Chhattisgarh man collects over 5000 pictures of Hanuman, gets into Guinness Book of World Records

A Chhattisgarh man has gotten into the Guinness Book of World Records on the back of his devotion to Hindu deity Hanuman, having collected over 5000 different pictures of the monkey-god, Bajrangbali.

Akhilesh Sharma, a resident of Chhattisgarh's Raipur, published a book title 'Mere Hanuman,' that contains pictures of Bajrangbali, which were collected from India as well as Indonesia, Bali, Thailand and other countries.

Sharma told ANI that it took him a decade to collect the pictures featured in the book. "I have been reciting Sundara Kanda for the last 35 years. Around 10 years back, I had attended a marriage function and got a photo of Lord Hanuman, which is on the book's cover, and thereafter started collecting the pictures," said Sharma.


The path to the record was not without its difficulties, with moments where Sharma was unable to get his hands on any new pictures. As a last resort, Sharma contacted his friends and requested them to help in collecting Hanuman's pictures.

"After that, a few people started sending me good morning messages and I requested them to send the photos of lord Hanuman instead of texting morning wishes, he recalled, adding that as a result of this request, the collection gradually became rich and these pictures have several stories," he said.

"This book contains information related to lord Hanuman's birth, his family members and others, after people told me that pictures of Lord Hanuman in a considerable number were not collected by anyone then he applied to the Golden Book of Records", added Sharma.