Hanuman About the House

At the heart of the city of elephants, Hastinapura, the Lord Hanuman did make his home, but it was not the Celestial Palace we know so well from other tales of the Monkey King. Pawanputra Hanuman was in those days without such means, and was so obliged to seek affordable accommodation, a quest which saw him victorious when he agreed to share with Anjana and Sita, both of whom were considered great beauties in their way.

One day as Anjana gathered messages which had come from the king, she learned that the date of Lord Hanuman's birth was most imminent, having accidentally read notice of an appointment with the apothecary.

'What should we do, Sita?' she asked of her friend and household companion. 'Should we give him one?'

Sita's face grew red with surprise and embarrassment. 'Gosh!,' she exclaimed. 'That's very modern of you!'

'No, silly,' said Anjana. 'My meaning was, should we give to him a birthday present?'

'That is a very good and fine idea,' said Sita, 'although I know it would be unwise to give him a pearl necklace.'

'Crikey!' said Anjana. 'I would also say that it would be impossible because we are both ladies and it is my belief that such transactions are ordinarily conducted in the other direction!'

They stood for a moment or two because there seemed to be laughter all around, and so they were unable to continue their discussion.

'No,' said Sita. 'You misunderstand me. If you will recall, I once tried to present the Lord Hanuman with just such a gift, but he politely refused it, for it did not feature the name of Rama and was in this way unacceptable to him.'

'So he did not like it then?'

'No, and he was not happy about the necklace either!'

Again there seemed to be laughter all around, and just as it receded, Lord Hanuman himself did come into the parlour.

'Hello, you two,' he said. 'What are we discussing today? I thought I heard you mention something about giving me one!' As he made this statement, he did catch Anjana's eye whilst smiling and raising his eyebrow in a meaningful way.

'Men!' said Sita indignantly.

Anjana sighed and shook her head. 'I really wish you would cease with this line of enquiry, my Lord, for as well you know I am cursed by a certain sage so that when I fall in love, my face will come to resemble that of a monkey, an eventuality I wish to avoid.'

'What's wrong with looking like a monkey?' said the Lord Hanuman, a little injured.

'Besides, I am saving myself for Kesari,' Anjana added, 'and I am technically your mother, I rather think you will find.'

'This is all very confusing,' observed Sita. 'I hardly know whether I'm coming or going.'

'Blimey,' said Lord Hanuman. 'Would you like to sit down? Maybe I could fetch you a chair.'


Much later, following a lengthy series of slightly repetitive comic misunderstandings, Anjana and Sita presented a gift to Lord Hanuman. They first draped a muslin cloth over the gift so as to conceal its nature and enhance the sense of surprise. Unfortunately this gave the gift a priapic appearance which put everyone in mind of the male generative member.

'I wonder what it can be,' said the Lord Hanuman dubiously.

'I shall give you a clue,' said Sita. 'You will enjoy it in your mouth.'

'Crikey,' spluttered Lord Hanuman. 'I rather think you girls may have entirely the wrong idea about me!'

Then they revealed that the gift was in fact a banana.

'Because you're a monkey, and monkeys like bananas,' Sita explained happily, which cleared up all further laboured comic misunderstandings.