Take an extra long bath, put on your prettiest mundum neriyathum, look forward to some Kaikottakali and smile brightly– Mahabali is coming home, and we don’t want him to know we are forlorn without him.
What’s that you say? You have no idea what I’m talking about? Fret not, almost no one ever does. The tale of Onam and Kerala’s most beloved King is available for your edification, below.
The story goes that the beautiful state of Kerala was once ruled by an Asura (demon) king, Mahabali. The King was greatly respected in his kingdom and was considered to be wise, judicious and extremely generous. It is said that Kerala witnessed its golden era in the reign of King Mahabali. Everybody was happy in the kingdom, there was no discrimination on the basis of caste or class. Rich and poor were equally treated. There was neither crime, nor corruption. People did not even lock their doors, as there were no thieves in that kingdom. There was no poverty, sorrow or disease in the reign of King Mahabali and everybody was happy and content.
It may be noted Mahabali was the son of Veerochana and grandson of Prahlad, the devout son of demon King Hiranyakashyap. Mahabali had a son called Bana, who became a legendary king in his own right and became popular as Banraj in central Assam. Mahabali belonged to the Asura (demon) dynasty but was an ardent worshiper of Lord Vishnu. His bravery and strength of character earned him the title of “Mahabali Chakravathy” or Mahabali – the King of Kings.
Looking at the growing popularity and fame of King Mahabali, Gods became extremely concerned and jealous. They felt threatened about their own supremacy and began to think of a strategy to get rid of the dilemma.
It was said Mahabali was very generous and charitable. Whenever anybody approached him for help or requested for anything he always granted. To test the King, Lord Vishnu disguised himself as a dwarf and a poor Brahmin called Vamana. He came to the Kingdom of Mahabali, just after Mahabali performed his morning prayers and was preparing to grant boons to Brahmins.
Disguised as Vamana, Vishnu said he was a poor Brahmin and asked for a piece of land. The generous King said, he could have as much land as he wanted. The Brahmin said that he just wanted as much land as could be covered by his three steps. The King was surprised to hear but agreed.
A learned adviser of the King, Shukracharya sensed that Vamana was not an ordinary person and warned the King against making the promise. But, the generous King replied that it would be a sin for a King to back on his words and asked the Brahmin to take the land. The King could not imagine that the dwarf Brahmin was Lord Vishnu himself.
Just as King Mahabali agreed to grant the land, Vamana began to expand and eventually increased himself to the size of cosmic proportions. With his first step the Brahmin boy covered the whole of earth and with the other step he covered the whole of the skies. He then asked King Mahabali where is the space for him to keep his third foot.
The King realised that he was no ordinary Brahmin and his third step will destroy the earth. Mahabali with folded hands bowed before Vamana and asked him to place his last step on his head so that he could keep the promise. The Brahmin placed his foot on the head of the King, which pushed him to patala, the nether world. There the King requested the Brahmin to reveal his true identity. Lord Vishnu then appeared before the King in his person. The Lord told the King that he came to test him and the King won the test. King Mahabali was pleased to see his lord. Lord Vishnu also granted a boon to the King.
The King was so much attached with his Kingdom and people that he requested that he be allowed to visit Kerala once in a year. Lord Vishnu was moved by the Kings nobility and was pleased to grant the wish. He also blessed the King and said even after losing all his worldly possessions, the King would always be loved by Lord Vishnu and his people.
It is the day of the visit of King Mahabali to Kerala that is celebrated as Onam every year. The festival is celebrated as a tribute to the sacrifice of King Mahabali. Every year people make elaborate preparations to welcome their King whom they affectionately call Onathappan. They wish to please the spirit of their King by depicting that his people are happy and wish him well. [link]
I love that story. Whenever I hear or read it, I am thrilled that I was born a Malayalee. Since I’ve never seen a “proper” Onam, I’m thinking about going to Kerala next year (first visit since ’89!), to witness the fabulosity up-close– who’s in? Everyone should see Vellamkali once during their life, right? Chingam 2008: meetup in Alleppey, a.k.a. The “Venice” of the East, y’all! π
People, this was a blog entry meant to be polite and welcoming to the readers here. Am I curious about the possible contradictions? Yes. But there is a time and place to ask such questions. If anna added a blog entry about religion, then yeah, she woud have to develop a thick skin because that is the nature of blog discussions. I have Catholic Indian friends who celebrate Hindu festivals. Indian Christianity does not seem to be as fundamentalist as the strain we see in the US, probably because a lot of Indian christian families have had Hindu traditions in their past and have no wish to get away from that. Depending on my mood, I will buy my friends a Christmas present. i received Christmas presents as a kid. I am a Hindu and agnostic(shut up people. I can be both like my Jewish secular friends, heh).I don’t think I would have liked to ahve been grilled about it for taking part in something I do not believe in 100%. It is more of the spirit of things.
