Hindu reference in a movie

Jainarayan · Jul 31, 2018

I was watching Black Panther the other night. Black Panther is one of Marvel's Avengers. It's set in a fictitious country in eastern Africa, somewhere near Kenya. One of the neighboring tribes has a simian theme. The tribal king is called "Great Gorilla", the mountain pass to their kingdom has an ape's head as the gateway. At one point during a tribal assembly, either the king or his advisor (happened too fast to catch who it was) yelled "glory to Hanuman!" That's what made me take notice. It seems the "ape god" is their patron. This was about the only western-made movie I can think of that makes a reference to a Hindu god, in the context of a kingdom with a patron god. My take away lesson was that the kingdom and its ancestors were somehow influenced by Hinduism. I thought it was pretty cool.

Ok, so you had to be there.

von bek · Jul 31, 2018

I caught that reference when I saw the movie, too. I am a huge DC Comics fan, but I don't know as much about Marvel characters. I wonder if the Black Panther comics ever refer to Hanuman. So, is the inclusion a result of the director's vision or is it fidelity to the source material?

Jainarayan · Jul 31, 2018

von bek said:
I caught that reference when I saw the movie, too. I am a huge DC Comics fan, but I don't know as much about Marvel characters. I wonder if the Black Panther comics ever refer to Hanuman. So, is the inclusion a result of the director's vision or is it fidelity to the source material?

Haha so I wasn't hallucinating!

I'm not too familiar with either comics besides the more popular characters, so I don't know about that either.

von bek · Jul 31, 2018

This is interesting:

https://indianexpress.com/article/t...-hanuman-reference-twitter-reactions-5073987/

Jainarayan · Jul 31, 2018

Oh my gods, that's excellent!

Jai Hanuman!

P.S. That's right, it was the challenge fight and it was M'Baku (the "Great Gorilla" king, who is actually a good guy) who says it (for anyone who doesn't know what the heck we're talking about). If he was a git I'd be inclined to agree with the board that using Hanuman's name by an antagonist wouldn't go down too well, with me at least. But fortunately M'Baku is a good guy.

"I will feed you to my children! ... ahahahahahaha... no, we're vegetarians!"

von bek · Jul 31, 2018

Jainarayan said:
Oh my gods, that's excellent!

Jai Hanuman!

P.S. That's right, it was the challenge fight and it was M'Baku (the "Great Gorilla" king, who is actually a good guy) who says it (for anyone who doesn't know what the heck we're talking about). If he was a git I'd be inclined to agree with the board that using Hanuman's name by an antagonist wouldn't go down too well, with me at least. But fortunately M'Baku is a good guy.

"I will feed you to my children! ... ahahahahahaha... no, we're vegetarians!"

M'Baku actually is a bit of a bad guy in the comics, that I do know. He isn't on the level of the Joker or the Green Goblin when it comes to comic book evil, he is more a rival.

Jainarayan · Jul 31, 2018

It occurred to me the only other western produced show based on Hinduism I can think of is an episode of Xena Warrior Princess entitled 'The Way'. She and Gabriella travel to India and meet... Hanuman! And Krishna. And Indrajit.

Tl;dr for the plot: Xena is doubting her warrior ways. Krishna counsels her to follow her dharma and that she is who she is. Along the way she gets into a fight with Indrajit who maims her. She is transformed into Kali (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) and kills Indrajit.

At the beginning of the episode Lucy Lawless (Xena) and the producer are on-screen and explain that they are trying to be as respectful as possible to the living religion and its adherents. I thought the episode and that comment were very good. I read that Hindu groups were divided on it... most loved it but some got their jimmies rustled. The only complaint I had was pronunciations. Dear gods... Hanuman came out like "han(d)-a-man". Of course we know I'm a language snob anyway.

And yes, I bought a copy through Xfinity and have it in my DVR collection.

von bek · Jul 31, 2018

I've seen that episode of Xena. It was many years ago and I could not have given a summary of it.

Jainarayan · Jul 31, 2018

Skip to 1:00 (but the whole clip is good). I got his line wrong, it's "You cannot talk! One more word and I will feed you to my children... [pauses] I am kidding. We are vegetarians [then he laughs]".

