Highlights
- Eiichiro Oda is a creative genius and One Piece is recognized as one of the greatest manga and anime franchises of all time.
- One Piece is loved for its unique and engaging characters, particularly Monkey D. Luffy, who is inspired by the Hindu God Lord Hanuman.
- The indirect confirmation of Lord Hanuman as Luffy's inspiration came in episode 1074 of the One Piece anime, where Luffy uses an attack named Bajrang Gun, referencing Lord Hanuman's indestructible body.
The creative genius of the manga author Eiichiro Oda is being appreciated worldwide, and he will go down in the history of manga and anime as one of the best adventure shōnen manga and franchise creators, as One Piece has become one of the biggest manga and anime franchises of all time. To be able to create a masterpiece is one thing and to sustain a masterpiece for a long period is altogether another thing. However, Oda did the impossible by achieving these two different things, thus, making One Piece the great manga and anime phenomenon that it is known as today.
Apart from its plot and storytelling style, what fans adore and cherish the most about One Piece is its set of unique, intriguing, and engaging characters. Sitting on the top of this set of fantastic characters is Monkey D. Luffy, the protagonist of the franchise. He is a shōnen protagonist like no other, as his character has been a constant almost throughout the story of the franchise so far, which is something unusual for a shōnen protagonist. But like countless manga and anime characters across different franchises, Luffy is also supposedly inspired by a popular figure in mythology, specifically a quite popular Hindu God known to the world as Lord Hanuman.
Who Is Lord Hanuman?
Lord Hanuman is quite a popular figure in the Hindu mythology of India. He is also one of the most revered Gods and is worshiped by millions of people in India. He is an avatar of Lord Shiva, who is himself a part of the holy trinity in Hindu mythology and is one of the most important Hindu Gods of all time. It is not the first time that people in pop culture have taken inspiration from Hindu mythology. There have been numerous instances where figures in Hindu mythology have rendered inspiration to various famous characters through different forms of entertainment.
For instance, Sun Wukong, who is an extremely popular character from Chinese mythology, has inspired one of the most iconic adventure shōnen protagonists of all time, Son Goku. Similarly, Lord Hanuman seems to have been the inspiration behind Monkey D. Luffy, given all the countless similarities between the two, and not to forget the indirect confirmation that the fans received from Oda regarding the same.
Personality & Attributes
Luffy shares a lot of similarities with Lord Hanuman, including his overall personality, strengths, and character traits. Both Luffy and Lord Hanuman are somewhat connected to the monkeys, given their super active and enthusiastic personalities, and while the former has the word monkey in his name, the latter is also known as the Monkey God. Lord Hanuman is a celibate for life and, similarly, Luffy has almost zero interest in females and pays no romantic heed to any females around him. Vayudev, who is the wind God in Hindu mythology, is also considered the father of Lord Hanuman, apart from his biological father, Kesari, and, guess what, Luffy's father, Monkey D. Dragon, is the leader of the Revolutionary Army, and has been speculated to have the powers of a Devil Fruit that allows him to control weather including, manipulating the surrounding winds at his will.
Both Luffy and Lord Hanuman are closely related to the Sun Gods of their respective universes. Luffy's Devil Fruit turns out to be the one that transforms him into the Sun God Nika, and Lord Hanuman is known to have been a student of the Hindu Sun God Surya and gained most of his wisdom from the latter. Most importantly, Lord Hanuman is a symbol of wisdom, strength, courage, and devotion in Hindu mythology, and Luffy is also a symbol of strength, courage, and he might be the brightest in the room most of the time, but under intense circumstances, he comes on the top as the wisest. Additionally, Lord Hanuman is known to eliminate the fear and anger from the minds and hearts of his devotees. Luffy also does kind of similar things to the people he meets and befriends on his journey to become the king of the pirates.
An Indirect Confirmation Or Just A Homage?
One Piece fans had been contemplating the possibility of Luffy's character being inspired by Lord Hanuman. However, the fans were split on this as a huge number of the fans were speculating that Luffy was based on Sun Wukong, just like the Dragon Ball franchise's Son Goku. However, after years of speculation and debate among the fans of One Piece on social media platforms like Reddit, Oda indirectly ended the debate by indirectly confirming his source of inspiration for Luffy's character. In episode 1074 of the One Piece anime, Luffy uses a new attack against Kaido.
While attacking the Kaido, Luffy shouts the attack's name as Bajrang Gun. Bajrang or Vajrang is an amalgamation of two Sanskrit words: Vajra meaning diamond and Anga meaning body, which means a diamond-like body that is indestructible, which is a direct reference to Lord Hanuman, as he is also known as Bajrangbali because he is indestructible as he is an immortal. Even though Oda did not reveal Lord Hanuman to be the inspiration behind Luffy directly, this reference at the end of the Wano Country Arc pretty much indirectly confirms it.
One Piece is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
