Onam is an annual cultural festival in Kerala celebrating the good rule of King Mahabali, rice harvest, and the cyclical nature of events.
The Story Behind Onam
Onam is celebrated in remembrance of the good governance under the rule of Mahabali, a king who ruled Kerala. The legend holds that envious of Mahabali’s popularity and his power, the devas and gods conspired to end his reign. They sent Vamana to Earth in the form of a dwarf Brahmin who trampled Mahabali to patala (netherworld). Vamana asked Mahabali for three feet of land as his wish from the generous Mahabali. Since denying gifts to a Brahmin is considered a sacrilege, Mahabali agreed to fulfil Vamana’s wish.
In the first two feet, Vamana measured the entire universe, leaving nowhere to place his third foot. Mahabali offered his own head to place his third foot making the wish complete. However, seeing Mahabali’s generosity, Vishnu blessed the king’s sole wish to visit his land and people once every year. This homecoming of Mahabali is celebrated as Onam in Kerala every year.
The date of the Onam celebration is based on the Panchangam and falls on the 22nd nakshatra Thiruvonam in the month Chingam of the Malayalam calendar, which in the Gregorian calendar falls between August–September.
Literature and epigraphical evidence indicate that Onam has a long religious context and history in Kerala and neighbouring parts of South India.
The festival probably has ancient origins and it became intricately linked with Hindu legends at some later date.
According to Kurup, Onam has been historically a Hindu temple-based community festival celebrated over a period of many days.
Significance
Onam is an ancient Hindu festival of Kerala that celebrates rice harvest. The significance of the festival is in Indian culture, of which two are more common.
Mahabali and Vamana
According to Indian mythology, Mahabali was the great-great-grandson of a Brahmin sage named Kashyapa, the great-grandson of a demonic dictator, Hiranyakashipu, and the grandson of Vishnu devotee Prahlada. This links the festival to the Puranic story of Prahlada of Holika fame in Hinduism, who was the son of Hiranyakashipu. Prahlada, despite being born to a demonic Asura father who hated Vishnu, revolted against his father’s persecution of people and worshipped Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu tries to kill his son Prahlada, but is killed by Vishnu in his Narasimha avatar, Prahlada is saved.
According to Nanditha Krishna, an easier form of this legend, one without Mahabali, is found in the Rigveda and the Vedic text Shatapatha Brahmana where a solar deity is described with the powers of Vishnu. This story likely evolved over time, and is in part allegorical, where Bali is a metaphor for thanksgiving offering after a bounty of rice harvest during monsoon, and Vishnu is the metaphor of the Kerala sun and summer that precedes the Onam.
The story of Mahabali is important to Onam in Kerala, but similar Mahabali legends are important in the region of Balia and Bawan in Uttar Pradesh, Bharuch in Gujarat, and Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra.
The story is significant not because Mahabali’s rule ended, but because it highlights the Hindu belief in the cyclical nature of events, that no individual, no ruler and nothing lasts forever, except the virtues and self-understanding that overcomes all sorrow.