Lord Hanuman is given prayers with various names. He is a symbol of strength, faith and positivity. He is an ardent devotee of Lord Rama. One of the names that we address Lord Hanuman with is, Maruti. The literal meaning of the word ‘Maruti’ is the one who is born from ‘Marut’, meaning air. The other names that suggest Hanuman is the son of Air god include Maruti Nandan (Air god’s son), Marutadmaja (the one born from Air), Vayu Putra (Air god’s son), and others.
Hindu Mythology records an interesting story on the same. According to it, Ahalya was a beautiful damsel and was Sage Gautama’s wife. They had 3 children; Bali, Sugreeva and Anjana. Of those two, Bali and Sugreeva were their step sons.
One day, the sage took his family to visit River Tunga Bhadra. He was carrying both his sons on his shoulder and his wife was walking along with their daughter Anjana. It wasa sunny day and Anjana’s feet were burning because of the heat. She got enraged and angrily told her father that it was not fair that he was taking care of his stepsons and letting his own daughter walk in hot sun. this enraged Gautama and threw both his sons into the river and prayed that if they were his own sons, the river will return them back, otherwise they would go to the shore as monkeys. The two brothers were wshed to the shore and were turned into monkeys. They grew up in the forest as rulers.
This outraged Ahalya and cursed her daughter that her son would also be turned into a monkey. Gautama cursed his wife Ahalya that she would turn into a stone. Ahalya fell at the feel of the Sage and pleaded guilty. She told him that it was not her mistake and that she was cheated by Sun and Indra. Gautama felt pity on her and told that the curse cannot be taken back but she would gain her human form when Lord Rama’s feet would touch her.
Later Anjana got married to Kesari and they gave birth to Hanuman. According to her mother’s curse, Hanuman was born as a monkey. Thus hanuman was called Anjani Putra, Kesari Nandam and Aanjaneya.
