIC CHARACTERS oF RAMAYANA

Hanuman

Written by

SriHari

Translated by

Prof. G. S. Mudambadithaya

© Bharatha Samskruthi Prakashana, Bengaluru. All rights reserved.

Published by:

Bharatha Samskruthi Prakashana

C/o. Bharatha Darshana,

163, Manjunatha Road, 2nd Block,

Thyagarajanagar, Bangalure 560 028,

Ph: [phone], [phone]

bharathasamskruthi.com

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FOREWORD

ll Sri Ranga Sadguruve Namah ll

Bharatha Samskruthi Prakashana, the intellectual and spiritual offspring of Bharatha Darshana, a premier publishing house of Bangalore, has been rendering yeoman services to the cause of literature, culture and its blossom, ‘The Epic Characters of the Mahabharatha,’ has bloomed in all splendor in the world of children’s literature and we have welcomed and blessed it. Now the second bud has blossomed in the form of ‘The Epic Characters of Ramayana’ and has already begun spreading its fragrance around. It is a set of books based on Ramayana. We welcome it and bless it.

There is a difference between the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha in style and treatment. There is no second opinion about differences regarding form, magnitude, delineation of characters and the time of composition of these two great epics. Srimad Ramayana is a pure epic in seven cantos. There are twenty four thousand stanzas. It is an epic par excellence dealing with a theme and characters who lived in tretayuga, composed by a contemporary poet. The Mahabharatha is essentially history. It is in eighteen parvas having hundred thousand stanzas. It deals with a theme and characters who lived in dwaparayuga, again composed by a contemporary poet. (There is a view that these two great epics depict the culture of different regions of this holy land and are composed by many poets and they portray the various events and circumstances which took place during the Aryan invasion of India. We do not agree with such views).

All the same these two epics provide us with the images of the Vedas. These are the essence of vedas, national epics of Bharatha and sources for thousands of books on our culture which followed them from the natural stream of poetical composition and enjoyment of literature. At the same time they are never drying sources of Purusharthas namely dharma, artha, kama and moksha. In the background of the struggle among human beings, they paint the struggle between the good and the evil very beautifully and announce to the world the message of victory of the good over the evil. These eloquent and learned creations, have a few universal and sovereign truths to give to the world and as a result they have occupied the pride of place among great literary works in the world.

Let the new series which is written in the same style and rhythm of the first, become popular among readers and become succour to our youth whose shelves are invaded by dirty and harmful literature. Let this series supply a charming stuff to our young readers. Let these attractive volumes provide them with values and good models, thus creating in them good taste for literature. Let them bring peace and happiness to our lives. We