Some years ago, we covered the stories of Mahabali, his vanquishment by Vamana, his annual return, and other tales of Bali often associated with Diwali. Having revisited those, it is time to return to their origins in antiquity, both in Cheranad and in the larger Tamilakam, which encompassed the Chera, Chola, and Pandya lands.
The story of this Vamana avatar is well known. Mahabali, the
Asura king, ruled his land as a just sovereign, not quite as was expected of a
stereotyped Asura. The devas were envious, and when he set out to perform an
Ashvamedha yagna to become all-powerful, they grew afraid. Desiring to end his
rule, they persuaded Vishnu to act. Thus, Lord Vishnu was reborn as Vamana, the
dwarf. As we know, Vamana then approached Mahabali and asked for a grant of
three feet of land. Disregarding a warning from Sukra, Mahabali granted the
dwarf his wish. Vamana, now in his majestic form, measured the earth with one
foot, the skies and heavens with the other, and looked at Mahabali for the
third. Seeing that this was none other than Vishnu, Bali bowed his head and
offered Vishnu the crown of his head for the last step. Mahabali was thus
pushed into the nether world, but before leaving, asked Vishnu for a boon – to
visit his people once every year. That day of visit, they say, is the day of
Onam, when the people of Kerala gladly receive him with pomp and splendor.
Was it celebrated throughout Tamilakam in ancient times? We
defined Tamilakam in previous posts; it encompassed Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and
parts of the Deccan, Karnataka, and Andhra, and Tamil was the spoken tongue.
Called Onavizhavu, it appears in the Maturai Kanchithe (a poem from the
Pattupattu), composed by Mankuti Marutanar in praise of the Pandian King
Nedunchezhiyan. The 10-poem collection, composed roughly between 100 BCE and
500 CE, represents some of the oldest surviving works of Tamil poetry. Onappiran,
one of the Onam deities, is Vishnu, who is again considered the devata of
Thiruvonam. On that day, able-bodied men fought with each other (reminiscent of
the Onathallu in Pallasena – Palghat).
Attoor Krishna Pisharady believes the Onam celebration was
popularized circa 640–650 AD; that Bhaskara Ravivarman Perumal took the
initiative and carried out the ceremony. The temple of Thrikkakara has many
connections with Onam – the rulers of 'Malainadu' assembled at the Thrikkarur
Kara (present Thrikkakara) temple during the celebrations held there. The Chera
empire's western capital was Mahodayapuram, near Thrikkakara. Once a
year, the native rulers assembled at the Thrikkakara temple to join the
celebrations, which lasted 28 days.
According to the Thrikkakara inscription, not only were the
rulers required to be present, but their subjects were also asked to attend at
least once during the festival period. The rulers had temporary abodes on the
temple premises, the vestiges of which are still visible. The 56 'naduvazhis'
of the Chera Kingdom bore the expenses of the celebrations and the 28-day
assembly, with each day's celebrations financed by any two of them. This gave
the Chera emperor an opportunity to connect personally with local chieftains
and secure their continued loyalty and allegiance. It is believed that the Naduvazhi
of Cochin and the Zamorin of Calicut jointly celebrated Atham.
An ancient reference also mentions a 'Chingom Pada'
attacking the Chera country. This refers to the army that invaded the Chera
country in the month of Chingom. Because the invasion occurred before the
'Atham' day (ten days before Thiruonam in the month of Chingom), the rest of
the celebrations had to be abandoned. The practice of Athachamayam and the
customary procession of the King of Cochin support this theory. According to
this account, on the day of Atham, the King, accompanied by his courtiers, sets
out for Thrikkakara. As the procession reaches the palace's outer gate, a
messenger from Thrikkakara runs up to the King and tells him the celebrations
have been abandoned. On hearing this alarming news, the King returns to his
palace through another gate.
But others insist that it is actually a spring festival,
which is why Tiruvonam here has become a day of sumptuous eating and mirth,
while elsewhere it is a day of fasting and austerity. Since (Ponnum – golden)
Chingam is the harvest month in Kerala, it is a season when peace and plenty
return after the torrential rains of (kalla – rogue) Karkatakam. Nira (filling
the household granary with newly harvested paddy) and Puthari (eating the newly
harvested rice) ceremonies are typically held before Onam. It heralds a season
full of flowers, cool air, and delightful days. Fr. Bartolomeo, the Carmelite
friar who lived for several years at Varappuzha and studied Kerala's culture
and antiquities, concurs: This festival (Onam) seems, therefore, to have been
instituted to solicit from the Gods a happy and fruitful year.
