Page:Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists.djvu/44

 qualities for which he stands. It may be questioned whether there is in the whole of literature another apotheosis of loyalty and self-surrender like that of Hanuman. He is the Hindu ideal] of the perfect servant, the servant who finds full realization of manhood, of faithfulness, of his obedience; the subordinate whose glory is in his own inferiority.

Hanuman must have been already ancient when the Ramayana was first conceived. What may have been the first impulse that created him it is now useless to guess. But he is linked to a grander order than that of Sugriva and Bali, the princes whom he serves, inasmuch as he, like Jatayu, is said to be the son of Vayu, known in the Vedas as the god of the winds. In any case the depth and seriousness of the part assigned to him in the great poem assure him of unfading immortality. Whatever may have been his age or origin, Hanuman is captured and placed by the Ramayana amongst religious conceptions of the highest import. When he bows to touch the foot of Rama, that Prince who is also a divine incarnation, we witness the meeting-point of early nature-worships with the great systems that are to sway the future of religion. But we must not forget that in this one figure those early systems have achieved the spiritual quality and made a lasting contribution to the idealism of man. In ages to come the religion of Vishnu, the Preserver, will never be able to dispense with that greatest of devotees, the monkey-god; and even in its later phases, when Garuda—the divine bird, who haunted the imagination of all early peoples—has taken his final place as the vehicle, or attendant, of Narayana, Hanuman is never really displaced The wonderful creation of Valmiki will retain to the end of time his domination over the hearts and consciences of men