Today, companies like Kridana.com are selling bad-ass Hanuman action figures like the one above. This isn’t your father’s Hanuman. This one looks like a professional triathlete/MMA Fighter. There are two types of parents that would buy a toy like this for their child. The first is the young, second-generation couple that is worried that they aren’t doing enough to familiarize their child with their religious Hindu roots. It would be bad if Hinduism became irrelevant to the next generation so Hanuman, and similar action figures, can serve as a good stop-gap measure. The other kind of parent (the kind that I one day hope to be) would buy this for themselves. Check it out, here is the scenario. You could buy the Hanuman above and also a barrel of monkeys. Then you could pretend that Hanuman was a great general and that under his leadership the barrel of monkeys were able to sweep forth and stem the tide of evil monkey attacks currently taking place in Indian cities like Delhi. The people of India would be grateful and a beautiful woman would fall for him (not just because of his muscles but because of his virtue, good soul, and leadership abilities). Speaking of which, I have to hit up the gym.
Does anyone else think that Hanuman looks a bit like a brown Panthro?
yeah, panthro 4 sure.
I kind of want these.
But even more, I want some enterprising enterprise to make action figures based on “my” Hanuman, Sita and Rama. Anyone here in plastics?
That is one ripped macaca. Temple monkeys let themselves go and get fat on ladoo
Every station stop in the North East Corridor south of Newark (Edison, New Brunswick onwards) seems to have large posters of these Rama and Hanuman action figures. These are kridana ads. Then there are the posters for Nach Baliye or something like that (Indian copy of ‘Dancing with the stars’
“Does anyone else think that Hanuman looks a bit like a brown Panthro?â€
panthro is more hench, where as this hanuman is more ripped, I think that it should be the other way round seeing as panthers are more wiry.
It might just be the grayish colour but this hanuman looks older and wiser.
If you’re going to have a boyhood hero, hanuman is not a bad choice; he could kick the power rangers and Barney’s arse with great ease. 😉
Lol, badass indeed, I likey. Wonder if they plan on coming out with Ravana with expandable 10 heards or something. Cool post Abhi, is that link under ‘your father’s Hanuman’ broken?
Haha, this is pretty amusing.
Fixed.
blasphemous. You should go without food for 108 tuesdays. Make 40 monkey jumps in the gym just to be on safe side.
Buying the Rama and Hanuman set for my three little macacas (and my nephew)–along with the barrel of monkeys–at your suggestion. The particular “beautiful [Desi] woman” is no longer sold. Any suggestions?
Very excited about this. Let’s get on the floor and play, boys!
Check out http://www.desiknowledge.com for more good stuff.
HA! I can’t believe you said and linked to that man. That was bad. ; )
I dunno about Panthro; my first thought was that he reminded me of this dude in the original Planet of the Apes…
http://www.tvguide.com/movies/dbpix/images/10756a.jpg
Sorry for the incorrect/broken link above. Try this one: http://www.desiknowledge.org/
Just checked out the desiknowledge site. However if I understand correctly what they are implying, this got on my nerves
I think the grounds for a strapping, bad-ass Hanuman were clearly established by Ramanand Sagar having him played by Dara Singh. Can’t get much more bad-ass than that, eh?
I’m getting everyone these for Christmas
Howdy Mutineers!
I love the idea of these dolls. For sure, however, I’d love the idea of dolls that make us love and respect ourselves/each other even more. In the USA, we have dolls and action figures to appeal to a wide-array of kids. Typically, a red-haired, white child is bought a red-haired, Anglo doll, or the red-head child would prefer a red-haired doll. An African-American child would choose an African-American doll, and so the toy manufacturer makes an African-American doll. This is all intuitive.
However, I’m scouring the Net, and these are 3 hyperlinks that I get of Hindu gods/goddesses:
http://figs.cyberciti.biz/blogs/hm/movie_HANUMAN_epic_story.jpg http://www.travelbild.com/images/lib/bd97b455ff9e455898a109e3868df96e.jpg http://www.dharmakshetra.com/literature/puranas/baby%20ganesha.jpg
Do you notice what I noticed?
This is shocking, but these artist’s depiction of Hanuman, Sita, and Ganesha are Germanic! I swear, if Hanuman had some lederhosens, he’d for sure be “Hanselmann”. This Sita were posing with a Kremlin backdrop, she could pass as “Svetlana”.
