drinking for former, and discarding the
latter—the hamsa is also a symbol for
a discriminating person, who is able
to take counsel from many different
people, and to separate the good from
the bad.
Perhaps because of these associa-
tions, the hamsa is also the name for a
particular type of Hindu ascetic. The
Hamsa ascetics were described as peri-
patetic—they were directed to stay no
more than one night in a village or five
nights in a town. They were also directed
to perform different sorts of ascetic
practices, such as subsisting on cow’s
urine or dung, fasting (upavasa) for a
month at a time, or observing the chan-
drayana rite, a fast in which one
increases and decreases one’s food con-
sumption according to the waxing and
waning of the moon.
Hanuman
Monkey-headed Hindu god. Hanuman
originally appears in the Ramayana,the
earlier of the two great Indian epics,
where he is described as a minister
of the monkey king Sugriva and a
devoted servant of Rama, the god-king
who is the epic’s protagonist. Despite
Hanuman’s seemingly minor place in
the Hindu pantheon, he is an enor-
mously popular deityin modern India,
because he gives humans a god essen-
tially like themselves (or as they would
like to be) but on a greater scale and
with greater capacity.
Hanuman is said to have been born
of a union between the wind-god, Vayu,
and the nymph Anjana. After his birth
the infant Hanuman is continually hun-
gry, and one day he attempts to eat the
sun. Indra, the king of the gods and
ruler of heaven, is incensed at Hanuman’s
action, and strikes the infant with a
thunderbolt, breaking his jaw (hanu).
Vayu becomes very angry upon learning
of his son’sinjury and ceases to perform
his usual activities. Since in Indian phys-
iology winds are responsible for all inter-
nal functions—including digestion,
respiration, and elimination—Vayu’s
strike means that no one can live a nor-
mal life. After a short time the gods real-
ize their predicament and beg Vayu for
forgiveness; he is placated when each of
the gods promises to give Hanuman a
divine gift.
By virtue of these divine gifts,
Hanuman gains great powers. He is
immensely strong, and his image por-
trays him with bulging muscles. He is
also skilled as a healer, both through his
skill with herbs and natural medicines,
and his magical abilities to protect peo-
ple from evil supernatural beings.
Among his most unusual divine gifts are
the power to live as long as he likes and
to choose the time of his death.
His greatest virtue, and many would
say the real source of his power, is his
devotion (bhakti) to Rama. In the
Ramayana, Hanuman plays a pivotal
role in advancing the story. Hanuman is
sent out with a troop of other monkeys
to search for Sita, Rama’s kidnapped
wife, and after a long and arduous
search finally finds her imprisoned in
the kingdom of Lanka.HanumanImage of Hanuman, a monkey-headed god who is
a devoted servant of the god Rama. He plays a
pivotal role in the Hindu epic the Ramayana.