Onam : Mahabali and Vamana

Onam is a festival associated with the story of Vamanadeva who came down for Mahabali. It is celebrated for about ten days culminating on the Dwadashi in the suhkla paksha in the month of Bhadrapada in the Kerala hindu calendar.

 

Being the grandson of Prahalada, there is no doubt that Bali grew to be an able and righteous king. He, by lineage, was an asura.

He had conquered all the worlds and was also gaining immense power due to the numerous yagna he performed under the guidance of the asura guru Sri Shukracharya.  Shukracharya adviced him to conduct Ashvamedha yagna (somewhere I heard it was 100 Ashwamedha yagnas) which will make him the ruler for ever. The leader of devas, Indra, was not able to win devaloka back from the Daitya king, he sought guidance from eth deva guru Sri Brihaspathi who in turn asked him to seek help from Aditi, devamata and rishi Kasyapa’s wife. Aditi prayed to Mahavishnu to help her son by destroying Mahabali. Mahavishnu told Aditi that Mahabali is a very righteous king and there is no reason for him to be defeated as he will be an ideal king for the worlds. He can only be defeated if he is cursed by his guru. He blessed Aditi to be his mother when he takes the next avatara.

Mahavishnu was born to Rishi Kasyapa and Aditi and was named Vamana. He started learning and mastering the Vedas very early in his life. He is traditionally depicted as a short dark person. Vamana reached the yagnashala around the time when Mahabali was about to complete his yaga and was giving gifts the brahmana’s sought. Vamanadeva wanted to test Mahabali’s resolve, shradha and break his pride. He asks Mahabali for 3 steps of land measured by his feet. Mahabali was surprised and asked why don’t you ask for more, for which Vamanadeva replied, for who three steps are not enough nothing in the world can satisfy him. Shukracharya sensed that Vamana was Mahavishnu himself and dissuaded Mahabali from giving the boon. Mahabali said if it is Mahavishnu himself, who am I to give him anything ? All of this is given by him and what good deeds did I do to earn such a blessing.  Sukhracharya even went and sat inside the spout of the kamandala of the king, to prevent him from giving the boon (traditionally in India offer was always confirmed by taking some water in ones hand and give it to the reciever’s hand).

Mahabali trying removing the obstruction in the process injuring the guru’s eyes and hence earning the curse of his guru. Guru Sukhracharya from then on is depicted with an injured eye. With the first step Vamana covered of Bhooloka and with the next step he covered the devaloka unable to keep his third step he looked at Mahabali, who presented his head (symbolizing the destruction of his ego and pride). Mahabali lost his lordship of Bhooloka and devaloka because of his pride but Vamandeva, ever compassionate one, asked Mahabali for any boon he seeks. Mahabali only wanted to be with the Lord himself!

Mahabali was sent to Sutala (Patala as some refer) to rule over it, along with his father Virochana. This place was supposed to be without disease, pain and full of happiness and joy. Hence I do not believe Mahabali was sent to Sutala as a punishment. Mahabali asked his Lord to allow him to return to his people once a year during the monsoon, just like how Ayodhya decorated itself with lamps, Mahabali is welcomed with colourful pookolam. And at the center of the pookolam Trikarappan is kept.

Out of love, when Mahabali reached Sutala, Vamanadeva became the guard of the new land for Mahabali. Mahalaskhmi herself came down and requested Mahabali to let her stay there so that she could be with her Lord.

This is a festival celebrated from time immemorial and even today’s Tamilnadu used to celebrate it too but was lost in the last millennium due to the brutal violence of the invading armies who wanted to annihilate the belief systems of the native people.

Additional points to ponder:

Bali or Mahabali was the son of Virochana and grandson of Prahalada. Prahalada was the son of Hiranyakashipu who in turn was born to Diti and Kasyapa rishi. It is very fascinating that Mahavishnu took two avatars within such a short span of time and that too for the bhakts of the same family!

Vamana was the son of Rishi Kasyapa and Aditi, hence becomes the great grand uncle of Mahabali.

