Five heads and no tale: Hanumfin and

the popularization of Tantra

Philip Lutgendorf

PAI~ICAMUKH| HANUMAN

Anyone having even a superficial acquaintance with Hinduism and with the
Rdmayw.~a story will generally be able to recognize Hanuman, R,~ma's beloved
monkey-servant, as the diminutive, fur-covered figure kneeling in adoration at
R~ma's feet in the popular posters that celebrate R~ma's enthronement as king
of Ayodhy~ following his defeat of the evil R~van.a and recovery of his beloved
Sita. In V~lmiki's Sanskrit epic, composed possibly in the fourth century BCE,
Hanum~n easily emerges (to use a cinematic metaphor) as Best Supporting
Actor, at least among the nonhuman characters, but his worship as a deity in his
own right does not become well documented until the ninth or tenth centuries of
the Common Era. Elsewhere I have discussed the probable circumstances behind
the spread of his worship as well as the fact of his marginalization in modern
academic scholarship (Lutgendorf 1994: 217-34). Most scholars consider him
(if they discuss him at all) a straightforward but minor figure in the teeming
Hindu pantheon, a vegetarian Vaisnava deity who embodies both power and
devotion and whose worship is (according to one authority) 'a relatively late
and marginal phenomenon within Vai.sn.avism' (Bakker 1986: 126n). Yet, as I
have also noted, his ubiquitous presence, especially in the contemporary urban
temple-scape and in poster art, suggests that he plays a far more important role
in popular religion. Understanding this role requires serious examination of the
manifestations of popular religious culture, including ritual practices, temples
and shrines, mass-printed vernacular literature, and 'visual texts' such as the
colorful 'god posters' that have proliferated during the past century to become
possibly the most ubiquitous of Indian consumer products. A trip to any bazar

International Journal of Hindu Studies 5, 3 (December 2001): 269-96

© 2003 by the World Heritage Press Inc.
 Hanuman and the popularization of Tantra I 271

poster shop readily yields numerous images of Hanum,~n, celebrating his roles
as R,~ma's sidekick, messenger, bridge-builder, strong-arm, and general facto-
tum. Inquiring of a knowledgeable devotee as to what a given poster represents
will generally yield one or more stories because every picture is, so to speak, a
little polychrome purat.m that encodes an often complex narrative, t Except when
it does not: Encountering one particular, and particularly recurrent, image during
my visits to temples, b~zars, and private homes, I asked devotees what it
represented and mostly drew a blank. Everyone could identify it easily enough
- - t h e 'five-faced Hanum~n' (Paficamukbi Hanuman)--yet almost none could
provide a story to contextualize it or even an explanation of its striking features:
five different heads and ten arms, each bearing a different weapon or ritual
object. This was all the more puzzling as the image seemed to be appearing
increasingly. A variety of posters representing it could generally be obtained
from even a modest-sized god-poster display, some with bulging, highly
defined musculature suggestive of bodybuilders or the buff heroes of post-1980s
'Bollywood' films. 2 Moreover, gleaming sh~dara-covered stone images of
this Hanuman were receiving worship in the sancta of freshly built shrines in
Ayodhya, Chitrakut, Hardwar, and Jaipur. In eastern Uttar Pradesh, several
senior Ramayan.a scholars told me that the image, rarely seen in their youths,
had now become commonplace. 3 Clearly it was, in some sense, 'popular,' yet it
seemed to exist beyond the confines of the familiar R8~ru~yan.a narrative and to
be in fact without a 'biography,' without a text. 4 Or perhaps the image was its
own text, a self-contained theological essay---but communicating what? The
most common responses that interviewees gave me were simply to the effect
that 'It is tantrika' or 'It has a lot of power' (parakrama, gakti). My interest
was piqued, and I inquired further. ! discovered, in time, that although this
Hanum~n lacks a tale, he has a history and even a text.
Tantra is an elusive term that covers an extremely broad range of beliefs,
practices, and texts. 5 Perhaps rooted in archaic techniques for the attainment
of altered states of consciousness, it also shows the influence of the Vedic
sacrificial religion, especially of the magical spells and rites prescribed in
Atharva Veda (ca. 900 BCE). It emphasizes self-empowerment and self-
identification with a deity, achieved through experimental techniques that
depend largely on individual volition rather than on the devotional self-surrender
or divine grace associated with certain bhakti orientations. During the first
millennium of the Common Era, Tantric traditions developed within most
of the indigenous religions of South Asia. Although early Tantric practices
may have been associated with the self-expression of nonelite communities,
such practices were readily appropriated by Brahman as and other high-status
groups and even came, at various periods, to enjoy a vogue in courtly circles.
272 / Philip Lutgendorf

In addition, there developed a flourishing popular lore about Tantra and

its practitioners. Since Tantra is understood to connote a body of esoteric
knowledge capable of generating awesome supernatural powers and even
physical immortality, known or suspected practitioners--particularly those of
the 'left-hand' path who may ritually engage in normally proscribed activities,
such as extramarital sexual intercourse, the consumption of meat and liquor, or
even human sacrifice--have often been both admired and feared. They are
believed to have the power to invoke spirits to carry out their will, as well as
deities in their dangerous wrathful or protective (raudra) aspects, or to practice
'black magic' (Hindi math, literally 'a fist') through fatal curses and spells. To
call an image or ritual 'Tantric' suggests that it is charged with ambivalent
occult energy or that it offers a secret shortcut to esoteric knowledge and powers.
Tantric texts themselves often claim that they are especially effective in the
present Kali Yuga, when older Vedic rituals have lost their power or are no
longer understood.
Many of these associations resonate with ancient understandings of Hanum~n,
despite his reputation among academic scholars as a misty-eyed subaltern R~ma-
devotee. In the Sanskrit Ramayat3a, the plucky monkey is already an exemplar
of some characteristic Tantric values: A creature of a lower order, he transcends
his condition through his own (often pugnacious) efforts and rapidly acquires
divine boons and powers; he is taught esoteric knowledge by the sun-god and
gains physical immortality and freedom from illness, which he also has the
power to cure. Metaphorically (and sometimes genetically) linked with the
powerful and potentially destructive gods V~yu, Agni, and Rudra, he exercises
control over malevolent beings. His verbal skill is suggestive of mastery of
the power of speech, which is also associated with knowledge of mantras.
His journey to Lank,~ and subsequent deeds there are interpreted (by later epic
commentators) as displaying all eight siddhis or occult powers, such as magical
flight, the ability to find hidden things, and the power to enlarge or reduce
one's size. 6 All of these narrative traits came to be invoked in his worship that
gathered momentum after the tenth century and often stressed his identity not
only as a servant of R~ma but as an avatara of Rudra/Siva (an identification
that dates back at least to the Satarudra Sat.nhita of the twelfth-century Siva
Pura.na)--specifically as the eleventh and last Rudra. 7 Nowadays he is often
hailed as the 'deity-of-choice' for the debased Kali Yuga, when dharma is
obscured and bare survival may depend on wit, brute strength, and good
connections, all of which he has in spades.
Yet, in the vast literature of medieval Tantric schools, Hanum~n proves again
to be a 'marginal' and chronologically late presence. The editors of the special
'Hanum~n issue' (Hanum~n-~k) of the popular Hindi religious journal Kalydr3
 Hanum6n and the populatJzation of Tantra / 273

