HAPPY ONAM

Onam festival is around the corner. People from Kerala around the globe await the arrival of their mythical king Mahabali, to his erstwhile kingdom of prosperity and equality. Similarly during Diwali times, on the fourth day, in parts of Maharashtra, South Gujarat, and Goa, people celebrate the Bali Padiyami or Bali pradipada meaning the coming of Mahabali. These are the two known festivals celebrating the coming of a lost King. Both these festivals have the common factors of flowering one’s houses, making special foods and dances, signifying welcoming of a guest. On a rational mindset, we can say that the guest here is, the coming of the spring season, the time to sow the seed to bring in wealth and prosperity. However, how do these two festivals echo the same spirit?

The legend of Mahabali which is common in both festivals comes from the same puranic story of The king of the asuras, grandson of King Prahlad, and son of King Virochana, who defeated Lord Indra. This righteous king was pushed to a lower world called pataal none other than Lord Vishnu during his Vamana avata. However, the King was permitted to visit his kingdom once a year marking the start of the above festivities both Bali pradipada and Onam

Setting aside the myth associated with the legend, a rational mind will try to unearth the historical significance of Mahabali which this article strives to do. Any historical deductions have to be based on, archaeological, numismatic, epigraphic, and literary sources and pieces of evidence.? Unfortunately, a major part of our ancient history is shrouded in myth and mystery, and modern historians due to lack of evidence have not unearthed the stories of many such historical characters and not much scholarship has gone into that area. In such a scenario what is only possible is a historical deduction from a set of references.

Looking into the geography of the Mahabali legend, there are few places where names associated to the king are still prevalent. Mahabalipuram in Chennai and Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra are examples signifying at least the commonality of this name. In a book named ‘’Mamalapuram’’, its author S Swaminathan discounts the claim that the city derives the name from Mahabali but from the word Mamallan which means wrestler. It is also to be noted that King Narasimhavarnam-1 who founded Mamalapuram alias Mahabalipuram was a wrestler. On the other hand, Mahabaleshwar is a hill station in Pune, and the name Mahabali, according to locals is the name of Shiva and is the deity of the Mahabaliswar temple there. However, the available records in the local gazetteers do not mention that the name has any historical link with Mahabali the king.

Epigraphically there is mention of ‘Mahavali’and bana kings in a few inscriptions from the Kolar region deciphered by Benjamin Lewis, the British historian in the 19th century. Banas claimed they are descendants of Mahabali and his son Banasura and later banas were vassals of the Chollas and the Pandhyas ruling the present north Karnataka. In the Girnar Jain inscriptions in the Junagadh district of Gujarat, the Chalukyan minister Vastupal is compared to ‘’Bali’’ because of his benevolence in making temples in the region, which means that the legend of a benevolent king called Bali existed in those times.

The only direct mention of Mahabali the king is in the Bhagavat, Vishnu, and Matsya Purana. Ironically in Bhagavatpurana Mahabali ruled near the Narmada River and his son Banasura ruled Shonitpuram which is present Tezpur in Assam while the place associated to Mahabali’s father Prahlad and grandfather Hiranyakashapu is in Prahladpuri near Multan which is in present Pakistan leaving a large geography to trace the lineage of Mahabali.

According to NV Krishnawarrior the Malayalam polyglot in an essay written in 1960 called Kalotsawam compares Onam to an ancient Sumerian New Year festival and the lineage of Hiranyakaspu, Prahlad, and Mahabali to that of Sumerian immigration to Southern India. Assyria was a Sumerian kingdom ruled by the Asurs deviated as asuras in the Purana. In an article published by the Indian archaeologist AM Kurup in 1966 titled Sociology of Onam, he opines that Mahabali may be a pseudonym of an early Chera king who was a Shiavaite and defeated by the immigrating Vaishnavite Brahmins.

Besides these anecdotic references, king Mahabali is shrouded in mystery but few historical deductions can be made

·??????? Based on the Puranas and legends King Mahabali was the powerful and benevolent ruler of the Dakshina pada the region south of the river Narmada comprising regions of Gujarat, parts of Madhyapradesh, Maharashtra, Konkan region, and habited regions of southern India. His benevolence was so intense that his glory of governance was passed over to generations resulting in folklore and festivals which included Onam and Balipradipada which were intermingled with local agrarian traditions.

·??????? The myth of his association with the devas and Indra becoming jealous of him and in the ensured war with India where he defeated Indra can be construed as expansionism of Mahabali to regions beyond the Narmada and the resistance from early Janapada rulers of the Indo-Gangetic plains.

·??????? The myth of the Vamana avatar and the engagement with Mahabali signifies the Vaishnavite religious expansion to the south of Narmada reaching up to Kerala.

·??????? The territorial expansion of Mahabali was carried forward by his son Banasura, but on his defeat by Krishna ( Yadav King of Dwaraka) the kingdom declined to certain peripheries in southern India and their decedents re-emerged as the Bana kings of Karnataka

How is then the Mahabali in the Onam tradition so intense in Kerala? According to Keralolpathi ( A book written by ancient Kerala brahmins on the origin of Kerala) brahmins and their dependent castes immigrated to present Kerala, under the leadership of sage Parasurama who is said to have carved out a landscape for his tribe settlement. Parasurama is considered a Vishnu avatar and manifested after the Vamana avatar, which is a contradiction but traditional hearsay goes that Onam was started as a festival by Brahmins in the early Christian era upon their settlement glorifying the Brahmanic boy avatar Vamana portraying Vishnu’s dominance over the non brahmanic asura king Mahabali.

Literary reference to Onam is there in Madurai Kanji one of the poems of the Pattupattu a Tamil Sangam era literary source ascribed by historians to the 2nd century AD. The next source is the 3rd Century Malayalam era inscriptions discovered from the Trikkakara temple (9th/10th Century AD) about the details of the festivities called Onam in the chingam month in the temple attended by the local chieftains.

The Malayalam era started in 825 AD which was the period from which the distinctiveness of the Malayalam language and culture started deviating from its parent Tamil culture and language mainly ascribed to Brahmanic sanskritisation. Onam and Mahabali evolved as a significant social festival after this period only but the central question of who Mahabali was still remains in mystery.

In our culture where myth and reality are not distinguishable, beyond the image of a mustached potbellied king there lived a glorious and benevolent king somewhere in peninsular India.

Happy Onam to all my readers:

Rajesh Menon