Hanuman Chalisa is one of the most popular devotional songs in Hinduism. The name and the characteristics of the god are derived from the Sanskrit word "hanuman" which means "the adorable or divine one." The word "chālisā" is derived from the same word and means "the 40 (chālis) gifts of God." The song was composed by the sage Tulsidas in the fourteenth century in the Kannada language. The Kannada text of the poem was published in the year 1776 in the Kannada Literary Journal Yatindra.

The poem is a compilation of forty (chālis) verses which are divided into seven (chālis) parts.