(which was published in 1975 and has become a collector's item among both
devotees and traditional scholars) regretfully concede the absence of references to
Hanum~n in such authoritative S~,kta compendia as the Kulan3ava Tantra and
the Sdradatilaka Tantra and the presence of only a ti~w references to him in the
Prapaficasdra Tantra and in the seventeenth-century Tantrasdra of K~n.~nanda
(Kalyat.1 ! 975: 489). 8 Hanum~n scholar Ray Govindchandra (1976: 85) similarly
notes the absence of any mention of the deity in the huge Paficar~tra literature,
Vai.sn.ava theological and ritual manuals containing a great deal of Tantric
material, produced mainly in southern India between the eighth and fourteenth
centuries, and he cites only scattered references in later ritual texts. 9 The
centrality of mantra in the 'sonic theology' of Tantra--reflected in the belief
that the esoteric 'seed formula' (bfja-mantra) for a given deity is, in fact,
identical with that deity and capable of summoning or manifesting him or
her--led to the compilation, especially after il00 CE, of large digests of
mantragastra, 'the science of mantra,' containing hundreds of mantras with
explanations for their use. It is only in some of the later examples of this class
such as the Mantramahodadhi of Mahidhara, composed in V~r~.nasi in 1589,
that we find short chapters devoted to Hanuman-mantras, an indication of his
growing popularity during the period that corresponded to the floruit of the
influential R~maite devotional poet Tulsid~s (ca. 1543-1623). "~
Short texts devoted more or less exclusively to Hanuman's Tantric worship---
with rituals that utilize mantras, dhydna (mental visualization), and yantras
(mystic diagrams)--begin to appear in manuscript form only in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. Some of these also contain instructions for making
protective amulets inscribed with Hanum~n-mantras and for the assemblage of a
'shield' or charm (kavaca) made of mantras--a verbal armor extending a deity's
protection over one's body and consciousness, tt Many of these texts claim to be
excerpted from older works, especially the Brahmd.n4.a Purdna or the Sudargana
Sa~.nhita (the latter said to be a section of the Tantrasara), and are typically set
in the dialog format characteristic of medieval Hindu narrative, although the
teachings are usually identified as 'highly secret' or esoteric (parama rahasya).
Thus we encounter titles such as Hanum~n Rahasya (The secret [worship] of
Lord Hanum~n) as well as kavaca texts invoking the god in awesome, protective
aspects. The latter include multiheaded manifestations of Hanum~n, the most
common being the five-headed form but also including forms with three, seven,
or eleven heads. ~'-
Sculptural and painted evocations of this verbal icon also begin appearing in
the fifteenth century: for example, a small paficamukhi image at Mandasar in
Madhya Pradesh; a sixteen-foot image carved into a cliff below Jodhpur Fort
and said to have been made around 1500 by a R~m~nandi sddhu. ~3 An image
274 / Philip Lutgendorf

dated to the early sixteenth century appears in bas-relief at the Ek~mbare~vara

temple in Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu (Nagar 1995: Plates 6, 146). Such figures
are found in greater numbers after the seventeenth century. K. C. Aryan's book
on Hanum~n images contains a series of drawings of five-headed Hanumfin,
also from Rajasthan, the earliest dated to the late seventeenth century; the
multiheaded figure is sometimes densely inscribed with mantras (1975: 51, 52,
57, 59, 63; Nagar 1995: Plate 153b). Other two-dimensional images included in
published collections include a Pah~.ri-style painting from Jammu, dated to the
eighteenth century, and several Mysore-style paintings attributed to the early
nineteenth century (Nagar 1995: Plates 2, 5, 147-49, 151). Writing on Hindu
mythology around 1800, the British soldier and chronicler Edward Moor
puzzled over the meaning of one such five-faced image, with 'tbur animals
represented in Hanum~in's coronet .... A horse, a boar, a lion, and a bird' (1968:
262-63). A temple survey conducted at roughly the same time in Pune under
Bajirao Pe~va recorded a single pahcamukhi image among the eighty-nine
M~.ruti (Hanumfin) shrines in the Mar~.thfi city (the most, incidentally, to any
single deity)(see Ghurye 1979: 147). That such a manifestation of Hanumfin at
one time figured in the religious lives of some Nepali Hindus is indicated by
the presence of a five-tiered temple dedicated to him in Kathmandu, said to have
been constructed in 1655 CE. According to a modern account, the image is
'believed to be very Tantric in form and mysterious enough to accept even
sacrificial offerings ]that is, blood sacrifices]' but is off limits to the general
public and accessible only to a priest who performs a daily 'secret service' (Deep
1993: 60). Further confirmation of this unusual Hanum~n's presence in Nepal,
as well as of his apparently limited visibility there, is provided by the five-
headed metal sculpture (dated to the 'sixteenth-seventeenth centuries') that
appears in Madanjeet Singh's survey, Himalayan art, wrongly identified as 'a
manifestation of Vishnu' (1971: 213, see also 220). ~4 In summary, we may
characterize Paficamukhi Hanum~n's pre-twentieth-century representations as
comparatively late and sporadic, although persistent and geographically widely
attested.
Although there is some variation in the iconography of five-faced HanumS.n,
most images appear to follow the prescriptions of a single set of 'visualization
verses' (dhyana ~loka) that are usually said to be excerpted from the Sudargana
Samhita. These verses are introduced by others of a sort standard in Tantric
anthologies that identify--according to a set of categories with ultimately Vedic
reference--the basic features of the ritual 'shield' or kavaca being constructed by
the worshiper. 15

Thus, of the mantras of the stotra of the five-faced Hanum~n kavaca, Brahma
 Hanuman and the popularization of Tantra I 275

is the .r.si, Gfiyatri is the meter, the awesome five-faced Hanuman is presiding
deity. Hril.n is the seed mantra, .¢ril.n is the gakti, kraum is the nail, ~6 kr~.n is
the shield, krai~.n is the weapon. Phat.!

Garud.a said, 'Thus I will explain the visualization, listen, Lovely One.
The Supreme Lord created this visualization of his beloved Hanum,~n. (1)
Having five faces, fifteen eyes, and ten arms, exceedingly terrible,
it grants the fulfillment of all aims and desires. (2)
To the east the face of a fierce monkey, radiant as a billion suns,
a face having sharp teeth and arched eyebrows. (3)
To the south the fierce face of the great being, man-lion,
extremely terrible, with radiant form, awful, and fear-destroying. (4)
To the west the fierce face of Garud. a, with curved beak, immensely strong,
stifling all serpents and destroying poisons, ghosts, and so on. (5)
To the north the fierce face of a boar, dark and glittering as the firmament,
destroyer of the netherworld, lions, ghouls, fevers, and so on. (6)
Above, the terrible horse-face, supreme destroyer of demonic titans,
the face, best of seers, that destroyed the great warrior T~rak~sura. (7)
The one who seeks shelter will have all his enemies destroyed
by visualizing the five-faced Rudra, Hanum~n, treasury of mercy' (8) (Mishra
1971 : 132-34).

The visualization continues with a description of the weapons (sword, trident,

club, and so on) held in each of the deity's ten hands, j7 This is followed by a
series of ritual 'impositions' (nyasa)of deities onto the limbs of the reciter's
body, accompanied by mantras and gestures; likewise a standard feature of
Tantric worship, they suggest why such rites are considered to bestow a
protective spiritual 'shield.' Finally, there are long strings of mantras that
combine (apparently meaningless) 'seed syllables' with salutations to 'the
monkey' (markat.a) and to Had (a name of Vis.n.u, but also a synonym tbr
'monkey'). These are to be accompanied by oblations of water and by concen-
tration on the objects or goals to be obtained through the ritual:

om hari markat.a-markat.aya barn. bat.n bal.n barn bat.n vau.sat, svahd

ot.n hari markat.a-markat.~ya pha~.n phaJ.n phas,n phal.n phat.n phat.a svdhd
ore. hari markata-markat.aya khem. khel.n khel.n khem. kheln rnaran.~va
svdh~... (137).

Such sequences of mantras, alternating with formulaic invocations of Hanum~n

that recall his heroic deeds, continue for several pages. The kavaca concludes
276 / Philip Lutgendorf

with a stock passage identifying the benefits to be obtained from its recitation
(phalagnai, 'a hearing of the fruit':

By reciting this kavaca once, all enemies are destroyed. By reciting it twice,
one obtains sons and grandsons. By reciting it thrice, all wealth is acquired,
and four recitals destroy all ills. Five recitations give one power over all
creatures, and six give power over all deities ( ! 39).