The traditions related to festivities, flower arrangements,
singing and dancing, wearing new clothes, feasting, and so on, are not repeated
here. By now, everyone knows them. However, the Onathallu has been
misrepresented. Interestingly, it was practiced in many places in the past, not
just in Pallassena, so we will spend some time figuring out what it was and
what it is now.
Two legends are associated with the Onathallu at Pallasena –
Chummar details one as follows: It is believed that in ancient times, on the
Atham day in Kumbhom, some local chieftains aligned with the Zamorin’s chief,
Kuthiravattoth Nair, killed Kurur Nambidi, the trustee of the Kakkayur Siva
temple, and confiscated all his property. The Onathallu is enacted in memory of
this event. The second legend holds that it was a celebration before the local
Nairs began a march to fight alongside the Zamorin’s forces (Pallasena was part
of Naduvatton, under the Zamorin).
Ulloor, however, explains that it was an old practice. It
was a mock fight held in connection with the Onam festival and known variously
as Ona pada, Ona thallu, and Ona-eyittu, a form of recreation for the Nairs in
former times. Ulloor explains: In the work Haryakshamasa samarotsavam (literally
the festival of fight during the month of Chingam), also termed Kandiyur Mattam
Patappattu, we find a full and glowing account of that dangerous pastime. The
author expresses this popular belief when he says the fight originated in the
days of Cheraman Perumal and that those who died in the contest would go to
heaven, while those who survived would earn conspicuous fame and other
blessings. The martial campaigns in Malabar generally began in Chingam after
the Onam festival, and the Nayar militia practiced this game soon after their
annual training in Karkatakam in local gymnasiums to whet their appetite and
test their fitness for such campaigns. In the same war-songs, it is stated that
there were two such fights, one on the afternoon of the Tiruvonam day and the
other on the forenoon of the Avittam day; women too witnessed those fights and
encouraged the victors by lusty shouting; and that kings and nobles graced the
contests with their presence and awarded suitable presents. Syrian Christians
also participated in these contests until the Synod of Diamper (Udayamperur),
held by Archbishop Menezes in 1599, prohibited them. Records show that in 1766,
1768, and 1771 the Nayars of Trivandrum engaged in such mock-fights, and that
the temple of Sri Padmanabha awarded them money presents.
An archery tournament appears to have continued in Malabar
until recently, and Fawcett says he witnessed one lasting ten days in the
southern part of Kurumbranad. The bow is a common object of worship on
Tiruvonam day in Kerala, apparently associated with this ancient military
practice. Readers of the poem Krishnagatha may be familiar with Sri Krishna's
prayer to Nandagopa that his Onam bows be preserved until he revisited Gokulam
from Mathura.
AM Kurup offers another theory: the myth of Vamana trampling
Bali into the bowels of the earth can be read as the defeat of the Malainadu
Saivite rulers by invading Vaishnavites. These were most likely the emperors of
the Chera dynasty (the Kulasekharas), devout Saivites who brought all of Kerala
under their sway. During the reign of Bhaskara Ravivarma Kulasekhara, the Chola
king Raja Raja won a great victory over the Cheras. Raja Raja refers to the
year (999 AD) in his inscriptions as "worthy of being worshipped by all
other years as the year in the whole of Eternity". Mahabali, therefore,
may have been one of the great Kulasekharas.
Siva was the family deity (Kuladeivam) of the Trikkakara
Chieftains, and their palace, as usual, stood to the left of the Temple. After
the Vaishnavites defeated the Saiva King, they built a Vamana temple on the
site of the palace and had Saint Kapila install the Vamana idol. After the
political upheaval, the Vaishnavite invaders urged people to worship Vishnu.
This confusion led people to regard Onathappan as Vishnu in the form of
Vamana. However, the 3rd-century mention
of the festival by Mankuti Marutanar, well before the Chola invasions, counters
this.
Another tradition holds that Mavelikkara, about 100 km from
Thrikkakara, is the sacred site where King Mahabali knelt, offering his head
for Vamana to place his foot and push him into the netherworld. Mavelikkara was
the historical capital of the rulers of Onattukara. Mavelikkara, the capital of
Onattukara, seems to have been Buddhist, and rumors suggest that Maveli
followed Buddhism! Following the arrival of the Vaishnavas, many viharas were
converted into temples, and this king may have been exiled.