Trikarappan is the lord who took three steps i.e Sri Vamana

Traditionally Vamana was depicted as short dark brahmana and Bali with his tuft of hair and janeu.

Inca world worshipped Viracocha as the bringer of civilization 😉

Image Sources :

By Unknown author - http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/97348.html?mulR=732 1, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9500061

 

This post is an outcome of the thoughts from two of my sources of inspiration to explore Indian history, TrueIndology (who is in exile in twitter @TIinExile) and T S Krishnan (@tskrishnan). Though I have been enamored by history and in my own way trying to reconcile what I see, experience and was taught in school. This is my humble tribute to these masters.

Boring (Indian) History

It’s funny how a promise of a week is fulfilled after a decade and a half! A lot of interesting changes have happened in the world and in my life too. I have been thinking over a year to revive my promise to blog and finally got the inspiration and courage to do so. Thanks to my wife’s non-stop encouragement

During the early educational journey, there are many subjects that appear difficult or boring to learn. This will include Mathematics, Science, History & Civics (Social sciences?), languages, art etc. Of these nearly everything will fall under the difficult category because of which children do not like it. In our country, there is one subject that is considered boring, nearly useless and that inculcates the sense of inferiority in its young citizens minds. You may have guessed it by now, its History. Every other country teaches history to create a sense of pride, tell how great they were as a nation, if there were talking about mistakes definitely follow it up with how what they learnt and how they overcame it.  The citizens not only protect the symbols of their past but revere it. Somehow in our country we have contempt for anything from the past or are indifferent to it.  Why?

Why? This is one of those few questions that sets a person on a path to seek the truth. Others being who (am I) and how. What generally is a question that helps us seek the truth of a given situation.

I rediscovered the love of history during my last years of under graduation. And luckily it was not in my curriculum after my 10^th standard. The place I started was at the very beginning of human migration story, which many scholars today say was out of Africa in multiple waves. What piqued my interest was that there are a lot of evidence of highly advanced civilizations across India in different times.  We not only have been a junction for the human migration for eons but also a hub of discipline, opulence and literally the land of the gods. When I say India from a historical perspective it includes South Asia in general but sometimes can extend to West and South East Asia. 

When you travel through time (by reading articles and books with diverse ideological leanings) what you will realise is that this land is home to not only to the oldest of civilizations (if not the oldest) but flourished as place where people of various nationalities, ethnicities, beliefs, economic strata lived harmoniously provided they understood and followed the dharmic path.  This was a land of enquiry, that is why throughout history you see people coming to India to “seek the truth”.

If today we pose a question who are the founding fathers of India, we may get answers like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Babasaheb Ambedkar who are no doubt the fathers of Republic of India. But who created, built this nation to last this long from antiquity? It definitely cannot be the handiwork of a few great people but because of long parade of great souls that graced this land. Is there any similarity in the way of life from the Saraswathi Indus civilisational times to now? Who are people like Samudragupta, Lalitaditya, Rajendra Chola, Raja Bhoja, Pulikeshi II, Narashima Pallava? Did we always lose wars as a nation to invading forces? If so how was Mewar able to remain independent for long? Did British rule wax immediately after the decline of the Mughal rule? Did the sultanate period influence all of India? Are South India's temples and culture surviving only because it was shielded from the attacks? Our country has to thank the billions of lives that have worked hard, built businesses across the world dominating the especially the India Ocean region, created a stable yet modern systems of administration and creating & disseminating knowledge. I am grateful for our ancestors’ contribution and thank them for protecting our culture and enriching it for millennia.

Even a causal and sincere look at our story makes us realize history is not only written by the victors but also coloured by the rulers to suit their ideology. A better way to approach is to read the different  perspectives of History and let the reader come to a conclusion. History is powerful when told as is. Opinions have their value but nothing is better than the truth and that is the work of an honest historian. This will bring back the joy of learning history and make it more meaningful for the future generations to contribute. Look back with pride and look forward with hope. Happy exploring and learning!