Week 4 Story Lab: Storybook Research

For this week's Story, I'm doing the Storybook Research option. I've been reading Lutgendorf's Hanuman's Tale: The Messages of a Divine Monkey, and the most useful part for me is the "chalisa" of 40 stories that Lutegendorf has extracted from different sources and summarized, so I've decided to list them here. There is so much good stuff in these stories!

1. Causes of Hanuman's Birth (notes)

2. Anjana's Pregnancy (notes). This section is useful because I wrote my first story about Hanuman's birth. In one version, Anjana (married to Kesari) is wandering the mountaintops and the wind blows upon her and she becomes pregnant. In another version, Anjana is the daughter of Gautama and Ahalya. Ahalya, thinking her daughter betrayed her to Gautama, curses Anjana to give birth to a monkey. Anjana decides that she will never get married and is going to stand on one foot to overcome the curse; an anthill grows over her, and Vayu feeds her through a hole in the anthill. Vayu later brings Shiva's semen and feeds it to her, and she gives birth to Hanuman through her mouth.
In the notes, Lutgendorf says that sometimes it is Ahalya who curses the daughter, sometimes Gautama, and sometimes Indra seduces the daughter whereupon Gautama curses her. He notes the parallel between Anjana and Sita as women unjustly exiled and giving birth alone in the wilderness.
L. also cites the Thai Ramajataka where Rama eats a magic fruit that turns him into a monkey, and he sleeps with Anjana, who gives birth to Hanuman (this is while he is searching for Sita). L. says that this also appears in Laotian, Malayasian and Javanese versions. And then in the Malay Hikayat Maharaj, both Rama and Sita turn into monkeys by bathing in a magic pond; while they are monkeys, Lakshmana catches them and bathes them in another magic pond to turn them back into humans. Sita is pregnant but Rama pulls the fetus from Sita's womb and the wind then carries it away and it ends up in Anjana's mouth.

3. Hanuman's Birthdays and Birthmarks (notes). Somewhat like the Thai story of the teeth, there is a story here with heavy gold earrings, but mortals cannot see them. Hanuman's mother tells him that is how he will recognize Vishnu in human form: he will be the only human who can see Hanuman's earrings.
In the notes, L. says the invisible earrings probably started in southeastern India (he has textual citations), and then it spread through South Asia (he cites a Cambodian version).

4. Adventure with the Sun (notes)
5. Cursed by Sages (notes)
6. Hanuman's Education (notes)
7. Hearing Rama's Story (notes)
8. Playmate of Rama (notes)
9. Meeting Rama in the Forest (notes)
10. Encountering Lankini (notes)
11. Two Prisoners Freed (notes)
12. In Ravana's Court (notes)
13. Burning Lanka (notes)
14. Encountering Yama and Shani (notes)
15. Hanuman's Pride is Humbled (notes)
16. Building the Causeway (notes)
17. Hanuman and Mount Govardhan (notes)
18. Sparing Rama Embarrassment (notes)
19. Worshiping Shiva (notes)
20. The Life-Restoring Herb (notes)
21. The Slaying of Ahiravana (notes)
22. Substituting a Syllable (notes)
23. Stealing a Magic Arrow (notes)
24. Anjana's Milk (notes)
25. The Priceless Necklace (notes)
26. Covered with Sindur (notes)
27. Service with a Yawn (notes)
28. Fed by Sita (notes)
29. Amusing Tales of Hanuman (notes)
30. Whose Servant is Hanuman? (notes)
31. Narada and Hanuman (notes)
32. Saved by the Name (notes)
33. Initiation from Sita-Rama (notes)
34. Composing a Ramayana (notes)
35. The Sacrificial Horse (notes)
36. Rama's Boon to Hanuman (notes)
37. A Favor for Krishna (notes)
38. Humbling Arjuna's Pride (notes)
39. Encountering Bhima (notes)
40. The Defeat of Shani (notes)