What’s up with these Hindu gods/goddesses having very light-colored skin, brown hair (as in the case with Hanselmann and Ganesha), and blue-eyes?
Why can’t they have kinky hair (like some Hindus), black hair (like all Hindus), brown/black eyes (like most Hindus)? Instead, they the artists depict these gods with phenotypes NOT found at all within India (discounting expat European tourists), who are “unattainably perfected beings” worthy of being worshipped.
At the subconscious level, the end-user would believe that these are qualities deemed worshippable and superior. Implicitly, she/he would disrespect themselves more, and they would respect more these people with these Germanic features.
Anyways, yea to Kridana’s interpretation of Hanuman. Kridana’s Hanuman may not be my species, but at least he is brown-eyed and brown-skinned like me.
That’s not cool. His age has nothing to do with his irrelevance 🙂
I buy the young second-generation parent idea in theory but have trouble envisioning it in reality.
But if my child starts playing very enthusiastically with his/her eight-armed Kali action figure (severed demon heads sold separately), should I worry…? 😉
Question to Mutineers-leaning-to-the-right:
Thoughts on reducing Uthama Purusha to an action figure?
You are awesome! How do I get you my postal address?
Nina P. – Congratulations on finishing your film! The site is GORGEOUS! I can’t wait until it comes to the East Coast.
I actually think he looks more like SRK in Om Shanti Om. With the exception of the body hair of course.
I remember buying a few brown-skinned, mustachioed GI Joes in the 80s in Delhi. I wish I could remember his name…
picks up phone, dials home frantically asking Mom if we still have that box of old toys in the basement
That Hanuman inspires even more unrealistic expectations for little Indian boys than Barbie did. That’s not a typo. I actually wanted to be a top-heavy blonde girl.
But oddly fair-haired on the head, where humans have the most hair (usually). I could also see him create feelings of inadequacy among body-conscious boys, as he appears to sport a ten-pack.
Lizzie: Thanks!
That’s reasonable because it’s common to find blonde/brown haired monkeys in India.
Actually, do we even have black haired monkeys in India? I don’t recall seeing one. Hmm.. some googling is in order
Will these toys be made in China ? That could lead to trouble…
25 · Nina P on November 19, 2007 03:06 PM · Direct link Anyways, yea to Kridana’s interpretation of Hanuman. Kridana’s Hanuman may not be my species, but at least he is brown-eyed and brown-skinned like me. But oddly fair-haired on the head, where humans have the most hair (usually). I could also see him create feelings of inadequacy among body-conscious boys, as he appears to sport a ten-pack. Lizzie: Thanks!
At least a nice set of abs is attainable. People can acquire this through hard work. A 10-pack ab? Well at least nobody in my genus species can attain that. So it doesn’t make me feel inadequate, just like having gills like a salmon doesn’t make me inadequate. NOTE: White skin, blue eyes, brown-hair (like what I pointed out in http://www.dharmakshetra.com/literature/puranas/baby%20ganesha.jpg ) doesn’t make me feel inadequate, either.
26 · Pagla on November 19, 2007 03:56 PM · Direct link But oddly fair-haired on the head, where humans have the most hair (usually). I could also see him create feelings of inadequacy among body-conscious boys, as he appears to sport a ten-pack. That’s reasonable because it’s common to find blonde/brown haired monkeys in India. Actually, do we even have black haired monkeys in India? I don’t recall seeing one. Hmm.. some googling is in order
I think that you’re better off asking “do we even have monkeys capable of civil engineering projects (i.e. bridge building)?” as opposed to their pigmentation. Regarding the image – http://www.dharmakshetra.com/literature/puranas/baby%20ganesha.jpg – some non-desi people who are unfamiliar with Hinduism may be horribly repulsed that this Germanic elephant boy – Ganesch(sic) – is embracing that phallic symbol. So maybe I should have been more vocal by this aspect, as opposed to the artist depicting Ganesch(sic) as a Teutonic tusker.
Here’s a picture of an Indian monkey with black skin and dark eyes, by the way: http://www.exzooberance.com/virtual%20zoo/they%20walk/monkey/Indian%20Monkey%20485096.jpg
You are awesome! How do I get you my postal address?
Gruhastu, thanks so much, that’s just all what I was looking for.
What is up with tiny-assed Mount Dronagiri? (See other product pictures.)
Between this ripped Hanuman action figure and the Who You Callin’ Macaca? tshirts, I’m all set w.r.t. Festivus gifts.
