Editing Hanuman (section)

===Late medieval and modern era===
[[File:Vittala Temple, Vijayanagara, Karnataka, India ei1180.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.85|Numerous 14th-century and later Hanuman images are found in the ruins of the Hindu [[Vijayanagara Empire]].{{sfn|Lutgendorf|2007|pp=64–71}}]]
In Valmiki's ''Ramayana'', estimated to have been composed before or in about the 3rd century BCE,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kane |first=P. V. |date=1966 |title=The Two Epics |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41694199 |journal=Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute |volume=47 |issue=1/4 |pages=48 |jstor=41694199 |issn=0378-1143}}</ref> Hanuman is an important, creative figure as a simian helper and messenger for Rama. It is, however, in the late medieval era that his profile evolves into a more central role and dominance as the exemplary spiritual devotee, particularly with the popular vernacular text ''[[Ramcharitmanas]]'' by [[Tulsidas]] (~ 1575 CE).<ref name="Claus2003p280"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Catherine Ludvik|editor=F.S. Growse|title=The Rāmāyaṇa of Tulasīdāsa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5WViTwAKqzoC&pg=PA723|year=1987|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-0205-6|pages=723–725}}</ref> According to scholars such as Patrick Peebles and others, during a period of religious turmoil and Islamic rule of the Indian subcontinent, the [[Bhakti movement]] and devotionalism-oriented [[Bhakti yoga]] had emerged as a major trend in Hindu culture by the 16th-century, and the ''Ramcharitmanas'' presented [[Rama]] as a Vishnu avatar, supreme being and a personal god worthy of devotion, with Hanuman as the ideal loving devotee with legendary courage, strength and powers.<ref name=lele114/><ref name=peebles100>{{cite book|author=Patrick Peebles|title=Voices of South Asia: Essential Readings from Antiquity to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l2JsBgAAQBAJ |year=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-45248-5|pages=99–100}}</ref>

During this era, Hanuman evolved and emerged as the ideal combination of [[shakti]] and [[bhakti]].{{sfn|Lutgendorf|2007|pages=26–32, 116, 257–259, 388–391}} Stories and folk traditions in and after the 17th century, began to reformulate and present Hanuman as a divine being, as a descendant of deities, and as an avatar of [[Shiva]].<ref name=peebles100/> He emerged as a champion of those religiously persecuted, expressing resistance, a yogi,{{sfn|Lutgendorf|2007|p=85}} an inspiration for martial artists and warriors,{{sfn|Lutgendorf|2007|pp=57–64}} a character with less fur and increasingly human, symbolizing cherished virtues and internal values, and worthy of devotion in his own right.<ref name=lele114/><ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas A. Green|title=Martial Arts of the World: En Encyclopedia|year=2001|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v32oHSE5t6cC |publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-150-2|pages=467–468}}</ref> This evolution of Hanuman's religious status, and his cultural role as well as his iconography, continued through the colonial era and into post-colonial times.<ref>Philip Lutgendorf (2002), Evolving a monkey: Hanuman, poster art and postcolonial anxiety, Contributions to Indian Sociology, Vol. 36, Iss. 1–2, pp. 71–112</ref>