According to the Vedas, a "god-like" race calling themselves Aryans, known historically as the 'serpent seed', were a race of advanced agriculturalists and pastoralists practicing animal husbandry who eventually began to cross-breed Human slaves with Rhesus monkeys, apes or other simian creatures.
This ancient Vedic temple frieze in India depicts India's "monkey army" tossing stones into the sea to build a bridge.
This ancient Vedic temple frieze in India depicts India's "monkey army" tossing stones into the sea to build a bridge.
Hanuman, in Hindu mythology, was the name of monkey commander of the monkey army. His exploits are narrated in the great Hindu Sanskrit poem the Ramayana (“Rama’s Journey”). Hanuman is worshipped as a subsidiary figure in temples dedicated to Rama or directly in shrines dedicated to Hanuman himself.
The latter are generally thronged by monkeys, who know that they cannot be mistreated there. In temples throughout India, he appears in the form of a monkey with a red face who stands erect like a human. For his service to Rama, Hanuman is upheld as a model for all human devotion (bhakti).
Hanuman is also a popular figure among Buddhists in Central, Southeast, and East Asia, and throughout those areas many temples have been erected for his worship and districts of towns bear his name.
Outside India, however, rather different tales are told of him. Although steadfastly chaste in the Sanskrit tradition, for instance, he has wives and children in other traditions. He has been identified as the inspiration for the monkey hero of the great Chinese poem Xiyouji (“Journey to the West”).
