Vanaras were hill worshippers?

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Vanaras were a forest tribe described in the Ramayan. They halped Rama to locate Sita as well as to fight Ravana. They were featured in MBh also. That Vanaras are a forest tribe is not only clear from their descriptions in the literature, but also from their name: VAna(ra) is possibly son of Vana or forest or alternatively, son of Vana nara(the forest men).

The Vanaras are one fore runners of today's Telugu and kannada speakers. They have written in Pisaci, which is a ffore runner of Telugu . It is long recognized that most of the names of vanaras in Rmn are those of hills. That all these names are sanskritzed point to the fact they may not be real names. In fact, I have read in one of the groups that the vanaras have simpler names like Maku and Danku (F W Thomas, 1929)

For those who are obsessed with denying the historicity of Ramayan, this is an argument that was handily available- why almost all the Vanaras are named after mountains? Such people have hardly seen that this is a very fragile argument.

One possible explanation is that they might have been hill worshipers. The primitive tribes have long known to worship hills- it is often believed that cavesin the mountains led to the underworld, with its evil spirits and demons, in

contrast with the mountains, which were identified with the good spirits and deities.While Rmn does not indicate this directly, the descriptions of the story often lead one to this conclusion. Vali sacrileges a mountain and he was forbidden from stepping there. Similarly, in an earlier story, Sugriva refrains from entering the cave since it is forbidden for him to enter caves.

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