Well, I am not sure it is as much of a harvest festival as the ones I mentioned. It does happen around the onset of spring (thus water, thandai, colors) and I guess coincides with the Rabi crop harvest but it also has a religious aspect of Holika to it. At least while growing up, I was always more aware of it’s holika aspect than a harvest aspect if any. Maybe someone could throw light on this.
That is one of the randomest things I have ever read on this site (also, I’ve never been).
i just saw a blog post saying “happy XYZ”. i dont know anything about xyz, so i asked a bunch of questions about “who celebrates xyz? how? why? etc.”
I’ve gotten approached all over NYC and NJ by Tamil speakers who saw me with my book or flash cards. Once two guys introduced themselves, took my flash cards and drilled me on vocabulary all the way from New Brunswick to Newark!
= a great way to meet guys…
he he – i love it when desi (were they?) men take control π
woul be even more surreal if it was a chinese guy and a black dude or something.
as my grandma would say, you ain’t just whistlin’ dixie.
Just to let people know– if there is some holiday your fam/community celebrates, I’d love to put up similar posts for them, especially if they’re not as commonly-known (right now, all I can think of is Baisakhi and Ganesh Chaturthi).
Just send me a tip with some info, maybe a pic, I’ll try my best to get something up. No one does holidays better than desis. No one. π
yes they were. and amen. π
Dunno why but the Mystery spot has been a great hit with all our visitors from out of California /the US
what is a “mystery spot?”
Add Gudi Padva (Maharashtra) and Lohri (Punjab) to that list π
wtf? looks like a tourist trap.
Holika was the sister of the asura Hiranyakashyap, who had a magical gown which protected the wearer from fire. On her brothers orders she took Prahlad in and sat in a bonfire, Prahlad’s prayers resulted in teh gown flying away and thus Holika was burnt, leaving young Prahlad unscathed. The burning of the Holika bonfire signifies this.
Spraying of colors comes from lord krishna who played with the gopikas.
The harvest festival however is Sankranthi/Pongal/Lohri….
the mystery spot
it’s trippy
Aadarshini, check out Chak De! India if you haven’t already. Times they are a changing. π
Excellent movie, btw.
That is one of the randomest things I have ever read on this site (also, I’ve never been).
It’s true though. To me, the big mystery wasn’t why gravity came in at an angle, rather how come so many kannada/tamil folks decided to converge on that one point, at that time.
that would be bizarre. hearing tamil being spoken while floating around.
Arey yeh mystery spot nahi jaanta!! Puli, you need to get out more man..
ANNA, my family is from Alleypey!!!
yes. yes i do. ive only been out west once. most of my vacays are to europe or asia.
i learn a lot on SM. i learned what Onam, the mystery spot, and La Perla are.
I have family there, too. π
5 bux says your related somehow.
Oh, and yeah, Happy ONAM to all. Happy onan too. π
now i just need some sweet way to combine all 3 into 1 helluva evening.
Wait……..isn’t Asura an Ogre? in that case shouldn’t Puli be in it too..? Puli”Ogre” in da USA.
Or if he changed his name a little, he could be Puli’orgy. Don’t think I wanna know any more about what that means.
“But I’m a fuckin’ demon.”
i like how you think…
aadarshini @ 85 – no pati-seva stuff for me, either (though i once turned on the indian station in london on karva chaut and had to listen to anuradha paudwal singing about pati parmeshwar – yikes!). that’s actually the reason why i singled out zee – it’s terrible in that regard. and yes, hindi galiyan have a special place – i’m still figuring them out (didn’t know hindi until a few years back) but, if this can be said about profanity, hindi ones are especially ‘delightful.’
anna, whose the baby in the picture?
My Chettan’s son- Siddharth. π
cute kid.
