Hanuman's Birth Story — Anjaneya, Pavanputra
In the best-known telling, Hanuman is the son of the wind god Vayu and the celestial Anjana, born with a purpose the whole Ramayana unfolds. Each name he carries (Anjaneya, Pavanputra, Maruti) holds a piece of that story.
Hanuman’s father is the wind (Vayu / Pavan) and his mother is Anjana, so the text itself names him Pavan-kumar, Pavan-tanay and Anjani-putra. Different epics and local traditions vary the details of his birth; the lineage they all repeat is the same.
Who is Hanuman?
Hanuman is the great devotee-servant of Ram: a figure of extraordinary strength, learning and humility whose story runs through the Ramayana. His very first gesture in the epic is modest, a bow, and his last great act is carrying a mountain. The Chalisa opens by remembering him as the one who gives “strength, wisdom and learning”, echoing its own second doha:
बुद्धिहीन तनु जानिके, सुमिरौं पवन-कुमार।
बल बुद्धि विद्या देहु मोहिं, हरहु कलेश विकार॥
“Knowing my mind is slow, I remember the son of the wind — give me strength, wisdom and learning, and take away my affliction.” Here, in the second line of the hymn itself, Tulsidas calls him by his lineage: Pavan-kumar.
Anjana and the divine wind
The fullest tellings of Hanuman’s birth survive in devotional and regional literatures more than in the main epic narrative. The constant thread is this: his mother is Anjana, and his father is the wind god Vayu. Anjana is described in many accounts as a celestial being (apsara) who carried a curse to be born on earth, and who was granted the boon of a divine son. Vayu, in the telling, carries that life-giving presence to her. From that touch Hanuman is born, already carrying the wind’s nature: swift, strong, unstoppable, and lighter than any obstacle.
Two names grow out of this. Pavanputra, Pavan-tanay and Pavan-kumar all mean “son of the wind”. Maruti comes from Marut, another name of the wind. Anjaneya, the most familiar daily name, celebrates his mother.
The child who leapt at the sun
The best-loved story of his childhood is remembered by the Chalisa itself. The infant Hanuman saw the rising sun and took it for fruit, a jambo fruit or a mango, and leapt across the sky toward it. Chaupai 20 retells it:
जुग सहस्र जोजन पर भानू।
लील्यो ताहि मधुर फल जानू॥
Millions of yojanas above, the sun hung like a sweet fruit to him. And he took it in hand. The same fearless clarity, seeing only sweetness where others saw an impossible distance, returns when he faces the ocean to Lanka.
Why he forgot his power
In the curl that follows, the boy’s playfulness disturbed the sages’ meditation, and a curse made him forget his divine strength, remembering it only when a fellow devotee of Ram reminds him of what he truly is. Devotees read even that gently, as forgetfulness rather than fault, and his remembering in Sundara Kanda is where he becomes the Hanuman of the Ramayana.
Common questions
What does the name Anjaneya mean?
Anjaneya means “son of Anjana”. It is one of Hanuman’s most common names across India, used with the same warmth as Pavanputra and Maruti.
Is the wind really Hanuman’s father?
In the epic and puranic traditions, yes. Vayu (the wind, also called Pavan or Marut) is his father, which is why the Chalisa calls him Pavan-tanay, Pavan-sut and Pavan-kumar. Regional retellings vary how the wind gave him life, not that it did.
Why did the child Hanuman jump towards the sun?
In the much-loved telling, the sun looked to him like a sweet, ripe fruit, and he leapt toward it, a mistake chaupai 20 of the Chalisa still remembers.
For every epithet the hymn itself uses, see Names of Hanuman in the Chalisa.