Week 9 Story: Hanuman Humbles Arjuna's Pride

The story begins with Arjuna's mission...

Arjuna was on a mission: not weapons this time, but flowers — a particular type of lotus whose sapphire-colored petals were streaked with gold.

These lotuses grew only in Lanka, and Krishna had asked Arjuna to fetch the blossoms for his queen, Satyabhama. Arjuna could refuse Krishna nothing, so he traveled from Dwaraka in the north down to the southern tip of India where he would cross over to Lanka just as Rama had done all those many years ago.

When Arjuna reached the shore, he saw the ruins of the bridge that Rama's allies, the monkeys and bears, had built out of stones. Kicking one of the stones, he scoffed, "Such a lot of trouble hauling all those stones. If Rama was such a great archer as they claim, he should have just built a bridge of arrows."

"Excuse me," said a voice from behind him, "but what did I hear you say?"

Arjuna turned around to find a small monkey sitting in the sand.

Arjuna smiled and repeated, "If Rama had been such a great archer as they claim, he should have just built a bridge out of arrows. I am the great warrior Arjuna, and with my bow, Gandiva, I am going to build a bridge of arrows so that I may cross over into Lanka to gather sapphire lotuses there."

"Good sir," replied the monkey, "I am one of Rama's soldiers who helped to build this very bridge. And though I am just a monkey, and an old monkey at that, I wager that a bridge of arrows would not hold even my weight, much less the weight of Rama's army."

Arjuna accepts the monkey's challenge

Arjuna laughed loudly at the monkey's words. "Little monkey, I think you have underestimated me. I am willing to bet my life on it. If my bridge does not bear your weight, I shall walk into the fire. Will that satisfy you?"

The monkey clapped his hands in delight. "Oh yes, sir, please, begin!"

"So be it!" shouted Arjuna, and with that he drew forth arrow after arrow from his inexhaustible quiver, shooting the arrows one after another while chanting mantras of great power until a bridge lay before them, stretching all the way to Lanka. Then, without a word, he gestured for the monkey to test the bridge's strength.

The monkey gently pressed the tip of his tail onto the bridge, whereupon the entire structure shuddered and collapsed, the arrows splintering and sinking out of sight into the water.

"Oh dear," said the monkey. "Perhaps you should try again."

Arjuna, baffled, repeated the exercise, with a double layer of arrows this time and twice as many pylons. Yet when the monkey gingerly pressed a toe upon the new bridge, it collapsed once again.

Now obliged to make good his wager, Arjuna silently began to gather wood, building a great fire in which to immolate himself. "It is better to end my life," he thought, "than to bear such a disgrace as this."

A witness for the wager

But just as Arjuna prepared to light the fire, a shout rang out. "WAIT!"

The voice was that of a brahmin who was now standing there beside him on the beach. "Where did he come from?" Arjuna wondered in amazement.

"I surmise," said the brahmin, "that you have lost a wager to this monkey, and you are preparing to end your life. But who was the witness to this wager? Such a wager must have a witness."

Both Arjuna and the monkey stared dumbly at the brahmin, who then continued, "And since you did not have a witness, allow me. I shall be your witness. Build the bridge again, Arjuna!"

"But how does he. . ."

The brahmin interrupted Arjuna's unspoken thoughts. "I said: build the bridge again, Arjuna."

The third bridge

Obediently, Arjuna drew forth more arrows from his quiver and chanted his mantras until, again, a bridge stretched before them to Lanka. The monkey then hopped up on the bridge and, to his amazement, the bridge stood firm. Puzzled, he hopped up and down. The bridge still stood firm.

In desperation, the monkey then expanded in size, growing taller and taller until he loomed over Arjuna and the brahmin.

"Lord Hanuman!" Arjuna gasped.

And then the great monkey-god leaped into the air and came crashing down on the bridge with all his might, yet still the bridge stood firm.

Baffled, Hanuman raced to the side of the bridge and looked over to inspect the pylons. As he peered into the water, he saw a thin trail of blood, and the trail led down to something below one of the pylons, but what could it be?

Then he saw it: a gigantic turtle crawled slowly out from under a pylon, and as the turtle crawled free, the bridge began to shudder and collapse.

Hanuman immediately leaped back to the shore, where he now saw a trickle of blood running down from the brahmin's nose. Realizing what was happening, Hanuman fell to his knees and shouted, "My Lord Krishna!" Arjuna likewise sank down next to Hanuman in the sand, kneeling in reverence before his lord.

The brahmin was gone, and Krishna now stood in his place, glowing radiantly and smiling at them both.

"My dear Hanuman," he said, "you have done right to humble Arjuna's pride, and in the future you will ride upon his battle-standard, aiding him in the cause of dharma."

"And you, my dear Arjuna," Krishna continued, "you will now let Hanuman bear you across the water to Lanka to gather those flowers. Queen Satyabhama and I will await you both in Dwaraka."

And as suddenly as he had appeared, Krishna vanished.

Arjuna then leaped up on Hanuman's shoulder, whereupon the monkey flew high into the air and soared across the ocean, seeking out the sapphire lotuses to bring back to Krishna and his queen.

And so Arjuna is known as Kapidhwaja, He-of-the-Monkey-Banner.

Arjuna in the chariot, with Krishna as his driver,

and Hanuman as his battle standard.

~ ~ ~

Author's Notes. This story is not from the traditional Mahabharata, but it is instead a well-known folktale that parallels the encounter between Bhima and Hanuman that is found in the Mahabharata. Arjuna, much like Bhima, underestimates the monkey that he meets on his travels. In the story of Bhima and Hanuman, the emphasis is on their family connection; they are both the sons of the wind-god Vayu, which makes them half-brothers. In this story, however, there is more of a meditation on the identify of Vishnu both as Rama, whom Hanuman worships, and as Krishna, who reveals himself to Arjuna in his cosmic form later during the Battle of Kurukshetra. Here Krishna does not manifest his cosmic form, but there is a hint of his Vishnu identity in the form of the turtle who holds up the bridge; Kurma, the Turtle, was one of Vishnu's first avatars, holding up Mount Mandara during the Churning of the Ocean.

Lotus image.
Monkey in sand.
Arjuna: video screenshot.
Hanuman statue at Ezhimala.
Radiant Krishna.
Arjuna's chariot.

This video tells this story:

Bibliography. I started with the version in Tales of Arjuna: The Exploits of an Exceptional Warrior along with additional details from Philip Lutgendorf's Hanuman's Tale: The Messages of a Divine Monkey and Shubha Vilas's The Chronicles of Hanuman.