Overview
Vayu (Sanskrit: वायु, lit. 'Wind/Air'), also known as Vata and Pavana ('Purifier'), is the Hindu god of the winds and a divine messenger of the gods. He is one of the prominent natural deities of the Vedic pantheon and is frequently invoked alongside other elemental divinities.
In the Vedic scriptures, Vayu is an important deity and is closely associated with Indra, the king of the gods. He is described as having been born from the breath of the Supreme Being, Vishvapurusha, and is said to be the first to drink Soma. The Upanishads exalt him as Prana, the 'life breath of the world', linking the cosmic wind with the vital breath sustaining living beings.
In later Hindu literature, Vayu is counted among the Dikpalas, the guardians of the directions, and is assigned the north-western quarter. The Hindu epics portray him as the father of Hanuman, the vanara devotee of Rama in the Ramayana, and of Bhima, one of the Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata. Through these epic associations, Vayu is connected with themes of strength, swiftness and devotion.
Within the Dvaita tradition founded by the 13th-century saint Madhva, Madhva himself is regarded by his followers as an incarnation of Vayu, following earlier identifications of Hanuman and Bhima as manifestations of the wind god. This identification forms part of Madhva sectarian tradition. The textual basis cited in support of some such claims has, however, been examined critically in modern scholarship, notably by Roque Mesquita, who has argued that a number of sources attributed to Madhva are of uncertain or problematic status.
References
Adapted from the English Wikipedia article on Vayu.