Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.2332

c7.2332

Once during this period the gods and hermits went to Parama Śiva and requested him to beget a son to help Mahāviṣṇu who was about to incarnate as Śrī Rāma to kill Rāvaṇa. Śiva and Pārvatī instantly took the form of monkeys and entered the forest for play. They having not returned for a long time, the gods asked the wind-god to go in search of them. The wind god came in the form of a great storm and shook the whole of the forest. Still they did not come. Pārvatī who was pregnant was ashamed to come out. With Śiva she got on an Aśoka tree and sat there. Seeing that tree alone standing motionless in the big storm Vāyu god approached the tree and looked up. Śiva and Pārvatī appeared before Vāyu. Pārvatī refused to take the foetus in the form of monkey to Kailāsa. As Śiva had instructed, Pārvatī gave the child in the womb to the wind-god. It was at this time that Añjanā had prayed to Vāyu for a child. Vāyu gave that child to Añjanā, who gave birth to it. That child was Hanūmān. Thus Hanūmān got the names, Añjanāputra (son of Añjanā), Vāyuputra (son of Vāyu), Kesari-putra (son of Kesarī) etc. (M.B. Vana Parva, Chapter 417).