hen he promises to find the ravished Sita, in
the same way as Vishnus in one of his incarnations finds again the lost
vedas. And there are other indications in the Ramayanam of opposition
between Indras and the monkeys who assist Ramas. The great monkey
Hanumant, of the reddish colour of gold, has his jaw broken, Indras having
struck him with his thunderbolt and caused him to fall upon a mountain,
because, while yet a child, he threw himself off a mountain into the air
in order to arrest the course of the sun, whose rays had no effect upon
him. (The cloud rises from the mountain and hides the sun, which is unable
of itself to disperse it; the tempest comes, and brings flashes of
lightning and thunder-bolts, which tear the cloud in pieces.)

The whole legend of the monkey Hanumant represents the sun entering into
the cloud or darkness, and coming out of it. His father is said to be now
the wind, now the elephant of the monkeys (Kapikunjaras), now Kesarin, the
long-haired sun, the sun with a mane, the lion sun (whence his name of
_Kesarinah putrah_). From this point of view, Hanumant would seem to be
the brother of Sugrivas, who is also the offspring of the sun.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}

All the epic monkeys of the _Ramayanam_ are described in the twentieth
canto of the first book by expressions which very closely resemble those
applied in the Vedic hymns to the Marutas, as swift as the tempestuous
wind, changing their shape at pleasure, making a noise like clouds,
sounding like thunder, battling, hurling mountain-peaks, shaking great
uprooted trees, stirring up the deep waters, crushing the earth with their
arms, making the clouds fall. Thus Balin comes out of the cavern as the
sun out of the cloud.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}

But the legend of the monkey Hanumant presents another curious resemblance
to that of Samson. Hanumant is bound with cords by Indrajit, son of
Ravanas; he could easily free himself, but does not wish to do so. Ravanas
to put him to shame, orders his tail to be burned, because the tail is the
part most prized by monkeys.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}

The tail of Hanumant, which sets fire to the city of the monsters, is
probably a personification of the rays of the morning or spring sun, which
sets fire to the eastern heavens, and destroys the abode of the nocturnal
or winter monsters."

DE GUBERNATIS, _Zoological Mythology_, Vol. II. pp. 100 ff.

"The Jaitwas of Rajputana, a tribe politically reckoned as Ra