Añjanā

In the epic‑framed accounts recorded in the available sources, Añjanā is an apsara named Punjikastala who, through a curse (attributed to Brihaspati in one account), is born on earth as a vanara princess. She marries Kesari, a mighty vanara (son of Brihaspati), and, after intense prayer with her husband to Vayu (the wind god), they receive the boon of a son — Hanuman. In Javanese wayang retellings she appears as Dewi Anjani, daughter of Resi Gotama and Dewi Indradi, whose narrative includes lake episodes, transformations of companions into animal forms, penance ordered by Resi Gotama, union with Hyang Pawana (Batara Bayu), and the birth of Maruti; such episodes rework the origin motifs in a Southeast Asian performance context. The Himachal Pradesh tradition localizes her further as a goddess who once stayed at Masrer near Dharamshala and is venerated as a family deity there.

The provided sources do not supply a standardized, detailed physical description of Añjanā. Narrative accounts identify her as an apsara reborn among the vanaras and as the wife of Kesari, but they do not give measurements, colours, or consistent bodily attributes. In Javanese wayang she appears as Dewi Anjani within the visual and performative conventions of wayang, but specific canonical bodily descriptions are not recorded in the available material.

Sources attribute to Añjanā a semi‑divine status (apsara origin) and narrative capacities that include receiving divine boons through devotion (she and Kesari obtain Vayu's blessing resulting in Hanuman's birth). Regional stories as recorded for Himachal Pradesh ascribe to her the capacity for punitive supernatural action in a local legend (turning a villager to stone for revealing her identity) and a remedial cultic role (believers worship her after scorpion bite because her vahana is said to be a scorpion). The Javanese account attributes to her the narrative fate of transformation and redemption via penance and divine forgiveness within that tradition's cosmology. The sources do not document other consistent powers such as possession, widespread shapechanging, or universal magical formulae.