The sequence continues to the symbolic Rudra-number of eleven recitations that

'give success in all undertakings' (140). Other manuals detail additional uses for
this kavaca, however: for example, if written out on paper and carried in one's
hand, it brings wealth; repeating it ten times at night (this would take quite a
while) brings success at dice; written out on birchbark, red silk, or a palmleaf
with ink made of three scents and placed in an iron amulet-case (lauh tat,~z) that
is then worn on waist, neck, head, or upper arm, the kavaca brings the
fulfillment of all wishes (Gupta 1980: 148).
The visualization evokes five animal forms associated with heroic and
aggressive acts of Vi.sn.u. The glokas allude to the familiar mythological
associations of these forms, and hence their relevance to a devotee's needs:
Narasim. ha, the fear-destroying man-lion; Garuda, the enemy of snakes and
antidote to venom and poison; the boar Var~ha, who plunged into the nether-
world to rescue the earth from demons; and the lesser-known 'horse-necked'
Hayagriva (aka Hayavadana, sometimes ranked among the twenty-four 'minor'
avataras of Vi.sn.u), who is likewise said to have gone to the netherworld to
retrieve the Vedas. The composite deity would appear to consist as much of
these other forms as of Hanum~n, yet the text identifies it as his own, and the
monkey-face, in the auspicious eastern direction, is the nucleus that these other
faces---each described as vakra (literally 'twisted,' but connoting 'fierce' or
'awesome')--enhance with their respective powers. In most two-dimensional
images and bas-reliefs, the monkey-face appears in the central position, symmet-
rically flanked by the others, or sometimes with the horse head (or all the
heads) emerging from his crown. In fully sculpted images, the monkey head
generally faces the worshiper, and the accompanying body, complete with
simian tail, belongs to it; the other heads are aligned as per the dhy~na
prescription.
Although the evolution of the five-faced Hanum~n image is unclear, its
iconographic and theological roots are evidently hoary and suggest its dual
association with both Vai.sn.ava and Saiva traditions; we may also note the
worship of the five dhyani buddhas of Tantric Buddhism, each associated with a
primary color, direction, and mystical realm (Bharati 1965: 23), as well as the
 Hanuman and the popularization of Tantra / 277

concept of the 'five winds' that are said to constitute collectively Vfiyu and
pt~t.la, who the Sanskrit RSm~,at.za identifies as Hanum~n's lather (although
some later PurSnic traditions have VSyu share this role with Siva). In an
ambitious study of the pervasive 'multiplicity convention' in Indian art, Doris
Srinivasan (1997: 163-66) demonstrates that the number five was used in Vedic
liturgy and ritual to denote 'completeness' or totality and that some of the
earliest identifiable Vai.sn.ava and Saiva icons show a fivefoid structure. These
include pa~camukha lii2gas honoring Rudra/Siva (manifesting ferocious and
beneficent faces oriented to the cardinal directions plus the sky) and representa-
tions of the paiicavira, the five heroes of the V rs'n.i clan who were worshiped in
the Mathura region several centuries before the beginning of the Common Era
(Srinivasan 1997: 119-23, 211-18, 233-35, 318-19). Srinivasan (1997: 218,
220) convincingly argues that the vfra tradition contributed to the development
of the Vai.sn.ava caturvyaha doctrine and its related iconography, in which the
supreme Lord N~r~ya0.a produces four emanations bearing the names of V.r.sn.i
heroes, each represented by heads facing in the four cardinal directions. Such
an image, referred to as vaikun,tha caturmarti ('the penetrating lord of four
visages'), is described in the Vis.t.zudharmottara Pura~.~a, a text associated with
the Pfificaratra school and probably composed between 600 and 900 CE, as
well as in other contemporary northern Pfificar~tra texts (for example, the
Jay~khya Sar.nhita). This visualization features four heads oriented to the
cardinal directions and most commonly places the anthropomorphic Vasudeva to
the east, flanked by Narasim. ha and Var'~a to the south and north, respectively,
with an 'angry' (raudra) head of the sage K,~pila (or Kapila) to the west,
adorned with earrings, a third eye, and the matted locks of a yogT (for example,
Vi.s~.zudharmottara Pur~n.a 3.44.9-12). ~s lconographic representations of such a
figure likewise have a long history, possibly dating to as early as the second
century BCE but are especially well attested to from ninth-century Kfi~mira,
where P~ficar,~tra doctrines were influential.~9 These icons position the auspicious
Vasudeva visage facing the worshiper and set the entire fourfold figure astride
the divine bird Garud.a (Srinivasan 1979: 44). Moreover, there exists at least
one variation in which the 'angry,' rear-facing head of K~pila is replaced by that
of a horse and another in which a horse head substitutes for that of the lion
(Agrawala 1976: 388). Thus, all of the constituents of Paficamukhi Hanum~n,
with the exception of the monkey himself, were combined in earlier Vai.sn.ava
iconography to connote an epiphany of Vi.sn.u as cosmic creator and as embodi-
ment of protective and awesome powers. The visual parallel between this
epiphany and the five-faced Hanumfin images---extending even to the directional
placement of the lion and boar visages--seems too close to be merely coinci-
dental, yet the late dhyana text makes no reference to P~ficar~tra doctrine or,
278 / Philip Lutgendorf

indeed, to Vi.sn.u; it appears unaware of any visual or theological precursors,

even as it seems to have substituted effortlessly, at its visual center, a monkey's
face for that of the supreme Lord V~udeva/N~yan.a. Furthermore, no modern
text on Hanum~n devotion (including the copious research of Govindchandra
[1976]) and no devotee whom I interviewed on the subject of five-faced
Hanuman made any reference to Vaisn.ava caturmarti images.
One of my interviewees asserted that the five-faced Hanum,~n image was
devised in late medieval Kama.taka by teachers of the Madhva tradition, who
worshiped both Hanum~n and their founder, Madhv~cSz'ya, as avataras of
prat.~alVfayu and who wanted their own t~arsome Tantric protector-deity
comparable to those worshiped by Saivas (for example, K~la Bhairava and
Virabhadra). Such a claim is not altogether implausible, for the more popular
aspects of Madhva worship, indeed, gave particular prominence to Hanum~n,
and he enjoyed evident popularity during the late Vijayanagara period, when
Madhva teachers had some prominence in the court; yet given the relative
paucity of premodern Paficamukhi Hanum~n images in South India, I am
skeptical of this explanation. However, the possibility that--whatever its
origins--the image's present popularity reflects a more recent process of what
may be called 'Vai.sn.avization' or, alternatively, 'Tantrification' warrants further
scrutiny, and I will return to it below.

S E C R E T S FOR SALE

These days, who worships such a 'Tantrified' HanumAn, and how? I will defer
addressing the former question for the moment, but to answer the latter--at least
with reference to Hindi-language regions--I turn to a category of contemporary
published texts devoted to the monkey-god and concerned both with his life
narrative (j~vancaritra) and with the manner of his ritual worship (variously
termed paja, up~sna, dradhna, yaj~a, and anus.t.hana). At one end of the
spectrum are texts primarily or even solely concerned with ritual (for example,
Mishra 1971; Shukla nd), and, at the other, those devoted exclusively to the
proliferating mythobiography that I have begun calling (only partly in jest) the
'Hanum~yana' (Dube 1989; Mishra 1987; Singh 1984). Others lie somewhere in
between, covering both topics in a single convenient anthology (tbr example,
Gopal 1989; Gupta 1980) or offering an exhaustive compendium incorporating
the contributions of scores of authors (Kalyat3 1975). All of these works are sold
inexpensively in the kinds of shops and bookstalls that cater to Hindi-language
readers and that typically carry, in addition to a wide range of popular religious
 Hanum6n and the popularization of Tantra / 279

