In the timeless epic Ramayana, one of the most enigmatic and often misunderstood elements is the portrayal of the Vanaras — frequently translated as “monkey-men.” However, a closer examination of linguistic roots, socio-political undercurrents, and symbolic masking in ancient literature reveals a more grounded and unsettling truth: the Vanaras were not monkeys, but forest-dwelling tribal humans, later mythologized and animalized by upper-class authors to dilute their historical significance and human dignity.
Etymology Unveiled: 'Vanara' as 'Vana-Nara'
The term Vanara is composed of two Sanskrit roots:
● Vana – meaning forest,
● Nara – meaning man or human.
Put together, Vanara literally means 'forest man', not monkey. This dismantles the popular colonial and Brahmanical portrayal of these beings as half-animal humanoids and raises a critical question: why would humans be written into mythology as monkeys?
The answer lies in cultural politics and ancient class warfare. It wasn’t just poetic license; it was symbolic subjugation.
Vanaras as Tribal People: Hidden in Plain Sight
The forested regions of ancient India were home to numerous Adivasi (indigenous) tribes — people with rich traditions, advanced guerrilla warfare, and survival techniques suited for dense jungle life. These tribes, marginalized and considered impure by Vedic elites, were crucial to the Ramayana war effort. They were:
♡ Experts in mountainous terrain navigation,
♡ Master tacticians in jungle combat,
♡ Crucial providers of food, shelter, and survival strategies,
♡ Possessors of local knowledge that Rama and Lakshmana lacked.
These were real people, indispensable allies, and natural warriors. Yet in the Brahmanical telling of the Ramayana, their memory is immortalized not as valiant tribesmen, but as talking monkeys — a humiliating distortion that ensured their cultural erasure and political invisibility.
The Vanaras of Kerala: Ancient Mountain Tribes of the Western Ghats
What mainstream narratives conveniently ignore is the geographical and ethnological identity of these so-called Vanaras. The description of dense forests, high mountains, medicinal herbs, and isolated tribal settlements matches most closely with the ancient Western Ghats region — especially the mountainous forests of present-day Kerala.
The Vanaras were likely the ancient forest mountain tribes of Kerala, such as early Kurumbas, Kattunayakans, Cholanaikkans, and Paniyas, who lived deep in the mist-covered hills, mastered natural warfare, and developed profound herbal medical systems. These communities:
● Knew how to survive in inhospitable terrains,
● Used drum signals and coded whistles to communicate across valleys,
● Maintained oral traditions of local epics predating Sanskrit Ramayana, and
● Practiced rituals and customs demonized or ignored by Vedic society.
These tribal societies, deeply connected to Agasthya traditions and Tamil-Dravidian roots, were most likely the real Vanaras who helped Rama cross into southern Lanka through the Palk Strait after navigating the hill routes of the south.
Their rebranding as monkeys was a political move to strip the Kerala tribes of historical agency, reframe them as primitive, and hide the fact that Rama’s success was built upon their ancestral knowledge.
Myth-Making and Cultural Hierarchy
The Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian elite classes, deeply influenced by notions of racial and ritual purity, viewed forest dwellers as untamed, dirty, and spiritually inferior. This hierarchical worldview echoes across ancient texts — forest equals barbaric, mountain equals mystical, and plains equals civilized.
In this context, the portrayal of Vanaras as sub-human:
■ Depersonalizes them,
■ Makes their loyalty seem instinctual, not rational,
■ Prevents them from being viewed as political agents,
■ Shields Brahmanical heroes from moral debt to ‘inferior’ classes.
Such narrative strategy is not unlike the colonial practice of dehumanizing native populations to justify using them for labor, intelligence, or warfare — then erasing them from history.
Rama’s Dependence on Vanaras – A Strategic Reality
The central hero of the Ramayana, Rama, was exiled to the forest and, after the abduction of his wife Sita, found himself:
¤ Without a kingdom,
¤ Isolated from urban resources,
¤ Stripped of political infrastructure,
¤ Unfamiliar with southern geography.
To reach Lanka — a fortified island kingdom hidden beyond mountains and forests — he needed the expertise of forest tribes. The Vanaras were his bridge, literally and figuratively:
♤ They built the bridge to Lanka (Rama Setu),
♤ They scouted the land and brought intelligence,
♤ They hunted and gathered food,
♤ They engaged in ground-level combat.
Without them, Rama's mission would have failed. This reliance on "monkeys" is illogical unless those monkeys were, in truth, Kerala’s mountain-dwelling tribal warriors.
Hanuman: The Tribal Hero Who Became a Myth
Among the Vanaras, Hanuman stands out as a superhuman devotee, capable of flight, shape-shifting, and supernatural strength. But let’s decode that.
Flight = Tribal climbing and leaping ability across canopies and cliffs.
Shape-shifting = Disguise, camouflage, and infiltration techniques.
Super strength = Symbolic exaggeration of physical prowess in warfare.
Hanuman is likely a tribal war chief or shamanic figure, mythologized over centuries into a deity. His deep devotion to Rama mirrors the historical loyalty of tribal communities to charismatic leaders who treated them with respect and shared common enemies.
There are even ritual traces of Hanuman worship in Kerala tribal temples, where he is viewed not just as a monkey-god, but as an ancestral warrior spirit — much older and more earthbound than the Sanskritized deity model.
Why Turn Humans into Monkeys? A Political Explanation
The answer is narrative control. Turning tribal allies into semi-animals:
1. Preserves the moral superiority of the upper castes,
2. Avoids acknowledging non-Aryan contribution to victory,
3. Erases tribal autonomy,
4. Solidifies the myth of Vedic centrality to Indian civilization.
By placing Rama — a Kshatriya — at the center and relegating tribal people to animalistic roles, the elite authors of these epics subtly rewrote history to sanitize the caste hierarchy and reinforce ritual purity narratives.
Forest vs Civilization: The Real Battle
The Ramayana is not just the story of a war against a demon king. It’s a civilizational allegory:
◇ The urban elite versus the mountain strongholds,
◇ Sanitized Dharma versus untamed spirituality,
◇ Political power versus tribal autonomy.
The Vanaras — especially those from Kerala's ancient mountain ranges — were the bridge between two worlds — one that Rama needed, but elite authors wanted to forget. Thus, mythology transformed them into monkeys, and the forest’s truth was buried under layers of fable.
Reclaiming the Vanaras' Humanity and History
The Vanaras of the Ramayana were not mythical beasts, but historical forest-dwellers — especially the ancient mountain tribes of Kerala — who possessed unparalleled knowledge of terrain, herbs, warfare, and loyalty. Their transformation into monkeys is a cultural strategy of erasure, crafted to serve a socio-political agenda rooted in casteist and civilizational superiority.
It’s time we decode these mythological masks, reclaim the voices of marginalized tribes, and restore the Vanaras’ rightful place as forgotten human heroes of India’s ancient past — not as mythic monkeys, but as the beating heart of a history denied.