Hanuman: An Avatar of Shiva

About 7 min read · 1,103 words

Bring the scene of that story-assembly on Kailasa before your eyes. The account of the eleven Rudras had only just closed, Sanatkumara sat with a fresh question rising in him, and Nandishvara, Shiva’s beloved attendant, took up a new thread. Great sage, he said, now hear with love another deed of Shambhu, one in which Shankara stepped forth as Durvasa for the sake of dharma. And after it, the tale in which Maheshvara took a vanara’s body and worked the supreme good of Lord Sri Rama.

Three boons in Atri’s hermitage

This belongs to an earlier age. Atri, the ascetic who knew Brahman and husband of Anasuya, went at Brahma’s direction with his wife to Mount Rikshakula and, longing for a son, gave himself to fierce tapas. Pleased by his austerity, Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshvara, all three, came to his hermitage and spoke. We three are the lords of the world. From our own portions three sons will be born to you, sons renowned across the three worlds who will raise the fame of their parents. So saying, the three gods departed.

In its own time the boon bore fruit. From Brahma’s portion came Chandrama, the Moon, the very Moon who rose from the ocean when the gods cast him into it. From Vishnu’s portion was born Datta, who set flowing the excellent path of sannyasa. And from Rudra’s portion the great sage Durvasa took birth. This is Shiva’s Durvasa avatar.

The trials of Durvasa

Now look at the deeds of this great sage. He put King Ambarisha to the test. And when the Sudarshana chakra came pursuing him, it was by Shiva’s command, at Ambarisha’s own prayer, that the discus grew calm.

He tested Lord Sri Rama as well. It fell out like this. Kala, taking the guise of a sage, had set a condition with Sri Rama: while the two of them spoke, no one was to come near Sri Rama; whoever came would be sent into exile. At that very hour Durvasa arrived and, pressing his will, sent Lakshmana within. Sri Rama, true to his word, gave up Lakshmana in that instant.

He tested Lord Sri Krishna too, and yoked him, with Rukmini beside him, to a chariot. In this manner the sage Durvasa performed many strange and startling deeds. Consider it: behind the hard trials through which the greatest of the righteous passed, stood the very portion of Rudra.

The Mohini form and the seed of Rama’s work

Nandishvara said, sage, now hear after this the story of Hanuman. In the form of Hanuman, Shiva performed the finest of lilas, and in this very form Maheshvara worked the supreme good of Lord Sri Rama. That whole account bestows every kind of happiness, so hear it with love.

There was a time when Lord Shambhu, worker of wondrous lilas and rich in every virtue, beheld Vishnu’s Mohini form, and he grew as troubled as a man pierced by Kamadeva’s arrows. In that moment, for the fulfillment of Rama’s work, that Supreme Lord let fall his seed. Again and again the Purana repeats it here: all of this came about for Rama’s work; even within the lila there was a purpose.

The seven sages gathered that radiant seed into a cup of leaves and kept it safe, for Shiva himself had reverently stirred the thought within them for Rama’s sake. Then those great sages set that radiance within Anjani, the daughter of Gautama, entering by the passage of her ear, and this too for the fulfillment of Rama’s work alone.

When the time came, Shambhu himself emerged from that womb, clothed in a vanara body and endowed with vast strength and valor. He was given the name Hanuman. Other currents of his birth run through the world’s telling, yet this is the Shiva Purana’s account; here Hanuman is directly a portion of Rudra, an avatar of Shiva.

The child who took the sun for a fruit

Now hear the child’s first feat. The mighty lord of monkeys, Hanuman, was still an infant when his eyes fell on the rising disc of the sun, and taking it for a small fruit, he swallowed it whole in an instant. When the gods prayed to him, he knew it for the mighty Sun and cast it back out. Seeing this, the divine sages held him to be an avatar of Shiva and bestowed on him many boons.

Overjoyed with the boons, Hanuman went to his mother and told her the whole account with reverence. Then, with her leave, he drew near the Sun and learned every science from him. The Sun he had once swallowed for a fruit he now made his guru, and this too is a grace of the tale. After that, Hanuman, best of monkeys and portion of Rudra, went at the Sun’s command to Sugriva, who was born of the Sun’s own portion. For this journey as well he had already won his mother’s consent.

Rama’s messenger

Then Nandishvara told the whole story of Lord Sri Rama in brief, and said, sage, in this way Hanuman, best of monkeys, carried out Sri Rama’s work in every fashion. He performed lilas of many kinds, ground down the pride of the asuras, planted devotion to Rama upon the earth, and, standing foremost among devotees himself, brought joy to Sita and Rama.

That Hanuman, the Rudra-avatar crowned with majesty, is the giver of life to Lakshmana and the deliverer of devotees. The great hero Hanuman stays forever ready in Rama’s work, known through the world by the name Ramaduta, slayer of the daityas, and tender toward those who love him.

At the last, Nandishvara declared the fruit of this narrative. Dear one, this noble story swells one’s wealth, fame, and length of days, and grants every wished-for reward. The person who hears it with devotion, or with a steady mind recites it to others, enjoys every pleasure in this world and, at the end, attains the supreme moksha.

So look: one Rudra, two forms. As Durvasa he held dharma to the touchstone, and as Hanuman he set his own shoulder beneath that same dharma. The testing was Shiva’s, and the carrying across was Shiva’s as well.

Source: Shiva Purana (Gita Press, Sankshipta Shiva Purana edition), Shatarudra Samhita