texts (including editions of the Rdmcarion~nas, the Bhagavad G~td, and various
Pur~.n.as with Hindi commentaries), sell=help manuals on topics ranging from
yoga and astronomy to herbal medicine, cooking, and sex, as well as detective
novels, books of cinema songs, and collections of jokes. At such a shop, a
request for 'books on Hanum~n-ji' generally yields a small stack of specimens,
ranging from crudely printed, misprint-plagued pamphlets of prayers and
hymns, assembled by anonymous compilers and selling for a few rupees, to
more expensive, attractively bound volumes written in elegantly Sanskritized
Hindi by learned (usually Br~thman.a) authors who append titles like S~stri to
their names and who may offer distinctive personal interpretations of antholo-
gized mythological and liturgical texts.
I have been using the terms 'ritual worship' and 'propitiation' to translate a
variety of Hindi terms that connote worship that is intended to be 'fruitful'
(sa-phala), aimed at producing worldly results of benefit to the worshipper or,
in certain cases, of harm to someone else. At the more bhakti-oriented, elite
Vai.sn.ava end of the spectrum of Hanum~n literature, there is a certain embarrass-
ment about such ritual practice, reflecting the notion that worship of Bhagavan
ideally should be selfless, done for its own sake and 'without desire' for results
(nis.kama). Thus the 528-page 'Hanum~n special issue' of Kalyan. introduces
its section on up~sna with a 'Request concerning ritual worship' by the Gita
Press' Iongtime editor, Hanumanprasad Poddar, reminding readers of the
ultimately transitory nature of mundane joys and sorrows and of the superiority
of desireless devotion over rituals that seek divine intervention (Kalyat: 1975:
483-84). This is followed, however, by thirty double-columned pages devoted
to precisely the latter aims. Most such manuals, however, are unapologetic
about their readers' presumed objectives and get right to the point. Dinanath
Shukla's Sri Hanumad Up~sna (nd), for example, offers as its frontispiece a
),antra diagram consisting of three concentric circles of Tantric b~ja-mantras
surrounding an eight-petaled lotus, in the center of which the reader's own name
is to be inscribed; the caption explains: 'If this is written on birchbark and worn
in an amulet-case, obstacles such as ghosts, demons, and so on, do not bother
you.' The author's preface matter-of-factly notes, 'In this world, hardly anyone
undertakes any activity without the desire to obtain some result .... [and] in the
Kali Yuga, the worship of R~ma's devotee, Hanum~n, has proven to yield the
quickest and most abundant benefits' (Shukla nd: 5).
If the ethical propriety of petitioning (or ann-twisting) the gods for favors is
of little concern to the authors of these manuals, procedural correctness is another
matter. Introducing his 160-page book on HanuJru~n Up~sna, Radhakrishna
Shrimali stresses the universality of ritual invocation as well as some of its
assumed ground rules:
280 / Philip Lutgendoff

All adherents of Hindu Dharma--Vai.sn.avas, Saivas, Saktas, and adherents of

San~tana Dharma--take recourse to ritual worship. It is a known truth that
there is power in mantras. But knowledge of the order, proper pronunciation,
and use of mantras is also absolutely necessary, for just as calling out the
name of one among several sleeping persons causes that person to awaken,
whereas the others go on sleeping, so only when mantras are correctly
pronounced do they become effective and awaken the deities (nd: 1).

Shrimali's metaphor suggests the notion, basic to Tantric ideology, that divine
powers lie in a dormant state until aroused by worshipers and that such arousal
requires knowledge and correct performance of the verbal codes that awaken a
given deity. His preface goes on to explain another basic Tantric notion:

The true meaning of updsnd is to effect identity with a chosen deity. The
ritual by means of which an individual can obtain substantial and spiritual
unity with a chosen deity and his embodied qualities, virtues, physical
attributes, and power--that alone is upasn~ (5).

From what I have noted earlier concerning Hanum,~n's qualities of strength,

resourcefulness, and so on, it should be obvious why identification with him
would be helpful to humble souls toiling through the dismal Kali Yuga.
Shrimali's book presents a good example of modern popular Tantric-style
manuals devoted to Hanum~n worship. In paperback format, and sold (in 1990)
for the modest price of Rupees 10, it devotes only five of its 160 pages to
stories of Hanuman's deeds (recounting his infant-adventure of seizing the sun
that resulted in his becoming further empowered by boons from all the principal
Vedic gods) before turning to prescriptions for his propitiation through yantras
and mantras. The chapter on yantras opens with an encouraging introduction:

Hanum~n is a devata who can be worshipped in all places and at all times,
by all persons. Anyone, anywhere, at anytime can become freed of distress
by remembering him. He stands in the first rank of deities who free from
distress, destroy sorrows, and protect devotees. There is no task in the world
that he cannot accomplish .... Young and old feel themselves safe and secure
by remembering him. Although he is incomparable in the realms of courage,
valor, heroism, splendor, and intensity, Hanum~n-ji is very simple-hearted,
compassionate, and detached. He has no desires of his own. He constantly
roams around in the guise of an ordinary monkey, but when a devotee calls
out he takes any form, according to the circumstances, to make the impossible
possible (25).
 Hanuman and the popularization of Tantra / 281

General prescriptions that follow note the importance of the color red that is said
to be pleasing to Hanuman; thus the worshiper should wear red clothing and
offer red-colored foods and red flowers with masculine-gender names (the latter
in view of his strict celibacy).
Instructions for making yantras come next. According to all such handbooks,
a yantra to be effective must not simply be drawn correctly in a prescribed
manner but must be empowered through worship and the repetition of mantras.
Once this is accomplished, it can be used to achieve specific ends. A few
examples of specific yantra-based rituals from Shrimali's text:
(i) A ),antra of sixteen squares inscribed with various nasalized consonants
(nam, chain, jar.n, cam, and so on--their sequence appears to be without
semantic meaning) to be written out a total of 125,000 times in a series of equal
installments spread over the course of 15, 17, 21, 25, or 27 days, followed by
108 fire-oblations (havana) and the feeding and gifting of Brahman.as. If done
'according to prescription,' this ritual is said to guarantee a vision (dargana) of
Hanum~n as well as the attainment of his grace (28-29).
(ii) A 'fear-averting' yantra of eighty-one squares inscribed with letters to be
written on a bananaleaf and worshipped for forty-five days, accompanied by
1,188 daily repetitions of a designated mantra (eleven circuits of the standard
rosary of 108 beads), followed by a feast for Brfihma0.as. The 3'antra may then
be permanently installed in a home shrine-room and seen by all family
members, although women should avoid approaching it during their monthly
periods (29-31 ).
(iii) A second fear-averting yantra, described as 'comparatively simple,'
consists of a sixteen-part magic square containing numerals that add up to
seventy-nine. It should be drawn, at midnight on the second of a lunar fortnight
when the moon is waxing, on birchbark with a pen made of a pomegranate twig
dipped in ink made of five scented oils. It is then worshipped with incense and
a lamp and 108 recitations of ot.n hanumate namah. ('Om., salutations to
Hanuman?'). When thus activated, the ),antra is to be buried in a two-foot deep
hole near the entrance to the place in which one feels fearful; 'from this practice,
the fear-inducing qualities (tattva) of that place will be destroyed' (31).
(iv) One of several "yantras for dispelling ghosts' consists of two downward-
pointing triangles, one within the other, which are in turn set within two
rectangles. It is to be drawn, on the eighth night of a dark lunar fortnight, on a
piece of cloth obtained on the preceding Sunday or Tuesday night from the
shroud of a corpse at the cremation ground and is to be written with black ink
made of the drug dhatard (a poison sacred to ~;iva) using a crow's feather or
iron needle. ~-~The name of the ghost-possessed person is to be written inside the
innermost triangle. This ),antra is then worshipped with mantras and ultimately
282 / Philip Lutgendorf

buried in the cremation ground (35-36). It would appear to have the aim of
drawing the offending ghost out of its victim and confining it in its proper
mortuary precinct.
The chapter devoted to m a n t r a s again stresses the necessity of following
directions properly:

Of course, any devotee can remember his chosen deity with faith and devotion
and using m a n t r a s , anywhere and at anytime, but as far as efficacious ritual
(anus. t.hdna) is concerned, it can only display its full power when done
according to prescription (44).

