3 Hanuman swallows sun

Hanuman swallows the sun / Hanuman schluckt die Sonne (1999)

Oil and tempera on canvas
75 x 61cm

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This picture tells the story of the youth of Hanuman, up to the point when he meets Rama and Lakshman.  I place this humorous yet universal description of youth at the beginning of the cycle and it goes like this:

Hanuman's mother, a nymph, is out gathering food; his father, Marut, the Wind is also absent.  The baby Hanuman wakes up and sees the sun rising over the horizon.  He thinks it is a sweet fruit like an orange, and leaps for it.  The little monkey swallows the sun, and the Sun god in amazement and consternation, complains to Indra, King of the gods.  Very angry, he jumps into his carriage, draws up to Hanuman and slaps him so hard that the baby's jaw breaks and Hanuman falls unconscious to earth.  Marut, thinking his son dead, stops all winds and takes Hanuman to a cave to grieve.  But, in the view of Ayurvedic medicine, the circulation of wind is vital to all life; if the wind is not circulating in the body, the result is total constipation.  Men and gods very quickly come to this realization, and Indra gathers the gods to make amends.

Hanuman is not only brought back to life but is also given great boons by the gods: invulnerability, great rhetoric and infinite wisdom are only some of the gifts bestowed on the baby.  Hanuman returns the sun to the sky, and Marut moves the winds again.  But after a while,  Hanuman – now a cocky adolescent and fully aware of his gifts –   makes a real nuisance of himself by breaking pots and pans and even disturbing the meditation of the hermits.  They gather and decide to curse Hanuman in such a way that he will forget his gifts and become a sensible monkey.  By the time he meets Rama and Lakshman, he has become an adviser to the monkey king Sugriva, and through service to Rama he will gradually rediscover his gifts.