Onam and Vamana Jayanti — A failed coup by leftist establishment.
- In Politics
- 12:37 PM, Nov 03, 2016
- Anjali George
Every land and culture has its own unique customs and traditions. Kerala, bordered by the Western Ghats on the east and the sea on the west has developed a peculiar system of traditions as well as political behavior different from rest of India. Hailed as the most literate state with a higher rank in HDI, Keralaites tend to look down on the comparatively ‘unschooled’ regions in India. However, I am compelled to say that Malayalees fail to do any soul-searching. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. One such moment was ruckus on BJP president Amit Shah’s Vamana Jayanti greetings to all Indians and the turmoil triggered by Marxists from Kerala.
The first Onam of the newly elected communist government of Kerala has been smeared with controversy from the beginning of its ten-day celebration The government issued an order to control festivities conducted during office hours. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said in a Facebook post that it was not proper to hold Onam celebrations in state-run establishments during working hours.
Since the government has been creating controversies by meddling with Hindu affairs after assuming power, people took it as another nail by the Marxists on the majority community. Meanwhile, they got an opportunity to divert the attention onto their arch enemy Sangh parivar when RSS weekly in Malayalam, Kesari came with the Onam special edition. Kesari had an article describing the story of Vamana avatar as in Bhagavata Purana by a noted Bhagavata Purana scholar. Leftist intellectuals started scaremongering using the depiction of Vamana, the fifth avatar of Lord Maha Vishnu in the article as North Indian hegemony by the Parivar. Someone even accused RSS of ‘Hindutvaization of Kerala’s Onam festival’. Words fail me, what does it mean that RSS is trying to ‘hinduise’ Onam? Isn’t Onam a Hindu festival? Isn’t Hindu, the name of the original culture of the land before Islamic and Christian rulers came?
If we research a bit, the story of Mahabali is associated with the fifth avatar of Lord Maha Vishnu, the Vamana avatar. Vamana means a dwarf. He is also known as Trivikrama and has been worshipped so in various parts of India. He was the son of Sage Kashyap and Aditi. Mahabali was the great grandson of Kashyap and grandson of the great Vishnu devotee Prahlada. King Mahabali performed Vishvajit yajna and conquered all three worlds. As the gods left devaloka, mother Aditi worshipped Lord Maha Vishnu by observing Payo Vrata and hence pleased, Vishnu was born as her child to help Indra and other gods get back the world. Like his grandfather Prahlada, Mahabali also was an ardent devotee of Vishnu. He promised the Brahmin boy who approached him to fulfil his desire. The boy asked for land that can be measured by his three step. With two strides, he covered the whole universe leaving nothing for the third one. Staying truthful to his word, the King humbly showed his head for the boy to measure. As the story goes, Lord Vishnu got pleased by the supreme sacrifice of the King, sent Mahabali to Sutala, one of the lower worlds with all amenities and has promised to make him the Indra during the Savarni Manu’s era. He also blessed King Bali by promising his protection & care from all ailments in Sutala until SravaniManvantara. By being kind to the request of a Brahmin boy, through his selfless sacrifice, King Bali, an Asura attained supreme protection of Maha Vishnu. The moral of the Story of Vamana avatar in Bhagavata Purana is also about the essence of Bhakti, a devotee’s total surrender to the god. Onam in Kerala is believed to be the commemoration of the return of King Mahabali to see his folks. But historically, references to seven days Onam festivities date to the ancient Tamil Sangam text, Nalayiram Divyaprabhandham of Alwar saints. In a feature carried by The Telegraph newspaper in 2013, noted historian and former Chairperson of Indian Council for Historical Research M G S Narayanan confirmed that Vamana was the hero of Onam until the 11th century and that Bali became more popular only after the 16th century. In any case, festivals are not solely based on history. We should also note that the official onam celebrations in Kerala start with the procession called ‘Atha chamayam’ from the headquarters of erstwhile Kochi kingdom to the Vamana Moorthy Temple in Thrikkakkara, Ernakulam. A mandapam exists in the temple representing Mahabali. Even in Hindu homes of Kerala, Onam feast is celebrated by offering sadya (traditional meal) to gods and ancestors before the family eat. Keralites place mud pyramids of Onathappan, in the middle of the Pookkalam (flower carpet ) is made for welcoming Mahabali. Leftists cry foul when someone tells the story of Vamana and Mahabali as it is in scriptures. There have been several legends associated with the identity of the King Mahabali; one such is based on a 16th-century poem written by a poet Sankara Pillai in which Mahabali is a local chieftain loved by the people of central Kerala. Keralites have been singing this song also for decades.
So, what do socialists intend to achieve by creating unnecessary controversies by ascribing Dalit identity to Mahabali as well as native flora? When BJP president Amit Shah wished Vamana Jayanti to all ‘Deshvasiyon’ (people of India) in Hindi, lefties found a golden chance to inflate a divisive regionalist sentiment using Onam festival. They saw this as one more step in their struggle to stop ‘Sangh Parivar’ in Kerala. But they forgot the fact that, Deshvasiyon doesn’t mean Malayalees alone. Also, Vaman Jayanti is a festival observed in states like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, etc. on the Dwadasi after the Shukla Paksha (fortnight of the waxing moon) in the month of Shravana (Chingam in Malayalam). In 2014, September 6th was Vamana Jayanthi and September 7th Thiruvonam. In 2015, Thiruvonam was at the beginning of Chingam month (August 28th) per Malayalam Calendar, and Vamana Jayanti fell on September 24th. Since the duration of Ekadasi was short, Dwadasi came early on sep13th and incidentally Thiruvonam of Kerala falls on September 14th. As Shah is the leader of a national party, he cannot consider only one state while writing in Social Media.
On the other hand, the communists have a strong presence only in Kerala, which restricts their knowledge regarding festivals and issues pertaining only to the realm in which they exist. The uproar over Vamana Jayanthi exposes the ‘Koopa mandooka’ mindset of the communists who see everything around them in their worldview. This debate also reveals the utter ignorance of leftists and media about Hindu texts and their perverted endeavors to define Hindu concepts through Semitic jargons. The brouhaha is political opportunism by half cooked ideas on Hindu Puranas acquired from Amar Chitra Katha. Ironically, the same people who have been lobbying to forget the ‘myth’ of Mahabali and exhorted to celebrate onam as a secular harvest festival and boycott ‘upper caste’ sambar and Aviyal and called for the boycott of Onam for it being ‘Shirk’ were desperate to worship ‘Dalit King Mahabali’ now.
Searching opportunity for conflict based on description of the world through Marxist analysis is absurd because Hindus have the freedom to choose whom to worship and how to worship. Hindus are not locked in the closed world of Good vs. evil or black vs. white binary. Hence we can accept Vamana as well as Mahabali with the same fervor. There is a limit to the conflicts, an ideology which failed to nurture scientific temper in countries with monoculture, and monotheistic religions can inflict in an open and diverse society as Hindus. Leftists have a lot to worry, even in the last bastion, you are now revolving around Sangh Parivar.
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