Vayu

In Hinduism, Vayu (Sanskrit वायु (properly transliterated as Vāyu), also known as Vāta वात, Pavana पवन, or Prāna, is a primary god, and the father of Bhima and 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 words Vāyu and 'Vāta' are cognate to the Latin 'vita' meaning life. The primary referent of the word is thus the "god of Life," who is sometimes for clarity referred to as "Mukhya-Vāyu" (the chief Vāyu) or "Mukhya Prana" (the chief of Life). `Vāyu' , 'Vāta' and `Prāna' are synonyms. 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 secondary meaning of `Vāyu' to refer to wind derives from another referent. 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.

In the Upanishads there are numerous statements and illustrations of the greatness of Vāyu. The Brhadaranyaka states that the gods who control bodily functions once engaged in a contest to determine who among them is the greatest. When a deity such as that of vision would leave a man's body, that man would continue to live, albeit as a blind man, and would regain the lost faculty once the errant deity returned to his post. One by one, the deities all took their turns leaving the body, but the man continued to live on, though successively impaired in various ways. Finally, when Mukhya Prāna started to leave the body, all the other deities started to be inexorably pulled off their posts by force, "just as a powerful horse yanks off pegs in the ground to which he is bound." This caused the other deities to realize that they can function only when empowered by Vayu, and can be overpowered by him easily. In another episode, Vāyu is said to be the only deity not afflicted by demons of sin who were on the attack. The Chandogya states that one cannot know Brahman except by knowing Vāyu as the udgitha.

Followers of Dvaita philosophy hold that Mukhya-Vāyu incarnated as Madhvacharya to teach worthy souls to worship the Supreme God Vishnu and to correct the errors of the Advaita philosophy. Madhvacharya himself makes this claim, citing the Rig Veda as his evidence.

Pavan is also a fairly common Hindu name. Pavan had played an important role in Anjana's begetting Hanuman as her child. Hence Hanuman is also called Pavan-Putra (son of Pavana) and Vāyu-Putra.