HANUMAN'S ORIGINS - The Many Birthplaces of Hanuman

On April 21, on the occa­ sion of Sri Rama Navami, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), custodian of the richest Hindu shrine, unveiled “mythological, epigraphic and geographic evidence” to claim that Tirumala is the birth­ place of the Hindu god Hanuman.

-  Amarnath K. Menon

To bolster the claim, the TTD had con­stituted an eight­member committee, including Sanskrit and Vedic scholars and even a scientist from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), in December 2020 to produce “irre­futable” evidence on the purported Hanuman janmabhoomi. This came after questions were raised during the special religious discourses the TTD held in June last year when participants asked why there were uncertainties about the birthplace. It seems bhakts were mentioning several places with similar­sounding names.

The TTD announced that Anjan­ adri, one among the Seven Hills, is the birthplace of Hanuman. This comes after poring over references in ancient Hindu texts and correlating it with astrological interpretations. By way of evidence, the committee headed by V. Muralidhara Sharma, vice­chancellor of the National Sanskrit University, Tirupati, pointed out that “the Valmiki Ramayana (shlokas 81­83) clearly mentions that Hanuman was born to Anjana on these sacred mountains after a penance. He received the name Anjaneya while the hillock got the name Anjanadri”. The report also cites the Mahabharata where ‘in a conver­ sation with Bhimasena, Hanuman says he was born with the blessings of Vayu deva to an apsara named Punjikasthala, who was cursed to become a