Anjana's Pregnancy Revealed and Her Banishment by Her Mother-in-Law

Some days later Anjana showed signs of pregnancy, as if the fame of Hanuman in her womb were already showing. Her mother-in-law Ketumati demanded who was responsible, and when Anjana told of her husband's secret visit, Ketumati called her a shameless sinner who had stained a lineage bright as moonlight, blamed Vasantamala for leading her astray, and refused to believe even the ring and bracelets.

In fury Ketumati ordered a servant named Krura to put Anjana and her companion in a cart and leave them near Mahendranagara; Anjana answered not a word, only blaming her own karma, and at dusk Krura set them down near the city, begged her pardon for obeying his mistress, and went back to report.

After a sleepless night on a bed of leaves made by Vasantamala, Anjana went to her father's palace, where the gatekeeper Shilakavata did not recognise her grief-worn face until Vasantamala explained. King Mahendra first told his son Prasannakirti to welcome her and decorate the city, but on hearing the cause he angrily ordered the ‘sinful’ girl driven out.

The great vassal Mahotsaha, the king's close friend, pleaded that Ketumati was cruel, ignorant of Jain dharma and devoted to other creeds, and must have falsely accused the pious, vow-keeping Anjana, so Vasantamala should be questioned. Mahendra replied that Vasantamala's love would hide the truth, that everyone knew Pavananjaya never even looked at Anjana, and that whoever sheltered her in his kingdom would be his enemy, and had her turned away.

Every kinsman's door was shut against her, since all depended on the king, so preferring death to dishonour she went into the forest with Vasantamala, weeping that neither her mother nor the brothers born of the same womb had spoken for her. Vasantamala held her close and consoled her that the fruit of past karma must be borne and that even gods suffer at the end of their heavenly lives.

Too heavy with child to fly, Anjana walked behind her friend through the terrible Matangamalini forest, dense and sunless, full of pythons and wild beasts, needle-sharp thorns, stones and rushing torrents, her feet streaming blood, until at the foot of a mountain she could go no further and Vasantamala coaxed her on to a nearby cave.

At the cave mouth they found a Charana muni (a monk who can travel through the sky) seated motionless in the lotus posture on a pure slab, gaze fixed on the tip of his nose; they circled him three times and bowed, all fear left them, and Vasantamala asked why Anjana's husband had shunned her so long, why he had returned to her, and who had entered her womb.

The monk Amitagati, possessor of three kinds of knowledge, first told the child's past lives: in the city of Mandara in Bharata Kshetra the householder Priyanandi and his wife Jaya had a son Damayanta, who left his friends' spring revels to hear a monk, took right faith and the householder's vows, fed monks with the seven virtues of a donor and ninefold devotion, and died in samadhi (meditative calm) to become a god.

He was next born as Simhachandra, son of King Harichandra and Queen Priyangulakshmi of Mriganka city, served the monks and again became a god; then as Simhavahana, son of King Sukantha and Queen Kanakodari of Arunapura on Vijayardha, who after a long reign found detachment in the Samavasarana (divine assembly hall) of Vimalanatha, gave the kingdom to his son Lakshmivahana and took the monk's vows from Lakshmitilaka.

By severe austerities Simhavahana gained riddhis (supernatural powers), so that even the breeze touching his body cured others' diseases; enduring the twenty-two hardships, he died and became a god of great powers in Lantava, the seventh heaven, and from there, unattached to heavenly joys, he had come into Anjana's womb as a charama-sharira (a soul in its final body) who would attain liberation in this very life.

Then the monk told Anjana's own past: as Kanakodari, a chief queen proud of her rank, she had in anger at a co-wife put an image of the Jina out of the temple for a moment. The renowned nun Samyamashri, arriving for alms, refused food at this irreverence and taught her that merit alone had made her a rich chief queen with a son of wondrous deeds, that human birth is hard to win, and that dishonouring the Arhat's image leads to hell while devotion leads to heaven and liberation.

Frightened of hell, Kanakodari took right faith and the householder's vows, restored the image and worshipped it with the eightfold offering, died in samadhi and went to heaven, and was then born as Anjanasundari, daughter of King Mahendra and Queen Manovega. Her moment of irreverence to the image was why she suffered separation from her husband and disgrace before her family.

The monk also recounted Mishrakeshi's taunt three days before the wedding and the chakavi at Manasarovara whose plight brought Pavananjaya back, urged Anjana to devote herself to the Jina, and foretold that her son would be of unbroken might, unconquerable even by gods, and that she would soon be reunited with her husband. Then he flew away, and the two women stayed in the cave he had sanctified to await the birth, Vasantamala obtaining food by her vidya (magical science).

That night a roaring lion came to the cave mouth; Anjana vowed to renounce all food and water should she die in this calamity, and Vasantamala darted between sky and ground, sword in hand, lamenting her mistress's sorrows. Then the cave's guardian, the Gandharva god Manichula, urged by his wife Ratnachula, took the form of an ashtapada (a fabulous beast mightier than a lion) and drove the lion away with a blow of its paw.

At midnight the Gandharva sang the Jina's praises to vina, cymbals, mridanga drum and flute in the seven notes (shadja, rishabha, gandhara, madhyama, panchama, dhaivata and nishada), with three tempos and twenty-one murchhanas, hymning Munisuvrata; the women installed an image of Munisuvrata in the cave, worshipped it with fragrant offerings, and lived on under the god's protection.

When her time came, Anjana gave birth to Hanuman on a bed of soft leaves, as the east gives birth to the sun, and the cave shone as if made of gold. Holding him close, she grieved that she could not celebrate his birth in his grandfather's house and blessed him with long life, while Vasantamala declared that the child bore every auspicious mark and would possess great powers.

A shining vimana appeared in the sky, and Anjana wept in fear that an enemy had come for her son; hearing her, the Vidyadhara landed, entered courteously with his wife and heard the whole story from Vasantamala. He revealed himself as King Pratisurya, lord of Hanuruha Island, son of King Chitrabhanu and Queen Sundaramalini, and Anjana's maternal uncle, who had not recognised his niece after so many years; uncle, niece and aunt embraced and wept until the cave echoed.

At Anjana's request Pratisurya consulted an astrologer, who cast the horoscope for the midnight birth on the eighth day of the dark half of Chaitra under Shravana nakshatra, with the sun exalted in Aries, Jupiter exalted in Cancer and every planet strong, in an auspicious Brahma yoga, and declared that the child would enjoy a wondrous kingdom, take up the monk's life and attain liberation in this very birth; Pratisurya rewarded him richly.

After Anjana begged forgiveness of the Gandharva god, all set off in Pratisurya's vimana, but the laughing baby leapt from his mother's lap and fell onto a mountain. Amid her wailing Pratisurya descended and found the mountain shattered into thousands of pieces while the child, radiant as befits one holding the rank of Kamadeva (the supremely handsome man of an age), lay smiling on a slab, sucking his toe; declaring that he had a perfectly proportioned body and the adamantine vajra-vrishabha-naracha frame and would be liberated in this life, Pratisurya and his queens circled him three times and bowed.

In Pratisurya's city, bright with flags and arches, the Vidyadharas celebrated the birth as gods celebrate the birth of an Indra. Because he was born in a mountain cave and shattered a mountain, his mother and uncle named him Shrishaila, and because his birth festival was held on Hanuruha Island he became famous on earth as Hanuman, growing up there in splendour; Gautama told Shrenika that by past merit even the thunderbolt turns soft as a flower and fire cool as moonlight.