Hi Folks,
This is Mahender from Kridana.
Thanks to Abhi for the great post and to all of you for the fantastic discussion. We’re thrilled that so many mutineers like our toys!
While we’re starting with Hanuman and Rama, there are more figures in the works (assuming you keep buying ’em). There’s a decision that we’re facing now, and I thought why not open it up to you.
What shade of brown should Ravana be? Does it matter to you? As Boston Mahesh hinted at above, this question is fundamentally about cultural identity. We’ve already received a wide range of reactions (some quite surprising), and would love to add your feedback to the mix.
Cheers!
Laxman, same as Ram; Ravana, purple with rage or green with jealousy; Sita, Fair und Lovely, exact same as Aishwarya, what else?
Will you guys make a chess set for children of all ages??
31 · mahender_at_kridana on November 20, 2007 11:05 PM · Direct link Hi Folks,
This is Mahender from Kridana.
Thanks to Abhi for the great post and to all of you for the fantastic discussion. We’re thrilled that so many mutineers like our toys!
While we’re starting with Hanuman and Rama, there are more figures in the works (assuming you keep buying ’em). There’s a decision that we’re facing now, and I thought why not open it up to you.
What shade of brown should Ravana be? Does it matter to you? As Boston Mahesh hinted at above, this question is fundamentally about cultural identity. We’ve already received a wide range of reactions (some quite surprising), and would love to add your feedback to the mix.
Cheers!
Thanks for asking me my input. (1) What color should Ravana be, and (2) does it matter to me? For (1), it should be a skin-complexion which is NOT alien to the majority of Indians! Another words, white-skinned (ala Spanish or Germanic) is, indeed, alien to the majority of Indians. (2) This matters, not only to me, but to every self-respecting BROWN-SKINNED Indian, but I’m one of the only ones who will stand up for this injustice.
Yep – langurs
Depictions of Hanuman
Your fathers hanuman was a “>kick ass wrestler 🙂
Brown hanumans are common, but so are many other depictions
Most temples in South India have granite statues: Anjeneya (hanuman) becomes correspondingly black
A line of thought is that to clearly differentiate some gods, artists gave them non-human colors Many hanuman depictions I saw growing up were in blue , green , etc
Thais call hanuman the white monkey.
One of their stories is that the Lankan fishes led by the fish queen (ravan’s daughter) tried to destroy Ram Setu. Hanuman kicked their ass and got to some monkey business with the queen – quite different from the Indian Bachelor view of hanuman
The Chinese have their Buddhist influenced depictions of hanuman in Wu Kong. This influence spread to the Japanese as well through the Chinese literature and manifested itself Son Goku. Japan put their own take on hanuman, which has even crept into cheesy anime (and decent ones as well)
So what is the color of hanuman – loko bhinna ruchi – it really depends on what a persons conception of him should be.
Here is a list of different views of hanuman from different places.
Mahender, how about a nice neutral olive complexion for Ravana and everyone who is neither blue nor a monkey? While few Indians are pasty white, I am tired of rakshasas (demons) being depicted with dark brown skin and devas (gods) with European white skin and features. In fact, a number of demon kings were religious scholars (like Ravana himself) and prayed to gods for boons, etc. To conflate dark skin with demons and, hence, evil does no justice to the subtleties of Hindu mythology.
DizzyDesi, basalt (not granite) is in great abundance in South India and was utilized to make statues of all gods, not just Hanuman or the supposedly dark-skinned ones. We have plenty of black Vishnus, Parvatis, Lakshmis and Saraswatis down there. White marble is aplenty up north which accounts for the white marble Hanumans, Sivas and RadhaKrishnas I’ve seen in Gujarati mandirs.
DizzyDesi,
You patiently gave a great reply! Thanks! Anyways, I think that it’s perfectly natural that the Oriental cultures depict Hanuman with ethnic features that resonate with the local populace. But these Saxon features that I’m seeing on a lot of Hindu dolls offends me a bit, because the ethinc features that they have does NOT correspond to the local populace of India. Hanuman has been Germanified to “Hanselmann”, as if the artist were to say “We’re a Germanic people.” NOTE: Some Indians feel that they are Germanic (please see the post that I did a few weeks ago stating that ‘Germans are the greatest race of the world’ from a Gujarati site).
NOT A GOOD TOY.. DIDNT LIKE IT ..lotta anatomy probs,, lack of details..not suiting the character ..hanuman should be much better than this .