Sindoor & orange
Sita once applied sindoor to her parting for Rama's long life; Hanuman covered his whole body in it, reasoning that more would mean longer. Devotees have coated his murtis in vermilion and oil ever since.
(1)
Birth & childhood
Hanuman was born to Anjana, an apsara living as a vanara, and to Kesari, chief of the monkeys of Sumeru. Vayu, the wind, carried a share of the sacred payasam meant for Dasharatha's queens to Anjana as she prayed — and so Hanuman is called the son of the wind, and moves with its speed.
As an infant he mistook the rising sun for a ripe fruit and leapt into the sky to eat it. Indra struck him down with the thunderbolt, breaking his jaw — hanu — from which his name comes. Vayu withdrew the air from the worlds in grief, and to appease him every god gave the child a boon: invulnerability, immeasurable strength, freedom to choose the hour of his own death.
Restless with such power, he disturbed the sages of the forest, who laid on him a gentle curse: he would forget his own strength until someone reminded him of it. That forgetting shapes the whole Ramayana — and is the reason Jambavan's words on the shore of the ocean are among the most quoted in the epic.
(2)
His names
Maruti
Son of the wind
Bajrangbali
Body of thunderbolt
Anjaneya
Son of Anjana
Kesari Nandan
Joy of Kesari
Sankat Mochan
Remover of distress
Mahavira
The great hero
Pavanputra
Child of the wind
Ramdoot
Messenger of Rama
Vatatmaja
Born of the air
Rudravatar
Form of Shiva
The Hanuman Ashtottara Shatanamavali lists one hundred and eight such names, each one a small doorway into a different quality — speed, silence, scholarship, service.
(3)
The eight siddhis
01
Anima
To shrink to the size of an atom
02
Mahima
To swell to a boundless size
03
Laghima
To become weightless
04
Garima
To become immovably heavy
05
Prapti
To reach anywhere at will
06
Prakamya
To attain whatever is desired
07
Ishitva
Lordship over nature
08
Vashitva
Mastery over all beings
Sita granted him the eight siddhis and nine nidhis — and the power to give them away. He keeps them folded and unused, choosing only to serve.
(4)
What the image means
The gada & the flag
The mace is strength placed at another's service; the banner of Rama says whose strength it is. In many icons he also carries the Dronagiri mountain in one palm.
The open chest
The most loved image in his iconography: Hanuman tearing his chest to show Rama and Sita seated inside — devotion as something physically true, not metaphorical.
Brahmachari
A lifelong celibate, he is the patron of wrestlers and akharas across north India, where clay pits open with his name and Tuesday is the day of the strong.
Chiranjivi
One of the seven immortals, he is believed to be present — unseen, at the back of the hall — wherever the Ramayana is recited. Seats are still left empty for him.
Scholar of grammar
He is said to have learned the Vedas and grammar from Surya himself, flying backwards to keep facing his teacher. Strength and study are not opposites here.
(5)
Beyond India
Thailand — Hanuman
In the Thai Ramakien he is a white-furred, worldly, mischievous warrior — a national favourite, painted along the walls of Wat Phra Kaew.
Indonesia — Anoman
Central to Javanese and Balinese wayang, where the Kecak dance retells the burning of Lanka by firelight every evening.
China & beyond
Scholars have long argued over the resemblance between Hanuman and the Monkey King Sun Wukong of Journey to the West.