Vayu

In Hinduism, Vayu (Sanskrit वायु (properly transliterated as Vāyu), also known as Vāta वात, Pavana पवन (meaning the Purifier) , or Prāna, is a primary deity, who is the father of Bhima and the spiritual father of Lord Hanuman. As the words for air (Vāyu) or wind (Pavana) it is one of the Panchamahābhuta the "five great elements" in Hinduism. The Sanskrit word 'Vāta' literally means "", 'Vāyu' "", and 'Prāna' "" (viz. the breath of life, cf. the *an- in ''). Hence, the primary referent of the word is the "deity of Life", who is sometimes for clarity referred to as "Mukhya-Vāyu" (the chief Vāyu) or "Mukhya Prāna" (the chief of Life). There is a set of five deities, each called Prāna (life), with Mukhya-Prāna being chief among them. (This is the reason that, for example, in Hindi and other Indian languages, someone's death is stated using the plural as "his lives departed" (uske prān nikal gaye) rather than "his life departed.") The five Vāyu deities are known in the classical literature as Prāna, Apāna, Vyāna, Udāna, and Samāna, and control life (and the vital breath), the wind, touch/sensation, digestion, and excretion.
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Noun
1. wind god
(hypernym) Hindu deity

[Hindu] An early deity of the wind or wind spirit in Hindu myth. Allied to him are the Maruts, the storm devils.

Vayu (Sanskrit) Air; one of the five cosmic elements. Personified, the god and sovereign of the air and the king of the gandharvas. Agni, Vayu, and Surya formed the primeval Vedic Trimurti: " 'Agni (fire) whose place is on earth; Vayu (air, or one of the forms of Indra), whose place is in the air; and Surya (the sun) whose place is in the air' [celestial spaces]. (Nirukta.) In esoteric interpretation, these three cosmic principles, correspond with the three human principles, Kama, Kama-Manas and Manas, the sun of the intellect" (TG 361). These three deities in this connection are three manifestations of cosmic fohat, guided and directed by cosmic mahat.
In later mythology Vayu is the father of Hanuman, the monkey-king who aids Rama in the Ramayana. The allegory of Hanuman becoming the son of Vayu by Anjuna (an ape-like monster) refers to the first glimmering of mind coming into the highest apes through the miscegenation of unevolved late third root-race and early fourth root-race humans with certain simians, themselves the descendants of a previous and parallel origin during an earlier time of the third root-race.

Synonyms and related words:
Agni, Asvins, Avalokita, Bhairava, Bhairavi, Brahma, Chandi, Daksha, Devaki, Devi, Dharma, Dharti Mai, Durga, Dyaus, Ganapati, Ganesa, Ganesha, Garuda, Hanuman, Himavat, Indra, Kali, Kama, Kamsa, Karttikeya, Lakshmi, Parjanya, Parvati, Pushan, Rahu, Rhibhus, Rudra, Sarasvati, Savitar, Shiva, Sita, Soma, Surya, Uma, Ushas, Vaja, Varuna, Varuni, Vishnu, Yama, Zephyr, Zephyrus