Can Women and Girls Recite the Hanuman Chalisa and Ashtak?

The honest answer

Women and girls can read every Hanuman paath. The Chalisa, the Sankat Mochan Hanuman Ashtak, the Bajrang Baan, all of them. There is no shastra, no verse, no real rule anywhere that closes these to women. In crores of homes across the country, it is the mother and the daughters who do the daily paath and keep the mandir. Bhakti has never asked anyone their gender.

क्या महिलाएं हनुमान चालीसा पढ़ सकती हैं?

हाँ, बिलकुल पढ़ सकती हैं. शास्त्रों में ऐसा कोई नियम नहीं है जो महिलाओं या लड़कियों को हनुमान चालीसा, हनुमानाष्टक या बजरंग बाण पढ़ने से रोकता हो. यह केवल एक भ्रम है जो परंपरा में चला आया, कोई शास्त्र-वचन नहीं. दुर्गा पूजा हो या लक्ष्मी पूजन, स्त्रियाँ हमेशा भक्ति के मार्ग में आगे रही हैं. हनुमान जी अपने हर भक्त की, स्त्री हो या पुरुष, समान रूप से रक्षा करते हैं. They look only at your bhaav, your devotion, not your gender.

Where the myth comes from

The confusion comes mostly from one thing, that Hanuman ji is a brahmachari. From this, somewhere a wrong idea grew that women should keep away from him. But this is a misunderstanding. His brahmacharya is his own vrat and his own tapa, it was never a wall put up against anyone's devotion. A mother's love for her child is not blocked because the child took a vow. In the same way, Hanuman ji is the servant and protector of all his bhakts, women and men alike. Sita ji herself blessed him, and he served her as a mother.

About the days of the month

This is the part people really want a straight answer on, so here it is. There is no scriptural ban on a woman reading or listening to the Chalisa during her period. What some women follow, as a personal aachar and not a rule, is to listen rather than do the formal seated paath in those days, and to not physically touch the murti or the gutka. This comes from an old idea of keeping ritual and rest separate, and it is a matter of personal choice and comfort, not a punishment and not a bar from Hanuman ji. If you wish to keep reading, softly or by listening, there is nothing wrong in it at all. Hanuman ji looks at the bhaav, not the calendar.

Girls and young women

Girls can read the Chalisa freely, and it is a beautiful thing to learn as a child. Many of us learnt it from our mothers and grandmothers. There is no age bar and no gender bar. A young girl reading the Chalisa with shraddha is as dear to Bajrang Bali as anyone.

What actually matters

In the end, only two things matter, a clean heart and a little shraddha. That is the whole requirement, for a woman, a girl, a man, anyone. If your own family or parampara follows a particular aachar, you can respect your elders on that with love, it is your personal way. But please do not carry the fear that Hanuman ji does not want your paath because you are a woman. That is simply not true. He is Sankat Mochan for every single bhakt.

One small honesty, as always. I am not a pandit, and what I have written here is my own understanding of our tradition in plain words. For the exact aachar of your parampara, your elders and a learned pandit are the right people to ask.