Summary
The creative genius of the manga author Eiichiro Oda is being appreciated worldwide, andhe will go down in the historyof manga and anime as one of the best adventure shōnen manga and franchise creators, asOne Piecehas 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, makingOne Piecethe 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 aboutOne Pieceis its set of unique, intriguing, and engaging characters.Sitting on the topof 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.
Related:One Piece: Does Caribou Know Too Much?
Who Is Lord Hanuman?
Lord Hanuman is quite a popular figure in the Hindu mythology of India. He is alsoone of the most reveredGods 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 tovarious famous characters throughdifferent 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, includinghis 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 isa symbol of wisdom, strength, courage, and devotionin 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 journeyto become the king of the pirates.
An Indirect Confirmation Or Just A Homage?
One Piecefans had been contemplating the possibility of Luffy’s character being inspired by Lord Hanuman. However, the fans were split on this as a hugenumber of the fans were speculatingthat 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 ofOne Pieceon social media platforms like Reddit, Odaindirectly ended the debateby indirectly confirming his source of inspiration for Luffy’s character. In episode 1074 of theOne Pieceanime, 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-likebody 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.
