Ekādaśa Rudras as Vānaras in the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa

The Ekādaśa Rudras are the eleven Rudras, eleven forms of Śiva who are among the foremost devas of the Veda. The vānaras are the forest-dwelling monkey people who formed Śrī Rāma’s army. The sixteenth sarga (chapter) of the Manohara Kāṇḍa of the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa contains a revelation by Garuḍa: each of the leading vānara warriors of Rāma’s army was one of the eleven Rudras. The most important of these is that Hanumān himself is none other than Śiva in his highest form.

The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa traces the origin of the vānaras to the Samudra-manthana, the churning of the ocean. During the churning, great diseases spread from the poisons that were churned up, and the eleven Rudras took birth as vānaras to heal them. Brahmā gave them special boons in return for this service.

Garuḍa’s Revelation

Garuḍa, the divine eagle and vāhana (carrier) of Bhagavān Viṣṇu, and himself a being of vast knowledge, revealed to devotees the true divine identities behind the vānara forms in Rāma’s great army. This revelation is a clear teaching about the nature of Rāma’s allies. They were not simply powerful animals, but devas in animal form, born for the very purpose of taking part in the divine story of the Rāma avatāra.

The teaching links the Vaiṣṇava tradition of the Rāmāyaṇa with the Śaiva tradition of the Purāṇas. The army that served Rāma, the avatāra of Viṣṇu, was made up of the eleven forms of Śiva himself.

Which Vānara Is Which Rudra

The pattern is clear. The other ten vānaras are identified with ten of the Rudra forms, while Hanumān, the greatest among them, is identified with Śiva himself: the eleventh Rudra, the original Mahārudra from whom all the other Rudras come.

Origin in the Churning of the Ocean

The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa explains the origin of the vānaras through the Samudra-manthana, when the devas and asuras churned the great ocean to obtain amṛta (the nectar of immortality). Among the many things that rose from the churning were terrible poisons, including the hālāhala, which Śiva drank to save the three worlds. But the churning also let loose mahāvyādhis (great diseases), terrible plagues that began to spread through the three worlds and threatened both devas and humans.

To meet this crisis, Brahmā asked the eleven Rudras to take birth in a form able to heal and protect, and they were born as vānaras. The vānara form, full of great bodily strength, speed and adaptability, and able to leap across vast distances, was ideal for fighting disease and giving protection.

Brahmā gave these Rudra-vānaras special boons in honour of their self-sacrifice in taking a lower birth for the good of the world. These boons included their extraordinary abilities: Hanumān’s unmatched strength and his immortality, and the special powers of the other vānaras.

What This Means for the Rāma Avatāra

The identification of the vānaras with the Rudras has several layers of meaning:

1. Śiva’s devotion to Rāma: if Hanumān is Śiva, then Śiva himself came down as a vānara to serve Rāma. The highest deva of the Śaivas serves the highest avatāra of the Vaiṣṇavas. This is the fullest expression of the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa’s joining of Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava traditions: not only that the two fit together, but that Śiva himself chose to be the loving servant of Viṣṇu.
2. The dignity of service: the identification raises every act of Hanumān in the Rāmāyaṇa, the search for Sītā, the burning of Laṅkā, the carrying of the Gandhamādana mountain, from the deeds of an extraordinary monkey to the deeds of the Supreme in the form of loving service.
3. Protection from epidemics: there is a traditional belief that pūjā of Hanumān protects from disease and epidemics, seen in the custom of offering pūjā at Hanumān temples in times of plague, epidemic or illness in the community. This account gives its origin: Hanumān, being Śiva, took birth as a vānara for the very purpose of curing epidemic diseases.

Sources

• Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Manohara Kāṇḍa (Book 8), Sarga (Chapter) 16