Happy Onam. Today being the tenth day of the festivities, the grand finale of the festival popular in Kerala. It is one of the few traditional festivals which is celebrated by all religions. One reason for this that it is also the harvest festival.
What is the religious reason that is given for this? You may have heard about the story of Vaman and Mahabali. The king named Bali who was of the progeny of the diti lineage, who where considered Asur. And Vaman was a devta, an avatar of Vishnu.
Let us see what the wiki page for Onam says,
“Onam commemorates Vamana (the fifth avatar of Hindu deity Vishnu) and the generous daitya king Mahabali. According to the Hindu legends, after Indra (the king of the devatas) is defeated by Mahabali (the king of the asuras), the devatas ultimately seek refuge in Vishnu, who agrees to restore Indra to power.”
There is no reference of him being bad or doing evil deeds. The reason given is purely political, that the king of the Devatas is defeated by him.
Now let’s see the wiki page for Vaman.
“After Indra is defeated by the daitya called Bali, the king of the asuras, the great-great grandson of Kashyapa and Diti, the devas ultimately seek refuge in Vishnu, who agrees to restore Indra to power. To do so, Vishnu incarnates as Vaman. The devoted Bali conducts ritual sacrifices, one of which is attended by Vamana, who requests only three feet of land. Bali agrees, despite being warned about Vamana’s true nature as Vishnu. Vaman grows in size, and in three strides, encompasses all of existence and beyond. The three worlds are restored to Indra, and Bali and the asuras are banished to Patala, the netherworld.”
The whole thing starts with him defeating Indra the king of Gods. And Vishnu who agrees to restore his kingship. This alone should be suspect. Why is Indra, the old generation God, still the king? There was a time when nature held supreme, when Varun the God of wind, Agni the God of fire and Indra the God of rain and thunder were the most powerful. Then gradually other gods started taking avatars and getting popular. These nature gods did never took avatar to my knowledge. If Indra is not able to defend his throne why is he still the king? While he holds the title of the king of Gods, he has to ultimately go to other stronger gods, when he needs help. Vishnu here in this case. Also he is only shown as managing swargalok, the clubhouse of pleasure with wine and apsaras. Can you count in how many stories he is shown as weak? Whenever a Rishi does strong tapasya his throne starts shaking and he has to go ask help of Vishnu or Shiva.
Coming back to the reason why Mahabali was pushed into the netherworld. This action is justified by stating that he did ritual sacrifices. It also mentions that only the asuras partook. The devs were not forced to consume meat. It was not like in other stories where asuras defiled the fire altars of Rishis by putting meat in it. One thing common in many of these stories, meat is the reason for conflict. Even after ages this still remains the same. Meat is still used as an excuse for violence. The vaman page does not mention anywhere that the king Mahabali was loved by his people or about his generosity. But the story does show generosity, as he knowingly donates his head for the third step.
During these six days of Onam people remember their great king Mahabali. Waiting for his arrival on the tenth day. I remember my dad telling me the story, and it is different from both the Onam and the Vaman wiki pages. We remember him as the king whose kingship was so good, nobody was hungry. Nobody was sad. Everyone had what they needed or wanted. There was justice. As they had nothing to ask, the citizens stopped worshipping Devatas. This made the gods troubled. “This king Bali is the reason for this.” Rest of the story is similar. They went to Vishnu, who came in the avatar of Vaman and did what he did.
Do you see the irony in this? In most other festivals the reason for celebration is that the asur/danav was killed by the God. Here the reason is that the one who was pushed into pataal lok comes back and the people rejoice. Does anyone celebrate the action of Vaman? Is there any other commonly known story of Vaman? Apart from this, where he seemingly “cheated” his own devotee, with the devotee being completely aware of this happening. I found a few temples of Vaman avatar on Google maps. I found out, and only today afternoon that today is considered Vaman jayanti at least in Gujarat.
The other irony that is apparent here is the seemingly common hate against asurs. Everyone loves to hate them. Almost all stories either have them as villains or devotees of Devas. Somehow being a devotee of a deva saves them from the disgrace of being an asur. Prahlad is one such case. Irony is that at least one third of all people are still asuras. Every astrological chart has this classification of dev, manushya or asur. Everyone is one of the three. Another irony is even today people worship asuras. I am not talking about some rare sect in a corner of the country. Everyone who has done a Navagraha puja has worshipped three asuras. While Rahu and Ketu are hated or at least not loved by the majority, Shukr or Venus is loved by all. And so is Lakshmi. Who since she came up from the pataal lok and is the daughter of Puloman is also an Asur. She is also considered the wife of Shri Vishnu. But at his feet. Shukra is the guru of the danavs and has earthly pleasures as his department. Both wealth and bodily pleasures come under his domain. No doubt he is loved.
I write this not to start more debates. If one really wants to debate, do it internally, pondering why you hate danavs or asurs while loving Shukracharya and Mahabali. Or why the weak Indra is considered the king of the gods with his Somras induced apsara dance marathons. Also ponder over the fact that religion and politics were always together. Meanwhile also have a scrumptious meal with 15 side dishes and unlimited kerala poppadoms.
Wonderful.
Very informative 🙏