Anjeyanadri Hill

Where Hanuman was born is claimed by more than one place.

One strong tradition places his birth on Anjanadri, a steep hill of great boulders near the ruins of Hampi in Karnataka in southern India, across the river Tungabhadra from the old kingdom of Kishkinda, and pilgrims climb hundreds of steps to the small white temple at its top.

Another tradition places it on Anjanadri, one of the seven hills of Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh, There are others still, in the north and west of India.

Each is loved by its devotees, and the question has never been settled.

Whatever the place, the stories agree that the child who was born was extraordinary from the beginning.

At Namakal, in Tamil Nadu, there is a huge standing image of Hanuman, carved from a single stone, which stands under the open sky, facing a shrine of Vishnu.

In the south, devotees offer him garlands made of vadai, small savoury fried lentil cakes strung together, sometimes in their thousands, and in some temples, garlands of betel leaves, or coatings of butter.

And on Anjanadri, the boulder hill near Hampi, that is claimed as his birthplace, pilgrims climb more than 500 steps up the rock face to the small white temple on the summit, passing troops of monkeys on the way, and look out from the top, across the river, and the vast glowing landscape of granite boulders that the tradition calls Kishkindha.