It then offers similarly elaborate prescriptions devoted to specific complaints, for

example:
(i) A mantra to insure success on a journey or in any other undertaking
consists of an apparently meaningless Hindi couplet in doha meter, to be recited
12,500 times daily for three days, followed by 1,250 havana oblations. This
serves to activate the mantra. Thereafter, it may be used at any time by reciting
it nine times into the palms of one's freshly washed hands and by then lightly
running them over one's head, chest, arms, and legs. Then, 'wherever one goes,
one will definitely meet with success' (46).
(ii) A mantra for 'sweeping away' migraine headaches is to be recited seven
times while blowing the ash of burned cowdung in the face of the afflicted
person. Although many mantras consist of long strings of difficult Sanskrit
formulae, this one mixes simple Sanskrit with a nursery rhyme-like Hindi
stanza; it is also rather unusual in making a direct and even playful reference to
the invoked deity:

Om. salutations! Born in the forest, monkeys climb trees,

leap from branch to branch, and eat raw, wild fruits.
Half they tear, half they split, half they let fall.
When Hanum,~n-ji roars, migraine goes away (47).

Other mantras are offered for curing gastric complaints (46) and toothache
(47-48) and for the activation of a peacock-feather fan to be used to 'sweep
away' ghosts (56), particularly from small children. The latter prescription adds
an element of coercion based on the threat of disgrace: After being placated with
various offerings, Hanum~n is told that if he fails to carry out the suppliant's
wishes, 'You will have disgraced Mother Afijani's milk!' (56).
The examples given above, drawn from a single inexpensive paperback, are
fairly representative of those found in many other widely available manuals that
 Hanum6n and the popularization of Tantra I 283

may be said to typify the more proletarian end of the ritual literature devoted to
Hanumfin. Religious bookstores generally carry a variety of books devoted to
Hanumfin's propitiation, and these also include more Sanskritized anthologies
that contain far less explanatory and how-to passages and are evidently designed
to appeal to an audience with at least some training in Brfihman.ical ritual. An
example of this category of work is Hanumad-rahasyam. (Esoteric worship of
HanumRn), an anthology edited by Shivadatt Mishra. This clothbound book,
first published in Banaras in 1971 and in its third edition in 1980 (when it sold
for Rupees ! 6), opens with a benedictory preface by Sv~,mi Karpatri, a leader of
the orthodox Dan.d.i or 'staff-bearing' ascetics who trace their spiritual descent
from Saflkar~cfirya. Here, too, the narrative portion of the book comprises a mere
four pages and recounts only one of Hanuman's birth stories. The largest item
in the anthology is a 96-page Sanskrit manual for Hanum,~n-p~j& accompanied
by a terse Hindi gloss. The text is attributed to one NathQnfir'ayan.a of Jaipur,
who composed it in ! 897. The paid it prescribes is highly elaborate: the list of
required ingredients runs to sixty-eight items, including costly spices, oils, and
scents, and the gloss casually alludes to procedures that would be impossible for
anyone but an orthodox Vaidika Br,~hman.a (for example, 'Then enter your ritual-
fire area and perform homa according to your scriptural lineage' [30]). Much of
the manual is generic, however, and, apart from occasional invocations of
Hanum~.n (who is first mentioned thirty pages into the text), could as easily be
applied to many deities. There are more than twenty pages of mantras to
accompany nyasa, 'superimpositions' (33-57). Hanum~n then briefly returns as
the subject of a dhydna or visualization, followed by twenty more pages of
mantras to accompany tire-oblations (64--86). The manual concludes with a
passage likewise characteristic of such works: After final instructions that
advocate carrying out the entire ritual three times a day, it offers, in the event
that this is not possible, a series of acceptable and rapidly diminishing substitu-
tions: for example, performing it twice, or only once, or merely on the full or
new moon days of each month, eventually paring everything down to the
offering of a single water libation accompanied by a 'pure mind' (94-95).
Mishra's anthology includes other Sanskrit texts as well, and each of these
is attributed to an authoritative scriptural source. Thus its section on Tantric
worship with mantras (including a recipe tbr gaining power over enemies by
making an image of Hanumfin out of clay and ash obtained from a cremation
ground and another for summoning up a private succubus--a vetdla--to carry
out one's will and foretell the future) is said to be excerpted from the Mantra-
mahodadhi; its version of the popular Paficamukhi Hanumfin kavaca is
attributed to the Sudargana Samhita (132--40). In addition, it includes similar
liturgies for invoking seven- and eleven-headed manifestations of the deity,
284 / Philip Lutgendorf

allegedly drawn respectively from the Atharvan.a Rahasya and the AgasD'a
Sat.nhita (I 40-51). Only in its final thirty pages does it incorporate, along with
instructions for their ritual use, the Hindi-language prayers--Hanumdn CaHsa,
Bajrai~g Ban., and so on--that are most familiar to modern devotees (266-302).
This is perhaps appropriate in what is, after all, billed as a book of 'esoteric
secrets' (rahasya). But reading Mishra's elaborate prescriptions may leave one
wondering: Does anyone actually perform these rituals?

APE-OTHEOSIS NOW

The numerous self-help manuals for Hanum,~n's propitiation appear, to an

outsider, to embody several paradoxes. Sold at low cost in bookshops that cater
primarily to those of modest education, they stress the ease and accessibility of
Hanum~n worship, even as they prescribe rituals that are often of the most
daunting complexity. They also repeatedly assert the danger of ritual error and
the necessity of having a guru's guidance, even as they themselves attempt to
circumvent this need with step-by-step directions. -'~ They invoke the authority of
Sanskrit mantras and of Brahman.a priests, even as they democratically offer
allegedly 'secret' rituals to any literate person willing to make a small monetary
outlay. They are ubiquitous enough that they must have an audience--for this
type of ephemeral literature does not survive long unless it finds buyers--yet, in
my fieldwork, I encountered few worshipers who expressed interest in such
texts; more commonly, I was told that the great appeal of Hanuman results from
the very simplicity and informality of his worship, from the fact that he displays
'quick satisfaction' at the mere chanting of rdma-nama or the recitation of the
Tulsidas Sundarkan.d. or the even shorter and folksier Hanuman C~l~s~. Several
people contrasted him, in this respect, to a goddess such as Durga, who likes to
hear herself praised in the long Sanskrit eulogy, Durg~ Sapta~aa, but who may
be angered if one mispronounces a word.
The copious lore of Tantra has perhaps always been disproportionate to the
actual number of its practitioners, at least in its more demanding forms. To a
researcher, it may seem that no one actually does it, although nearly everyone
claims to know of someone who does; in any case, those who actually pursue
Tantric practice may tend not to talk about it. In Banaras, my periodic inquiries
into Tantric Hanuman worship led me to an aged Maharashtrian pan.d.ita living
on one of the southern ghn!s. This man, who was in his eighties when I
interviewed him in 1990, was said to be an adept at Hanuman's Tantric upasna,
through which he had acquired certain supernatural powers and the unique
 Hanum6n and the popularization of Tantra / 285

