Hanuman Swallows the Sun

It was an early morning in the age before Rama's arrival on earth. On the mountain where Mata Anjana and Kesari ji lived, a golden child had recently come into the world. He was small in form but boundless in energy — the young Hanuman.

One dawn, as Mata Anjana fed the child his morning meal, he looked up at the sky and saw the sun beginning to rise on the horizon. The great orb glowed orange and red, swollen and round, sitting just above the distant hills.

To the eyes of the young Hanuman, it looked remarkably like a ripe, delicious fruit.

With the pure innocence of a child who knows no boundaries — and the strength of one blessed by the wind god and Lord Shiva — Hanuman looked at the sun and simply decided: he would go and get it.

In a single mighty leap, the child launched himself into the sky. He flew upward at extraordinary speed, rising above the mountains, above the clouds, into the heavens themselves. The devas (celestial beings) watching from their abodes were astonished — a child was flying toward Surya Dev, the sun god himself.

It so happened that on this very day, the demon Rahu — who periodically causes solar eclipses — had come to swallow the sun, as was his nature and his permission. He had arrived to begin his work. But when Rahu saw Hanuman flying toward the sun with the same intention, he was frightened and immediately retreated to Indra Dev to complain.

Indra Dev, king of the devas, mounted his mighty elephant Airavat and rode to intercept the child. He called out to Hanuman to stop. But Hanuman was a child on an errand — he was not stopping for anyone. He saw Airavat, the great white elephant, and thought: another interesting thing to play with.

Indra had no choice. He raised his vajra (thunderbolt) and struck Hanuman — a blow that would have destroyed any being. Hanuman fell from the sky and struck the earth, landing on a mountaintop. His jaw was injured in the fall.

All was still.

Vayu Dev — the wind god, Hanuman's divine father — saw his son struck down. A grief unlike any came over him. In his anguish, he withdrew from the world. He drew all the air from the universe into himself and went into seclusion.

What followed was catastrophe. Without Vayu, there was no breath. No movement of air. No life. Every creature in every world began to suffocate. The devas themselves could not breathe. The three worlds were in distress.

Brahma Dev, the creator, came forward. He approached where Hanuman lay, placed his hand on the child, and revived him. Then he turned to the assembled devas and instructed that each of them must offer a boon to this child — to honor him and to persuade Vayu to return.

The boons came, one after another:

Brahma Dev himself granted that no weapon forged in the three worlds could kill Hanuman.

Indra Dev, who had struck the blow, granted that his own vajra would never harm Hanuman again, and that Hanuman's body would be as strong as the vajra itself — and so Hanuman received the name Bajrang (from *vajra-anga*, body of vajra).

Surya Dev, the sun god whose fruit Hanuman had been chasing, granted him a fraction of his own brilliance, and later promised to teach him the scriptures — becoming his guru.

Vayu Dev, seeing his son honored by all the heavens, was satisfied. He returned to the world. The air flowed again. The three worlds breathed.

And the young Hanuman — his jaw still bearing the mark of Indra's vajra, which gave him his name (hanu = jaw, man = prominent) — opened his eyes, looked at the sun still glowing on the horizon, and smiled.

From that day, no force in the universe could truly harm him.