There are some inconsistencies in the story, I mean was he a brahmin dwarf or a brahmin boy? Good Lord Vishnu better make up his mind! Isnt the politically correct word “midget”? Anyway, Happy Onam to all my Mallu brethren
You mean the politically INcorrect word. π They’re Little people, not to be confused with old skool cartoon, The Littles. Damnit, now that song is stuck in my head.
Anna, I dont know, “Snow White and the seven little people” doesnt sound so good π
Midget. And I say it with all my love and respect. π
Anna, btw, who (or what) is “Chettan”?
Ardy, isn’t Lohri in January, though? I’m pretty sure it’s not a harvest festival, but rather a winter solstice-esque festival…
I think Holi is a “spring festival,” which probably also coincides with the harvest, but I think it’s more about the beginning of a new season… I could be totally wrong, though. The only not explicitly religious holiday my fam celebrates hard core is Baisakhi.
Amit, was Chak de India really good? (meaning really as in truly, not really as in very) It’s playing in the town next door, but I haven’t yet convinced anyone to devote 3 hours of their life to watching it with me.
Happy Onam!
I made Kaalan yesterday but without realizing that it was Onam, till my dad reminded me over the phone. Felicitous accident, of course. This recipe producers a kick-ass Kaalan.
Camille, it’s around 2.5 hours with no song-and-dance sequences (but with a couple of background songs). The story has no surprises (sports-underdog-redemption), but the execution is excellent. It touches upon many issues/stereotypes that contemporary India and Indians face, or even discuss on SM (state, region, language), along with politics, sexism and the status of field hockey vis-a-vis cricket, and does it thoughtfully. The girls are spunky and SRK’s acting is quite unlike his role in Kal Ho Na Ho, which for me is a positive (I like his understated performances). I don’t want to get your expectations high, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it gave me the same emotional feeling as Rang De Basanti. It’s also inspired by actual story of Mir Ranjan Negi – goalkeeper of men’s hockey team who was accused of throwing a match with Pakistan and then coached the Indian men’s hockey team to an Asian Games gold medal, and women’s hockey team to Commonwealth Games gold medal.
Happy Onam, everyone :).
Yes Camille, Lohri is not a harvest festival. It marks the end of severe winters and is the last day of Poh/Paush month.
Amit, i think Chettan means brother in Malayalam.
Hey Anna, thats a good proposal. Ganesh Chaturthi is very big for people not just in Maharashtra but also in Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Kashmir. On a Kerala related note, how about Vishu π which is Vaisakhi/Visakhi in Punjab and Bihu in Assam :).
Anna – Thank you for a post that brings about wonderful memories.
Did anyone have a Sadhya topped off with a pappadum pazham payasam. I was fortunate to have an authentic sadhya thanks to a gracious Mallu family.
Every Mallu celebrates Onam. Onam is cultural althought it has its roots in religious beliefs. I guess it is a unifying factor. Quite like Christmas is in many parts of the world is a cultural festival although it celebrates birth of Jesus.
Most people dont understand that Christianity is a bundle of contradictions – dont let the jerry falwells of the world tell you about Christianity. Sadly in the USA, Xianity has conquered by the right wing nutcases – mirror image of the loony left.
Puliogre – A potential question during your dating game to a devout Christian ‘is Onanism a sin for a woman given that no seed is spilled’. Throws them every time π
As a DBD Christian who lived for many years in India may I reiterate that by and large religious discrimination against Christians is minimal – barring the occassional Gujarat. I have never heard any one say that I am less of an Indian because of religious beliefs. So it is a bit of a suprise to note that the diaspora guess this distaste for Christians by Heck, even the poor rickshawallah wants to send his kid to the ‘convent’ school.
Dude, what sort of desi porn were you watching?
Thanks, Amit π
How many desis know that many Mallus dont celebrate Deepavali. In fact for many years I used to visit Kerala during Deepavali for peace and quiet – I hate the sound of firecrackers π
I cannot connect to Deepavali the way I connect to Onam.
I wonder if there is any connection between Chinese Dragon boat racing Onam boat racing ? I think the Chinese style roofs were brought via trade, maybe dragon boat racing as well ?
Speaking of harvest festivals, is there any difference between Sankranti, Makar Sankranti, Pongal and Lohri? I looked at Wikipedia but did not find a major difference other than local variations in customs.