privilege of being permitted to touch and personally serve all the temple images
of Hanum~n in the city, including the renowned Saf~kat.a Mocana marti that is
otherwise strictly off limits to all except the temple's own Brahma.na priests.
When I interviewed this venerated man, he proved to be quite friendly and
approachable but, not surprisingly, was disinclined to discuss his own ritual
practice. As lor the printed manuals, he gleefully noted that their texts were
corrupt and error-ridden; no one could follow them without the guidance of a
guru, in which case the printed version would be superfluous anyway. He
doubted whether they attracted many actual practitioners, and when I pointed out
their wide availability, he simply shrugged his shoulders and chuckled, Yet his
own acquired skills were soon displayed when, in the course of our conversa-
tion, a young man entered the pat3d,ita's small room. Alter a brief whispered
exchange, the old pa~.zd,ita felt the newcomer's pulse, then placed his hand on
his own throat, and blew repeatedly into the other's face. The pan.d,ita's middle-
aged son, also in the room, explained to me that the visitor was seeking help
for a medical condition that had proven resistant to standard treatment and
that many people came to his father in such circumstances. The pan.d.ita was
concentrating on memorized mantras, lodged 'in his throat,' that he had
previously 'activated' through ritual repetition; now summoning their power,
he was communicating that power to the other man through his breath. All
these practices were, indeed, described in the popular books we had just been
discussing. Healing by blowing (phailkna) is a common feature of folk medicine
in North India, especially in rural areas, where its practitioners are often of low
status and sometimes heal while in a state of possession by a local devata. Here
the practitioner was a learned Br,~hman.a, and 'possession' (in the usual sense
involving loss of self-control) was not part of the ritual but was replaced by
memorized formulae, presumably in Sanskrit, that enabled him to tap the power
of his presiding deity: the 'son of the wind,' who also has a special association
with the vivifying breath or praoa.
Certainly it is not necessary for a ritual to be widely practiced in order for it
to possess authority, particularly if it is reified in a printed form that purports to
embody the secret wisdom of ancient, authoritative texts. Like certain novice
cooks, some devotees may derive satisfaction from the mere possession of
books containing elaborate recipes that they are themselves unlikely ever to try.
They do not doubt that Hanuman, as an avatdra of Rudra, would respond to
such propitiation, but they also trust that he equally responds to their recital of
simple hymns, like the Hanuman CalTs~ and Bajrai~g Bat.r, that these books
likewise contain. Such largely symbolic invocation of 'Tantric' ritual is simi-
larly suggested by the several available pamphlet-sized versions of Tulsidr~s'
Sundark~n.d. that are printed in red ink and advertised on their covers as 'suitable
286 / Philip Lutgendorf

for Tantric worship.' It is, of course, suggested as well by the dissemination of

poster images of the 'Tantric' Paficamukhi Hanuman, whose precise icono-
graphic significance likewise eludes most viewers, although he conveys a
desirable aura of esoteric power.
I would like to conclude by proposing that the spread of such iconography
and popular literature may reveal broader processes within mainstream, and
especially middle-class, Hinduism that are deserving of notice. 1 have already
spoken of 'accessibility' and 'democratization' as inherent in the very printing
of such ostensible esoterica, but I would now like to introduce the terms
'Vai.s.navization' and 'Tantrification' to label complementary processes that are
likewise suggested by these materials. 22 A text like the Hanumad-rahasvam
would no doubt be regarded, by a scholar of medieval Tantric traditions, as a
vulgar, latter-day appropriation of esoteric Saiva/Sakta beliefs and practices;
moreover, it is a text that, through its invocation of the Rama narrative,
subordinates Siva to Vis.n.u as the latter's exemplary devotee. It may thus be
cited as an instance of a broader process of 'Vai.sn.avization' that a number of
scholars have viewed as characteristic of the evolution of popular Hinduism
during the past millennium and especially during the past several centuries, a
process that has figured in the growing status of both the R~ma and K~.na
stories and in the physical evolution of pilgrimage sites associated with these
narratives. 23 Such a transformation, these scholars argue, is not simply a matter
of changing devotional tastes or of substitution of nomenclature but indicates
a preference for the pan-Indic, Sanskritic, and Br~hman.ical over the local,
vernacular, and folk. It also reflects, in certain specific instances, local aspira-
tions for improved social status such as the 'caste uplift' movements that
developed from the late nineteenth century among a number of formally Sfidra-
level agricultural and artisan castes in North-central India, such as the Ahirs,
Kurmis, and Sonars. These empowering movements were often championed by
Sit~-Rama- and Hanum~n-worshiping sadhus of the Ram~nandi order and were
accompanied by tangible expressions of Vais.n.ava piety, such as the adoption of
a vegetarian diet and the construction of caste temples and dharmagalas in
Vai.sn.ava pilgrimage centers (Pinch 1996: especially 8 i-114).
In addition, there is no doubt that Saiva traditions in general, and Tantra in
particular, endured an especially harsh critique during the second century of
colonial rule---dismissed in British discourse as (at best) 'primitive superstition'
and (at worst) 'hellish abomination'--whereas Vai.sn.ava theology and legend
(K~n. a's amours excepted) were sometimes guardedly admired for their supposed
resemblance to Protestant Christianity. The long-resounding echoes of such
critiques, which were directly absorbed by the English-educated Hindu elite
but which filtered down to reinforce the indigenous puritanism of mercantile
 Hanuman and the popularization of Tantra I 287

communities and of upwardly mobile artisan and agricultural groups, may be

seen in the mythological and ritual sanitization of such once-gakta deities as the
'seven sisters' of the Punjab hills or the goddess Khira Bhav,~ni of Kashmir;
such goddesses have, in comparatively recent times, become vegetarian, fallen in
love with Vi.sn.u, and (interestingly enough) acquired Hanum~n as their door-
guardian (dvdrapala), often supplanting or counterbalancing, in their entourage,
the darker and more ominous Rudra-avatara, Bhairava. -'4
Yet I want to argue that this sanitization has never been total; something like
an opposite or complementary process has also occurred, especially in the post-
Independence period. Indeed, the modern 'Tantric' literature and iconography of
Hanum~n challenges any easy assumptions regarding alleged 'Vai.sn.avization.' It
disseminates purportedly esoteric techniques and images aimed at individual
satisfaction and empowerment and places allusions to Vai.sn.ava narrative within
a ritual context that is squarely Saiva/Sakta. Indeed, it might as well be charac-
terized as an example of the 'Tantrification' of Vai.s0avism, reflecting a yearning
among many mainstream, Sanatani Hindus in North India for access, through
a feisty demigod with squarely populist associations and a reputation lbr
delivering the goods, to sources of transformative power associated with potent
and esoteric paths. A Rdrr~vat.za scholar in Banaras remarked to me that the
appeal of Paficamukhi Hanum~,n, like that of astrology and 'Tantra mantra,' is
rooted in modern people's desire for a 'quick fix' for their worldly problems.
The reputed adoption of 'Tantric' practices by prominent politicians, movie
stars, and businessmen, he noted, helps to give them greater appeal (C. N.
Singh, interview, 20 March 1990).
If Hanum~n's association with explicitly Tantric texts and rituals is compara-
tively recent, his connection with the magical fulfillment of wishes--one of
the most desired side benefits of Tantric practice--is certainly hoary and may
ultimately be rooted in the ancient popular cult of the demi-divine and morally
ambivalent yak.sas, many of whom appeared in animal form and were propitiated
with blood sacrifices. The divine hierarchy of South Asian popular religion has
long included a number of efficacious, midlevel divine agents whose charac-
teristics, according to a number of scholars, suggest yaksa roots and resonances
(for example, Ga.ne~a, Hanum~n, and Skanda). 25 Yet the popularity of any of
these enduring 'folk' deities should not be assumed to be a given and constant
but rather should be situated within the context of changing historical and
socioeconomic circumstances in specific regions of the subcontinent. Writing
on late twentieth-century Sri Lanka, Gananath Obeyesekere (1977: 391) has
described the 'rise and fall' of a number of deities traditionally revered by both
Hindus and Buddhists, particularly the meteoric rise during the twentieth
century of the 'emergent national deity,' Skanda (aka Katar~.gama), a deity who
288 / Philip Lutgendorf

