The reviewed book is a monograph on the Indian monkey divinity Hanuman, a character in the classical epic Ramayana. The epic has been retold and amplified, with new and variant stories and episodes in many Indian vernaculars and east-of-India languages, and makes a whole large tradition. This work, the fruit of twenty years’ effort, concentrates on North Indian traditions in their behavioral, socio-psychological, visual, and verbal aspects. The behavioral aspect is ritual behavior: described are the customs of players, vows, and poster images, and information is given as to the where, when, and how of these (chapters 3 and 6). Socio-psychological aspects involve interpretations of the deity’s growing popularity in the present socio-economic situation and speculations on its reasons and consequences (chapter 8). The visual aspect is well organized by interested parties: publication of posters, composing of books and brochures in Indian vernaculars and in English, and erection of statues (from small to colossal) and temples all over India. The work gives statistical information that indicates the growing popularity of the cult at the expense of cults to other current divinities (chapters 1 and 8). The verbal aspect (chapters 3 to 5) is the many Ramayanas in various Indian vernaculars and east-of-India languages, and a flood of popular literature with popular Hanuman biographies. (Lutgendorf has coined the name “Hanumayana” for these popular biographies, on the model of “Ramayana,” the story of Rama.) Chapter 4 contains a sampling of themes in these biographies, and chapter 5 some interpretations of the themes. As a framework for the discussion of Hanuman’s role in India, chapter 7 discusses the relationship of people in various cultures to simians in life and in tradition; the pair of a goddess and a monkey in Indian tradition is the center of discussion. Chapter 2 gives the history and historiography of the Hanuman cult and its investigation.
Being an ethnopoetician, this reviewer looked in the book for oral folk traditions in which Hanuman figures. We find the adjectives “oral,” “popular,” “folksy,” in the book (e.g., oral: pages 27, 44, 47, 57, 58, 63; popular: pages 59, 375; folksy: page 204). But the author does not mean here, as we would expect, oral folk stories, but stories found in authored popular publications or told to him by expounders of the Ramayana, i.e., preachers, learned pandits, and religious leaders. These authors are labeled “storytellers” (e.g., pages 114, 187, 224, 288).
Often, Lutgendorf could not find the sources of these stories (e.g., pages 248, 249). The themes (e.g., Hanuman’s birth stories) are additions to the Ramayana. Some of these books and brochures quote unclear and perhaps fanciful sources; for other stories, unidentified “oral sources” are given. The stories for the forty themes (in eighty-seven versions) that Lutgendorf presents do not sound like oral folk tradition. Rather, they remind this reviewer of the ancient Jewish midrashic literature: a learned oral tradition, composed and living in the rabbinic circles; these can be compared to learned pandit circles or inspired gurus and their circle of followers (see, e.g., theme 16, story (a), page 143). Another parallel to the rather colorful stories about Hanuman are the medieval romances of King Arthur and his round table with its knights. The romances are written by known and signed authors. These use some motifs that come from oral folk literature and serve as entertainment literature. This is what may be labeled “written folk literature.” We, the folklorists, would like to know what the people tell of their conferences and meetings with the sacred powers of Hanuman.
Lutgendorf does not give the texts of the stories themselves, but summaries done on the basis of an unstated number of texts. As the forty themes are only a selection of episodes narrated in this popular literature, one would like to have all of them. With only this selection, no analysis of the repertoire as a whole is possible. And for the analysis of single stories summaries will not do. Lutgendorf himself does not analyze the stories or poster images, which are also “telling a story.” He tries to interpret both stories and images at the very general level of the lay reader, and one interpretation is as good as another.
The bibliography (pages 407-413) demonstrates the author’s formidable learning; the Index (pages 415-434) helps us find the names quoted. However, it seems to this reviewer that the main readership of the book should be comparative scholars. For these, the book is a first window onto an interesting field, yet it is not enough to work with, as texts and sources are lacking. Still, the book surely can inspire further study.
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[Review length: 771 words • Review posted on October 10, 2007]