Kerala has
been celebrating Onam for years and years as a festival of equality,
prosperity, and utopian dreams. The
legend is that the reign of Maveli (Maha Bali) was a utopia. People were honest. They respected one another. Everyone was happy. Life had a heavenly dignity. The heavens were unhappy, however. Gods conspired to put an end to the earthly
utopia. Vamana, an avatar of God Vishnu,
encountered Maveli and sent him down to the netherworld (Patala)
deceitfully.
Maveli Happy Onam to you |
The right wing
Hindu organisation, RSS, has come out in defence of the gods. Onam was originally a celebration of the
birthday of Vamana and had nothing to do with Maveli, argues K Unnikrishnan
Namboothiri in his article published in the Onam special edition of Kesari, the RSS mouthpiece in
Malayalam.
Namboothiri
wants to exculpate the gods from their deceitfulness and other venality. The Maveli legend “is an attempt by some
vested interests to distort the mythical stories and paint in poor light the
characters of Hindu Puranas," he writes, adding that such attempts to
destroy Hinduism should be checked.
How much of
the Puranas will be rewritten in order to exculpate the gods? There is a plethora of seduction, incest,
conjugal infidelity, deception and much else in the most sacred Vedas. The Puranas have a lot of stories depicting
sexual perversions. The Shiva Purana,
for instance, speaks of Brahma as a cheat and a sex maniac. It contains a lewd story about Shiva and
Parvati.
The gods
molested the wives of the sages and even the wives of their own heavenly
colleagues.
There is a lot
more such entertainment in the ancient scriptures. How much of that will be rewritten by
Namboothiri and his organisation? It is
better to leave the scriptures to those who are interested in them. Most people are not interested in them. People want their gods and rituals. And some celebrations like Onam.
Onam is an
innocuous festival that celebrates the human longing for a utopia. Why to meddle with that simple dream and its
legends? We can never achieve that
utopia. But we can celebrate the longing
for it. We can remind ourselves of the
possibility of such a utopia. We can
rekindle in ourselves some ideals presented by the legend of Maveli. That’s the purpose of Onam. Why not let Kerala celebrate it without bringing
in unsavoury religious revanchism?
Namboothiri
and his organisation are doing a great disservice to the people of Kerala by
raking up such controversies which have ulterior motives. As many commentators in Kerala have already
pointed out, the controversy is trying to usurp the festival of Onam which is
accepted by the people of Kerala as a secular festival and convert it into a
Hindu festival.
There is
already much communal polarisation taking place in the state though not very
overtly. It is a dangerous trend. Namboothiri and his organisation are trying
to fish in those troubled waters. It
will do no one any good in the end.
Let Maveli
return from Patala to visit his people this Onam too. Let Onam remain a secular festival expressing
human longings for a better world. If
possible, let us strive to make our world a better place. At least, let us not bring more toxin into it
with the kind of articles that the RSS magazine carried this time.
I have never visited your place but have met one fellow who claims that the place, with the highest literacy rate, is the most secular state. The onus lies on the educated ones to not become victims of polarisation.
ReplyDeleteThe real reason behind the festival was not known to me. An edifying post.
Kerala has a significant population of Muslims and Christians. People have lived in relative peace until the communal dragon started stirring recently. Pathetic. Why should people insist on destroying good relationships in the name of gods?
DeleteMeddlesome gods and their agents on earth!
ReplyDeleteIndeed
DeleteHe says she says... The loudest always has the last say!
ReplyDeleteAmit Shah also joined the rabble rousers but was shooed away by Malayalis.
DeleteVery well written!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteHearty Onam wishes Sir. Let's discard everything which is disgusting, perversive and heinous and let's everything which is noble, pious and heart-warming.
ReplyDeleteJitendra Mathur
Thanks for the greetings.
DeleteI have visited Kerala twice and there is something that attracts me there so I'm planning my next trip there soon.
ReplyDeleteWelcome.
DeleteCouldn't agree with you more!
ReplyDeleteDivide and Rule...It works everywhere...Onam is just another excuse for that. Why would they bring up the Vamana Jayanthi when we are not clearly interested?
ReplyDelete