resembles Hanum~n in a number of respects. Skanda is a second-generation god

whose birth narrative figures prominently in his mythology, who is strongly
linked to Siva, and who manifests both heroic martial power and an alluring
beauty that elicits devotion. Above all Skanda is efficacious: 'He is par
excellence the resourceful deity, the vanquisher of the asuras, the deity who
could overcome obstacles' (Obeyesekere 1977: 389). Obeyesekere relates the
rising popularity of Skanda to concrete developments such as improved road
access to his principal pilgrimage-shrine but also to a set of problems faced
especially by urban Sri Lankans in the second half of the twentieth century,
including the consequences of democratization and bureaucratization of the state
and of rising economic expectations that were often frustrated by the lingering
power of traditional and colonial elites: '(I) the existence of new culturally
desirable goals, (2) the hazy pathways available for achieving them, (3) the high
aspiration levels with the increasing awareness of the near-impossibility of
achieving them' (1977: 389).
Similarly, I have elsewhere argued that the phenomenal proliferation (and
literal growth) of Hanuman shrines and images in recent decades should likewise
be attributed to the patronage of the emerging, yet relatively insecure, 'middle
classes' of contemporary India, who lace comparable challenges in their aspira-
tions for the good life in a postcolonial market-driven, consumer society
(Lutgendorf 1997: 325-27). In a Kali Yuga of spiraling consumerism, corrup-
tion, and inflation, middle-class worshipers feel they need all the help and
protection they can get, but they are also fearful of the rustic stigma of the
'primitive' and the uncontrolled. They desire the 'quick fix' of Tantra but within
the context of the respectable Vai.s.nava piety long advocated by prosperous
mercantile groups. In contrast to the truly unruly Bhairava, 'the god of trans-
gression par excellence" (Visuvalingam 1989: 157), the half-feral Hanum~n
seems more domesticated and user-friendly, an embodiment of Siva whose
Rudra-rages are restricted to their proper demonic targets and whose reverence for
dharma is beyond question. The divine monkey manages to combine Siva's
propensity for being easily pleased (~gutosa) with R~ma's regard for 'dignity'
and self-limitation (maryt~d~) and to blend Rudra-Bhairava's raw and edgy
energy with an adamantine yogic calm and a Vaisnavized emotional flux. He is,
as his devotees often remark with satisfaction, the embodiment of both gakti and
bhakti: a pleasant-sounding formula that (1 have argued elsewhere) encapsulates
an entire history of sometimes-contending theologies and praxes (Lutgendoff
1994:240-41 ).
Such 'encapsulation' (and the modern consumer appreciates the convenience of
patent medicines) is made visible, I suggest, in the mysterious image of five-
faced Hanum~n, an epiphany that reveals the humble 'servant of R~ma' growing
 Hanuman and the popularization of Tantra / 289

to incorporate not simply the fivefold powers of the awesome ~;aiva deities of
the classical Tantric pantheon but the majesty of Vi.sn.u-N~u'aya0.a himself as
embodied in his vyahas and avatdras. Leaving aside the esoteric interpretations
that (as we have seen) historically have been associated with the individual
heads, this image most obviously confronts the viewer with a kind of cosmic
form or vi~var~pa, reminiscent of that assumed by K~n.a in the climactic
eleventh chapter of the Bhagavad G~ta and itself now visually familiar through
multiheaded poster and video incarnations. -'6 The ease with which Hanuman--
whose eruptions into gigantism punctuate his role in the Ram~vat.2a narrative--
can assume this stature, the logic of the visual theology that it encodes, is
suggested by the phenomenon of its proliferation in the absence of narrative
exegesis. A visualization of an empowering, but mostly unknown, mantra, it
requires, for most devotees, no further explanation than the fact that it 'has a lot
of gakti.' It displays a god who manages to be at once 'Vai.sn.ava,' 'Saiva,' and
'Tantric,' a 'minor' and subaltern-turned middle-class deity caught in the act of
assuming an integral and encompassing role.

Notes

!. This research was supported by a Professional Development Award from

the University of Iowa and the American Institute of Indian Studies.
2. On the implications of muscularity in god-poster iconography, see Jain
(nd); Lutgendorf (nd).
3. Bhagavati Prasad Singh of Gorakhpur University, Ayodhya, author of
numerous learned works on R~ma-bhakti, appeared puzzled by the image, finally
calling it 'a symbol of primordial energy' (adi gakti ka praak): neither he nor
his brother seemed familiar with it (interview, 5 April 1990). Similarly,
Ramcaritm~nas aficionado Chandradharprasad Narayan Singh of Banaras noted
that the image was rarely encountered in his area forty years ago but has now
become commonplace (interview, 20 March 1990).
4. A very few devotees identified the image as a particular 'ferocious form'
(ugrarapa) assumed by Hanum,~n in order to slay a specific demon, most
commonly Ahir~vana (or Mahir~van.a), the subterranean double of the king of
Lafik~ who, in a popular folk expansion of the Ram~)'at3a narrative, kidnaps
R~ma and Laksma.na to offer them as human sacrifices to his own Tantric
guardian goddess (see Lutgendorf 1997: 319-21; Smith 1988: 145-53);
Hanum~n makes a daring foray into the netherworld and rescues them, slaying
the demon (others, however, claim that the form Hanum~n assumed on this
occasion was eleven-headed and twenty-two-armed, a figure seldom encountered
290 / Philip Lutgendoff

in iconography). The association of the five-faced image with this story seems
appropriate in that both are energetic and autonomous manifestations of the god
that operate largely independent of his human master and become the central
focus of interest; moreover, both have shadowy and 'Tantric' associations. Yet
the specific features of the pa~camukhf image are not, to my knowledge,
mentioned in any of the many texts that retell the Ahir~van.a story, and the most
common poster image alluding to this tale--in which Hanuman bears the
rescued princes on his shoulders and suppresses the demon under one f o o t - -
shows the monkey in his normal, single-headed form. More characteristically,
the single modern Hindi anthology of Hanum~n tales in my collection that
briefly notes the five-faced form confirms its lack of an explanatory narrative,
observing, 'Although one finds no story of such an incarnation, worship texts
describe its propitiation' (Singh 1984:18).
5. Gupta, Hoens, and Goudriaan (1979: 7-9) offer a useful list of eighteen
constituents characteristic of Tantric traditions, including the valuing of
mundane aims alongside spiritual emancipation, the use of mantras, yantras,
and mand.alas, and the identification of the microcosm of the human body with
the cosmic macrocosm.
6. In their analysis of V~lmiki's Sundarakdt~da, Goldman and Sutherland-
Goldman (1996: 53-57) provide a survey of most of the traits that figure
prominently in Hanuman's later worship and that are prefigured in the Sanskrit
epic.
7. See the twentieth chapter of the Satarudra Sam.hitd of the Siva Pur~n.a
(1970, 3: i154-157). This identification with Rudra is referred to by many
medieval Rfimaite authors (for example, Vinaya Patrikd 26:i, 27:3, Tulsidfis
1982: 37, 40) and is more or less constantly invoked in modern popular
literature devoted to Hanum~n.
8. The comments appear in an editor's note prefacing the article, 'Vividh
Mantrom. Dv~fi Sri Hanum~n ki Upfisn~' (489-95), for which no author is cited.
The dating of the older Tantras is a notoriously inexact science, somewhat
comparable to that of the Pur~n.as. Goudriaan and Gupta (I 981 : 94, 131, 135)
date the Kularn.ava to 'between about 1000 and 1400 AD,' the Sdraddtilaka
(attributed to the Kashmiri Saiva Lak.sman.adegika) to the eleventh century, and
the Prapa~casdra to the tenth or eleventh centuries.
9. One of these is the AgasO,a Sat.nhitd, a twelfth-century North Indian text
that, according to Bakker (1986: 77), represents a link between southern
Pfificaritra traditions and later North Indian R~ma-devotees such as the
R~m~nandis, for whom it became an authoritative text for temple rituals.
Although this text is almost exclusively devoted to the ritual worship of R.~ma
and to the elaboration of a R~ma-centered theology, its thirty-second chapter
 Hanuman and the popularization of Tantra / 291