Kirran · Jul 31, 2018

If I may: It's basically established in the canon, in comics and now movies, that the Jabari tribe are devotees of Hanuman, while the other Wakandan tribes are devotees of Bast, the Panther Goddess, related to Egyptian deity Bastet.

Jainarayan · Jul 31, 2018

Kirran said:
the other Wakandan tribes are devotees of Bast, the Panther Goddess, related to Egyptian deity Bastet.

Yes, I caught that at the beginning of the movie. I thought that was pretty good. She's actually referred to variously as Bast and Bastet in the real Egyptian religion.

Jainarayan · Jul 31, 2018

von bek said:
I've seen that episode of Xena. It was many years ago and I could not have given a summary of it.

I never really watched Xena, but it was a Saturday afternoon and I said "why not?". That episode was on. I looked far and wide for it but couldn't find it until H&I channel (Heroes & Icons) picked up the series. I did a search, found it and bought it for a $fewbucks.99.

Terese · Jul 31, 2018

I noticed too, and thought it was neat

Aupmanyav · Aug 2, 2018

Jainarayan said:
The only complaint I had was pronunciations. Dear gods... Hanuman came out like "han(d)-a-man". Of course we know I'm a language snob anyway.

A respectful reference would delight me, just as mispronunciation will rankle me. I too am a language snob.

My favorite comic books (65 years ago) were Caesar and his antagonist, the Gauls (forget the names now, some 'trix', Vercingetorisk (?)), Tarzan, etc. 'Comic Books' editions. Thankful for them for my interest in history.

Vinayaka · Aug 2, 2018

Aupmanyav said:
A respectful reference would delight me, just as mispronunciation will rankle me. I too am a language snob.

My favorite comic books (65 years ago) were Caesar and his antagonist, the Gauls (forget the names now, some 'trix', Vercingetorisk (?)), Tarzan, etc. 'Comic Books' editions. Thankful for them for my interest in history.

You mean Asterix and Obelisk I think. My favorite guy was Getafix,the potion maker, if memory serves correctly.

Vinayaka · Aug 2, 2018

Along the same line, how many times do we see Nataraja in the set somewhere in the background?

Aupmanyav · Aug 2, 2018

Vinayaka said:
You mean Asterix and Obelisk I think. My favorite guy was Getafix,the potion maker, if memory serves correctly.

No, Vinayaka. I got the name right. There were other stories too, but at the moment I do not remember them. 65 years is a long period of time.

"Vercingetorix (/ˌvɜːrsɪnˈdʒɛtərɪks/ VUR-sin-JET-ər-iks, /-sɪŋˈɡɛt-/ -sing-GET-; Latin: [wɛrkɪŋˈɡɛtɔrɪks]; c. 82 BC – 46 BC) was a king and chieftain of the Arverni tribe; he united the Gauls in a revolt against Roman forces during the last phase of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars."

Vercingetorix on Roman coinage (dated 48 BC) Top: bust right (war chariot on reverse); Bottom: tied near war trophy (female head on obverse)
Vercingetorix - Wikipedia

Vinayaka said:
Along the same line, how many times do we see Nataraja in the set somewhere in the background?

Some 30 years ago, I had painted beautiful image of Nataraja. Spray white poster paint on a black background, cut a stencil of Nataraja, spray some more white poster paint. The result came out to be very good - Nataraja somewhere among the stars. People create that kind of images. It was my only work of art.

Some thing like this (this particular computer image took me less than 3 minutes to make with the help of Paint and MSWord

)

Vinayaka · Aug 2, 2018

Aupmanyav said:
Some 30 years ago, I had painted beautiful image of Nataraja. Spray white poster paint on a black background, cut a stencil of Nataraja, spray some more white poster paint. The result came out to be very good - Nataraja somewhere among the stars. People create that kind of images. It was my only work of art.

Thanks for the Gaul correction. I made a wood on wood Nataraja for the back wall in our shrine. About 2 feet by 3 feet. I cut about 30 - 40 smaller pieces of wood, and glued them like a puzzle. So we might actually have something in common.

Aupmanyav · Aug 2, 2018

Don't we?

Did you see the image I created just now?

Vinayaka · Aug 2, 2018

Nataraja called me, and still does. Beautiful image.

Hindu reference in a movie

ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय

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ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय

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ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय

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ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय

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ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय

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