Hanumān Chālīsā — what each line is actually saying
The popular claimForty verses by Tulsīdās. Most who sing them know the tune better than the text.
The Chālīsā is forty caupāī — four-footed Awadhi verses — between an opening and closing dohā. It was written by Tulsīdās, the author of the Rāmcaritmānas, in the sixteenth century, and it has become the one text nearly every Hindi-speaking Hindu knows by heart. Knowing it by heart and knowing what it says are different, and this page is for the second.
The opening dohās
Two couplets before the forty. The first: with the dust of the guru's lotus feet the poet cleans the mirror of his mind, and then tells of Raghuvara's pure glory, which gives the four fruits. The second is the poet's disclaimer — buddhihīna tanu jānike — knowing this body to be without intelligence, he calls on the Son of the Wind to give him strength, wisdom and knowledge, and take away his afflictions. Tulsīdās begins, as he begins the Mānas, by saying he is not equal to the task.
Verses 1–10: who Hanumān is
The first ten caupāīs are a description. Ocean of knowledge and virtue, illuminator of the three worlds; the Wind's son, monkey of Rāma's messenger-work; golden-bodied, well-dressed, earrings, curly hair; thunderbolt and banner in hand, sacred thread of muñja grass; incarnation of Śiva, son of Keśarī. The ninth and tenth begin the deeds: he took a tiny form to appear before Sītā, a terrible form to burn Laṅkā, a huge form to kill the demons — and did Rāma's work.
Verses 11–20: the deeds
This is the Sundara Kāṇḍa and the Yuddha Kāṇḍa in miniature. He brought the herb and revived Lakṣmaṇa, and Rāma embraced him as a brother. Brahmā, Nārada, Sarasvatī, Śeṣa, Yama, Kubera, the guardians of the directions — none can tell his glory. He did Sugrīva a good turn, and made him king; Vibhīṣaṇa took his counsel, and became lord of Laṅkā. The eighteenth is the one everyone remembers — juga sahasra jojana para bhānū — the sun, a thousand yugas of yojanas away, he took for a sweet fruit: the childhood story of leaping at the sun, which Tulsīdās treats as fact. The twentieth: with Rāma's ring in his mouth he crossed the ocean, and no wonder.
Verses 21–30: what he holds
He is the guard at Rāma's door, without whose leave none enters; who takes refuge in him has every happiness and nothing to fear. He alone can contain his own splendour; the three worlds tremble at his roar. Ghosts and demons do not come near where the Great Hero's name is spoken. Disease and pain end at the constant repetition of his name. He frees from difficulty whoever brings him mind, word and deed. Rāma the ascetic king is lord of all, and Hanumān carried out all his work. Whoever brings a wish to him receives the fruit of it, unlimited, in this life.
Verses 31–40: the closing claims
His fame spreads through the four ages. He guards the saints and holy men; he is the destroyer of demons; Rāma's beloved. Mother Jānakī granted him the boon that he may give the eight siddhis and nine nidhis. He holds the nectar of Rāma's devotion and is ever Raghupati's servant. By his song one reaches Rāma and the sorrows of many births end. At the end one goes to Rāma's city, and is born as Hari's devotee. Give the other gods no thought; serving Hanumān one gets every happiness. All trouble is cut, all pain removed, for who remembers the mighty hero. The thirty-ninth is the phala-śruti proper — whoever recites this a hundred times is freed from bondage and gains great happiness; whoever reads this Chālīsā gains siddhi, and Gaurī's Lord is witness. The fortieth signs it: Tulsīdās sadā Hari cerā — Tulsīdās, always Hari's servant, asks the Lord to dwell in his heart.
The closing dohā
Pavana-tanaya saṅkaṭa haraṇa — Son of the Wind, remover of difficulties, form of good fortune: with Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa and Sītā, dwell in my heart, king of the gods. Where the opening dohā was the poet's disclaimer, the closing one is his request.
What the text does
It is a nāma-stotra in the North Indian bhakti mode: name, describe, recount, praise, promise, sign. The deeds are Vālmīki's; the language is Tulsīdās's own Awadhi; the childhood sun-leap is from the later tellings he knew. A reader with the Rāmāyaṇa in mind will find nearly every verse points to a scene.
What this page does not say
It does not adopt the Chālīsā's own promises about what its recitation yields, which are a feature of the genre, and it does not rank Hanumān against any other deity, which the text itself does in verse thirty-six and this page leaves to the text. It describes what the forty verses say so that a reader who has sung them a thousand times can read them once.
Source — Tulsidas, Hanuman Chalisa (Awadhi, 16th century CE); Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kanda and Yuddha Kanda, for the deeds it catalogues; Tulsidas, Ramcharitmanas, for the version he himself knew
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