Devalok
Legend · 6 tellings · Pan-India, South India

The child Hanuman leaps at the Sun and later studies with him

Who is in it

  • Hanuman the child who takes the Sun for a fruit
  • Surya spares him, blesses him, teaches him
  • Vayu his father, who stops the world's breath
  • Indra strikes him with the thunderbolt
  • Rahu frightened from the eclipse
  • Brahma revives the child
  • Anjana his mother
  • Sugriva the Sun's son he serves
  • Suvarchala the bride of the southern telling

Texts: Valmiki Ramayana, Shiva Purana

The story, beat by beat

  1. The hungry child sees the rising sun, thinks it a fruit and leaps.
  2. Vayu cools him; the Sun, seeing a child, does not burn him.
  3. Rahu, come to eclipse the Sun, flees and complains to Indra.
  4. The child springs at Rahu, then at Airavata; Indra's thunderbolt breaks his jaw.
  5. Vayu withdraws and all creatures cannot breathe.
  6. Brahma revives the child; the gods give boons; Indra names him Hanuman.
  7. The Sun gives a hundredth of his brilliance and promises eloquence.
  8. Later Hanuman learns grammar from the Sun, going from the rising to the setting mountain.

childhood hunger thunderbolt boons learning

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Ramayana, Uttara Kanda 35-36

Pan-India All traditions

Agastya tells Rama. On Sumeru the infant, left by Anjana, hungry, sees the sun like a bunch of java flowers and springs at it; Vayu follows cooling him and Surya refrains from consuming a child unconscious of his error. Rahu, come that day to seize the Sun, flees to Indra; the child leaps at Rahu and then at Airavata; Indra, not unduly angered, looses the thunderbolt, and the child falls on a mountain breaking his left jaw. Vayu withdraws into a cave and creatures become like wood. Brahma revives the child; Indra names him Hanuman and makes him proof against the bolt; the Sun gives a hundredth part of his effulgence and promises eloquence when he can learn; Varuna, Yama, Kubera, Shiva, Vishvakarma and Brahma add boons. Cursed by sages to forget his strength, he later takes refuge with the Sun to learn grammar, travelling from the mountain of rising to that of setting.

The Ramayana of Valmiki, tr. Hari Prasad Shastri (1952-59), Uttara Kanda § uttara.35; The Ramayana of Valmiki, tr. Hari Prasad Shastri (1952-59), Uttara Kanda § uttara.36

Primary text (translation)

Ramayana, Kishkindha Kanda 66 (Griffith)

Pan-India All traditions

An elder of the monkey host reminds Hanuman of his birth to rouse him to leap the sea. Born in a cave, he saw the new sun over the wood, sprang three hundred leagues to seize what seemed a fruit, and did not fear though the angered Day-God shot his fierce beams at him. Indra's bolt threw him on a rock and shattered his cheek, whence his name. The Wind stilled all breath until the gods appeased him; Brahma and Indra granted boons.

What is different here:

Short; the Sun is angered and does not spare him; no Rahu, no Airavata, no gift from the Sun, no schooling.

The Ramayan of Valmiki, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1870-74) § 4.66

Primary text (translation)

Shiva Purana, Shatarudra Samhita 20

Pan-India Shaiva

Hanuman, an incarnation of Shiva, takes the sun's disc for a fruit and leaves it at the gods' request; the gods grant boons. He tells his mother, and at her behest goes to the Sun every day and learns all lore from him without strain. At the Sun's behest he then goes to Sugriva, a part of the Sun, and becomes his minister.

What is different here:

Hanuman is Shiva's incarnation; Anjana sends him to study; the Sun sends him to Sugriva. No thunderbolt is mentioned.

The Shiva Purana, tr. J. L. Shastri (Motilal Banarsidass, 1970) § shatarudra.20

Popular retelling

Popular tradition: the pupil who flew backwards

Pan-India Folk

Modern retellings say that because the Sun cannot stop, Hanuman studied by flying backwards before the chariot, face to his teacher, and that the fee the Sun asked was service to his son Sugriva.

What is different here:

The backward flight and the guru's fee are not in Valmiki or in the Shiva Purana chapter read; facts only were taken from the retelling.

Shri Hanuman's Quest for Knowledge (Siddha Yoga website, retold by Rashmi Smith)

Encyclopedia

Jain variant (Dhurtakhyana), reported

Pan-India Jain

Wikipedia reports a version, also found in the eighth-century Jain Dhurtakhyana, in which the leap is fatal: Hanuman is burned to ashes and the gods reassemble him, leaving the disfigured jaw.

What is different here:

The Sun burns him; the jaw is a flaw of reassembly rather than of the thunderbolt.

Wikipedia: Hanuman

Popular retelling

Parashara Samhita: Suvarchala (south India)

South India All traditions

A tradition citing the Parashara Samhita says the nine grammars could be completed only by a married man, so Suvarchala was formed from the Sun's rays, herself a lifelong celibate, and wed to Hanuman without affecting his vow. Some temples show Hanuman with Suvarchala.

What is different here:

Adds a marriage unknown to Valmiki. The Parashara Samhita itself was not opened; reported from a secondary article.

Reason why Lord Hanuman is sometimes depicted married (Sanskriti Magazine)

Sources: The Ramayana of Valmiki, tr. Hari Prasad Shastri (1952-59), Uttara Kanda; The Ramayan of Valmiki, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1870-74); The Shiva Purana, tr. J. L. Shastri (Motilal Banarsidass, 1970); Shri Hanuman's Quest for Knowledge (Siddha Yoga website, retold by Rashmi Smith); Wikipedia: Hanuman; Reason why Lord Hanuman is sometimes depicted married (Sanskriti Magazine)

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