Now, let us move to locales east of Malabar and see if there
are more mentions of Onam celebrations- In the Pathikas and Pallads (often
anglicized references to his Pathams/Pasurams and his famous Thirupallandu),
the 9th-century Tamil poet-saint Periyazhwar provides one of the earliest
literary descriptions of the Onam festival - a description is available of how
offerings and oblations were made to 'Ananthasayanam' (Vishnu) on the occasion
of Onam. It also describes the feast, the dress, the songs and dances of men
and women.
Secondly, it appears there was a festival in Karuvur, or
Vanchi, the ancient eastern capital of the Cheras in the Kongunad. Mahalingam
tells us of the Ulli Vizha, referred to in Ahananuru (verse 368): when the
heroine's maid speaks to her about her lover's visit even in daylight, she
refers to this vizha. ‘Your love affair is becoming a scandal in this hamlet
(just) like the Ulli vizha, when the people of Kongu (Kongar) wind girdles with
attached bells round their waist and dance along the streets.’ He believes the
Onam festival of Kerala is the same as this Ulli vizha, or perhaps a
modification or development of it, but he is unsure of any legends connected to
it. Since Karur is acknowledged as the ancient city of Vanji, the capital of
the Cheras, the Karur Ulli Vizha, a festival of the Chera country, may be the
same as Onam.
The Aippasi Onam vizha referred to in the Poom Pavai
Ppadikam by Tiru Jnana Sambander may be the same as Tiruvonam, but it is
unclear whether it was celebrated on that day in the Tamil regions. An
inscription at Tiruvizhimizhalai mentions the Aippasi Onat-Tiruvizha from the
days of Rajaraja I, recording a grant of money to feed pilgrims arriving to
participate in this festival.
Now we can examine an interesting connection proposed by NV
Krishna Warrier – he notes that the Sumerian New Year festival (as early as
2400 BC) was celebrated in Ninive around the time of Chingam for several days,
with dances depicting the creation of the world and the battle between the gods
and the demons. In the Babylonian festival, the King would go in a procession
to the temple, where he surrendered all his powers to the religious head and
became an ordinary citizen. Later, the king regained his power.
He notes similarities between the old functions of the
sovereigns of Cochin and Travancore. Furthermore, he says that Assiria, or
Assur, was the ancient Sumerian Kingdom, and that Mahabali, or Bali, was an
Asur. Bali's father was Virochana, who was the son of Prahlada. Some Assirian
rulers had names similar to Prahlada, Virochana, and Bali, such as Asura
Upallitha, Bela Ulusan, Balalusa, and Belakudra Asura. He draws parallels,
assuming that Prahalada is the Sanskrit form of Upalitha; that Ulusan, the son
of Upallitha, was Virochana; and that either Balalusa or Belakudra Asura was
Bali. He adds that a disastrous event precipitated their migration to the
Malabar coast and that Onam continues the Assyrian festival associated with
their favorite ruler, Bali.
Anthropologists view the Onam myth as a metaphor for
historical conflict. The myth romanticizes the displacement of the peaceful,
urban Indus people by migrating Vedic groups. Onam, therefore, serves as a
defiant celebration of a lost, utopian ancestral civilization. Some note that
Onam may have originated locally as a pre-Brahmanic harvest festival closely
tied to the monsoon cycle. The myth of Mahabali was likely integrated centuries
later through cultural synthesis as Puranic Hinduism spread to South India.
Was everyone treated equally on Onam? Not
really. There is a Malayalam proverb, “Oṇam vannalum uṇṇi pirannalum Koranu
kumbiḷil thanne kanji,” which means that, whatever it is, either Oṇam or the
birth of the child, Koran`s kanji will be in the leaf of kumbil ( a leafy
spoon). It denotes that the Koran's (a lower-caste man) poverty will remain the
same, whatever the situation. Interestingly, even on Onam, lower castes needed permission to eat Pappadam and Payasam, which were reserved for
upper castes.
There are a few more such legends and myths, but Arunachalam
has the last word: Onam for the son of Malabar (Keralam) is just like Pongal
for a Tamilian. One has to be born a Malayali to realize its full significance
and pleasure.
References
The Sociology of Onam Author(s): A.M. Kurup, Indian
Anthropologist, December 1977, Vol. 7, No. 2 (December 1977),
English Essays and poems – Ulloor Parameswara Aiyar
Festivals of Tamil Nadu – M Arunachalam
Onam and history: multi-dimensions of festivity Dr. C.
Ganesh Journal of Manuscript Studies Vol. 46, 201
Kerala Charitram Part 1 (until 1500AD) – Attoor Krishna
Pisharody
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