Vamana and King Mahabali

The Onam story as the Bhagavata Purana tells it begins with the gods in exile. In Canto 8, chapter 15, the king Bali, grandson of the devoted Prahlada, wins the three worlds and drives Indra and the devas, the gods, out of heaven. In chapter 16 their mother Aditi grieves, and her husband, the sage Kashyapa, teaches her the payo-vrata, a twelve-day vow in the bright half of the month of Phalguna (February to March) in which she lives on milk alone and worships Vishnu each day (8.16.25 and 8.16.47). Vishnu appears to her and promises to be born as her son (8.17). Her vow is the first act of devotion in the story, and the avatar, or divine descent, that follows is the answer to it.

The Bhagavata places the birth of Vamana, the dwarf form of Vishnu, on a dvadashi, the twelfth lunar day, when the moon stood in the lunar mansion Shravana (8.18.5). Shravana is the star that Malayalam calls Thiruvonam, and Kerala keeps Onam on the day it rules in the month of Chingam. The text and the festival therefore share a star, though the Bhagavata dates the birth to the month of Bhadra and not to Chingam, so the two are not the same day on the calendar.

Vamana is given the sacred thread, takes up the staff, the umbrella and the water pot of a young Brahmin student, and walks to the horse sacrifice that Bali is holding on the northern bank of the Narmada river (8.18.14 to 8.18.23). His brilliance dims the priests and the king, who rises and washes the boy's feet, a gesture the text compares to Shiva carrying the Ganges on his head (8.18.26 to 8.18.28). From the first scene the king appears as a host who honours his guest.

Bali offers the boy anything he likes. Vamana asks for only three paces of land, measured by his own small steps, and explains that contentment with what one needs is the way to happiness (8.19.16 to 8.19.27). Bali smiles and agrees, and takes up the water pot to seal the gift (8.19.28). The guru Shukracharya, who recognises the boy as Vishnu, warns him that the gift will cost him the three worlds, and argues that a promise may be withdrawn (8.19.29 to 8.19.43).

Bali answers his teacher with respect and does not change his mind. He reminds himself that he is Prahlada's grandson, that nothing is more sinful than untruthfulness, and that he fears cheating a Brahmin more than hell or poverty. If the boy is Vishnu himself, he says, then he must obey whatever Vishnu has come to ask (8.20.2 to 8.20.12). Shukracharya, displeased, tells him that he will soon lose all his wealth (8.20.14 and 8.20.15). Bali does not turn back. His wife Vindhyavali brings a golden pot, he washes the boy's feet and pours the water of the vow (8.20.16 to 8.20.18), and the heavenly beings shower flowers and praise him because he gave away the three worlds knowing who was asking (8.20.19 and 8.20.20).

Vamana then grows until the whole universe lies inside his body, and Bali and the assembly behold it (8.20.21 and 8.20.22). With his first step he covers the earth, and with his second the heavens, and the text says that there was no place left for a third (8.20.33 and 8.20.34). Garuda, Vishnu's eagle, binds Bali with the ropes of Varuna after the sacrifice is complete (8.21.26), and Vamana tells him that his promise is now unfulfilled and asks where the third step should go (8.21.29).

Bali's answer is the moral centre of the story. He says that his promise must not be false, asks Vamana to place his third footstep on his head, and says that he fears dishonour more than the loss of his possessions, a hell or the ropes of Varuna (8.22.2 and 8.22.3). Prahlada arrives and praises the Lord for taking away the wealth that was clouding his grandson's mind (8.22.12 to 8.22.16), Bali's wife and Brahma plead for his release (8.22.19 to 8.22.23), and Vishnu answers that Bali held to the truth even while cursed by his own guru, stripped of everything and bound (8.22.28 to 8.22.30).

In the Bhagavata, Vishnu then sends Bali to Sutala, a realm below the earth that the divine architect Vishwakarma built at Vishnu's order and that Vishnu himself protects. Vishnu says that Bali will be able to see him there and that he will always protect him (8.22.32 to 8.22.35). He adds that Bali will be king of the heavens in the future period of the Manu named Savarni (8.22.31). Bali bows to Hari, Brahma and Shiva, is freed from the ropes, and goes to Sutala, while Indra regains his throne (8.23.3 to 8.23.4). Prahlada, hearing that his grandson has been freed and blessed, praises the Lord for his kindness to their family (8.23.5 and 8.23.6).

Kerala tells the same story and adds what the Bhagavata chapters read here do not contain: that Vishnu granted Mahabali a boon to return once a year to see the people he once ruled, and that the festival of Onam marks that homecoming. In Kerala he is usually called Maveli, and Onam is the celebration of his welcome. The popular song that begins by recalling the time when Maveli ruled describes a land where people were equal, harm and deceit were unknown, and everyone was content. Writers differ about who composed it, so it is best treated as a folk tradition.

On the ten days from Atham to Thiruvonam, courtyards are decorated with a pookalam, a carpet of flowers that grows a little each day, and earthen mounds representing Mahabali and Vamana are placed in the courtyard. Families share the Onasadya, a vegetarian feast on banana leaves, in an echo of the generosity for which the king is remembered. At Thrikkakara near Kochi, the temple of Vamana is regarded as a focal centre of the festival, and the name is explained locally as the place of the holy foot.

The two tellings are close in spirit and different in emphasis, and a devotee does well to know which is which.

Some scholars also trace the earliest roots of the story to the Vedic Vishnu who crosses the world in three strides, a version without Bali (for example Rigveda 1.22.16 to 1.22.18), and to the Shatapatha Brahmana (1.2.5), where Vishnu appears as a dwarf. One modern writer, Nanditha Krishna, reads the Kerala story partly as a harvest allegory. These readings are scholars' interpretations and not statements of the Purana.

All the figures in the story practise a virtue the devotee can practise too. Aditi is faithful through twelve days of a hard vow, Bali keeps his word at the cost of everything he owns, Prahlada rejoices at his grandson's good fortune, and Kerala's families welcome a guest with flowers and food. Bali is not remembered in either telling as a villain. The Bhagavata calls him a devotee of the Lord, and Kerala remembers him as a king who is never forgotten. Many devotees see in the festival a lesson in welcoming a guest with an open hand and in keeping one's word, and hold that such conduct draws grace, though no text promises a particular result.