contains a mantra for the invocation of Hanumfin, who is said to grant spiritual
liberation (mukti) and to dispel various classes of malevolent spirits, that is,
bhata, preta, pigdca, d.dkinL yaksa, and rdksasa (Govindchandra 1976: 82,
85).
10. On the contents of the Mantramahodadhi, see Goudriaan and Gupta
(1981: 137); see also their comments on the Mantrakamaldkara (137-38),
another Tantric compendium including a section devoted to Hanum~n. The
Tantras~ra, which the authors date to the late sixteenth century, is discussed on
pages 139--40.
11. van der Veer (1988: 123) cites the popularity of the Hanumat Kavaca
among Tyagis, the yogic-style ascetic branch of the R~m~nandi order that retains
the influence of Saiva and N~tha ascetic traditions; it is likely that this text was
composed by sectarian preceptors during the period of rapid growth of this order
(sixteenth to eighteenth centuries), when the assimilative Rfim~nandis were
challenging the dominance of ~;aiva Gos,~i.m and Da~anamis.
12. A perusal of catalogues of Sanskrit manuscripts reveals a modest number
of examples of texts entitled Hanumat Kavaca or Pa~camukhf Hanumat
Kavaca, often said to be excerpted from either the Brahman.d.a Puratza or the
Sudargana Sa.mhit~; of those that bear copying dates in their colophons, none
predates the seventeenth century. Thus, the Banaras Hindu University collection
includes thirteen Hanumat Kavaca manuscripts, the oldest dating to 1840 CE,
and six Paficamukhi Hanumat Kavaca manuscripts, of which the oldest is dated
1828 CE. The collection of the Vrindaban Research Institute includes six
Hanumat Kavaca texts (the oldest dated 1646 CE) and sixteen Paficamukhi
Hanumat Kavaca manuscripts (most undated, but the oldest dated one having
been copied in 1870 CE). The catalogues of the R. V. Sahitya Sansthan
Research Library, Udaipur, list four manuscripts of the Paficamukhi Hanumat
Kavaca, all undated, and one text (likewise undated) entitled Pa~camukhf Vira
Hanuman-mantra.
13. On the Mandasar image, see Govindchandra (1976: 336); Nagar (1995:
264). The Jodhpur image is described in Sharma (1975: 424); its oral history
was narrated to me by local devotees in 1996.
14. Singh connects this image with vyaha forms of Vi.s.nu worshiped in
Kashmir, an association that may well be historically warranted (see below, note
17 and accompanying text). However, the Nepali image shows the standard
alignment of heads described in the Paficamukhi Hanum,~n Dhyanam to be
discussed shortly and the forward- (presumably eastward- ) facing head is clearly
that of a ferocious monkey (Singh mistakenly calls it, on page 220, 'a demon');
the figure stands astride a recumbent female, presumably a suppressed demon.
See also the Nepali painting, identified as 'nineteenth century,' in Nagar (1995:
292 / Philip Lutgendorf

Plate 3). Another Nepali image, together with three others from Pahfi.ri schools
of painting, is briefly discussed by Bhattacharyya in his book, lconology of
composite bnages (1980). Citing a single Nepali manuscript that terms the image
'Hanfi-Bhaimva' and clearly unaware of the tradition of five-headed representa-
tions of Hanum~n and their significance, Bhattacharyya (I 980: 22-24) places the
image in his chapter on 'dual forms.' He also mistakenly identifies the heads
in two of the paintings, reading the lion or man-lion head as a jackal or 'an
animistic human face' (Bhattacharyya 1980: 22). However, the Pah~..i painting
from Guler now in the Bharat Kala Bhavan Museum in Banaras (reproduced by
both Aryan [1975] and Bhattacharyya [1980]) is, indeed, atypical and apparently
unique, substituting a human head (Kapila?) for the horse and an elephant head
(Gan.e~a?) for the lion (Bhattacharyya 1980: Plate 18).
15. The translation offered here is based on the Sanskrit text with Hindi
commentary offered in Mishra (I 971 : 132-40). For a somewhat variant text in a
comparable popular format, see Shukla (nd: 196-202). All other translations
from Hindi elsewhere in this paper are mine as well.
16. K~laka literally means 'nail,' 'pin,' or 'bolt.' in the Vedic tradition, it
refers to a key element in powerful mantras that (so to speak) 'nails down' their
efficacy (see Coburn 1991: 104-5, 107-8).
17. The ninth gloka lists the objects as sword, trident, khat.vahga ('skull
staff,' a weapon of Bhairava), noose, goad, mountain, fist, mace, tree, and
waterpot. Visual representations often show considerable variation from this
list, with some of Hanum~n's hands holding Vai.sn.ava symbols, such as a
conch, lotus, and discus or a rosary and bell; on the other hand (so to speak), a
severed head may also appear (see plates in Aryan [1975] and Nagar [1995] cited
above).
18. Srinivasan (1979)speculates that such images represent a visualization of
the early Vai.sn.ava vyaha cosmogony that is already attested in the Nar~van.tya
section of the Mahabhdrata (12.321-38). She proposes that the lion and boar
heads were originally intended to signify the vytihas Sa .mkarsan.a and Aniruddha
(with K~pila representing Pradyumna) rather than avataras, but that the vyt~ha
doctrine later merged with the practice of the early bhakti Bh~gavata tradition
that worshiped K.r.sn.a and four of his kinsmen as the 'five heroes' (pa~cavira). (I
am grateful to John Stratton Hawley for referring me to Srinivasan's article and
to the tradition of vaikun,t.ha caturm~rti images.)
19. Srinivasan ( 1979:4 !-43, ! 997:2 ! 8-20) argues that a four-sided sculpture
from Bhita in Allahabad district, dated to the second century BCE and previously
identified as a 'fourfold yaks.a,' is in fact such a caturvyaha Vi.snu image.
20. Both crow and black metal are traditionally associated with the malefic
planetary deity Sani (Saturn), who inflicts grievous sufferings (that may include
 Hanuman and the popularization of Tantra I 293

ghostly possession) on those who come under his influence. The widespread
custom of worshipping at Hanuman temples on Saturday is commonly attrib-
uted to the desire to counteract the baleful 'gaze' of this planet.
21. For example, 'Mantras should be received from a guru, not from books'
(Srivastav 1975: 509). 'A yaj~a is not something to be learned from a book or
through correspondence; one should seek instruction from a knowledgeable
person' (Singh 1984: 299); the author then proceeds to give elaborate instruc-
tions for such a ritual.
22. I intend the evocation of M. N. Srinivas' well-known label, 'Sanskritiza-
tion,' as well as the American sociological term 'gentrification,' although 1 will
argue that something like the reverse of these processes is also involved in five-
faced Hanum~n's popularity.
23. For example, Vaudeville's argument, in 'Braj, lost and found' (1976),
that the local religion of Vrindavan and its environs centered around the worship
of Siva, local mother goddesses, and snake deities prior to the arrival of Bengali
Vais.n.ava 'missionaries' in the fifteenth century. Similarly, Bakker (1986: 125,
145) and van der Veer (1988: 15, 90) argue for the preeminence of Saiva and
N~tha yogf sacred sites in Ayodhy~ prior to the twelfth century and a gradual
'Vai.sn.avization' that accelerated only after the sixteenth century. Verghese
(1995: 7-9) notes that the popular religion of the city of Vijayanagara appeared
to be Saiva prior to the sixteenth century, when a shift in courtly patronage
occurred that favored the Srivai.s.nava and (to a lesser extent) Madhva traditions.
24. On the Punjab hill goddesses' transformation from S~kta to (nominally)
Vais.n.ava figures, see Erndl (1993: 43-48). Wangu (1988:175-83) attributes the
shift in the iconography and diet of Khira Bhav~ni, as well as her association
with R~ma and Hanuman, to middle-class Kashmiris' discomfort with their
Tantric heritage in the aftermath of the British critique (see also Lutgendorf
1999: 31-32).
25. For a summary of the arguments concerning Hanuman's possible origins
as a simian yaks.a, see Narula (1991: 20). On Ga0.ega's relation to yak.sas, see
Courtright (I 985: 9, 130-31 ). On Skanda, see Coomaraswamy (1993: 45).
26. Srinivasan (1997: 137-41) argues that the totalizing metaphysical
connotation of vigvarapa as divine 'omniform' is vital to the development of
multiform iconography. Interestingly, she also distinguishes between early four-
and five-faced images of Vi.sn.u and Siva that seem to represent 'theological
statements' and 'do not tell a story' and later multiheaded and multiarmed
images that allude to Pur,~n.ic narratives and to the divine lflds celebrated by
devotional traditions (Srinivasan 1997:12-13). In this sense, the narrative-less
Paficamukhi Hanuman appears as an exemplar of the older, and more theologi-
cally ambitious, variety.
294 / Philip Lutgendorf

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PHILIP LUTGENDORF is Associate Professor of Asian Languages and

Literature at the University of Iowa.