Hanumān

Abstract

<p>The chapters of this report should be read as essays motivated by a single desire--to appreciate the figure of Hanumān as he is revealed in the Hindu tradition. Except for Chapter I, which is an introduction to the matter dealt with in Chapters II and III, the report moves in the manner of an exploration. I read VālmĪki's Rāmāyaņa and it revealed a Hanumān with a dual character, gentle and violent aspects in uneasy tension (see Chapter II). I then read Tulsīdās' Rāmacaritamānasa and found a Hanumān who was basically a servant with vestiges of his former ambivalent self (see Chapter III). Two major questions arose from these discoveries. The first relates to the servile nature of Hanumān in the Rāmacaritamānasa (see Chapter IV). The second focuses on the dual character of Hanuman (see Chapter V). The last two chapters of this report, Chapters IV and V, rely to some extent on my reading of Tulsīdās' Vinayapatrikā and his Kavitāvalī.</p>