The Ten Incarnations
 The Story
of
the conquest of Vaishnavism
  over the buddhists &Christians in India

Vamana Avatara

“In the account of the Vamana Avatara in the Bhagavatapurana VIII 18-23 it is clear that Bali maintains absolute truth and fulfils his promise of donation to the Dwarf (Vamana) even though Bali knew that he was innocent, and that Visnu had deceitfully ‘begged’ for a piece of land.  In fact even the heaven and the earth had lamented Bali’s fate; Brahma also said that “Vali did not deserve this humiliation (of being consigned to Patala) and as a compensation Bali is confined to Sutala which is free from suffering, calamities and diseases with the promise that he would later become Indra.  The narration of the story in the purana leaves no doubt that Visnu had deceived Bali to achieve his partisan objective of restoring Indra to his throne.  In fact Visnu takes the form of Vamana “to bring about the highest welfare of the gods (devas)” Encyclopaedia of Hinduism By Nagendra Kumar Singh

“In the present Manwantara, Vishńu was again born as Vámana, the son of Kaśyapa by Adití. With three paces he subdued the worlds, and gave them, freed from all embarrassment, to Purandara” VISHŃU PURÁŃA. BOOK III. CHAP. I.

Vamana was the King of Kerala and they still celebrate the memory of this great and noble Asura King.  His empire probably extended far beyond South India upto major portions of North India.  He did a 100 Viswajit yagnas and the 100^th one was at the banks of Narmada.  It was here he met  Vamana in his deceptive dwarf form.

Konkana was a southern kingdom populated by Brahmins during and after the period of Puranas. This kingdom is identified to be the Konkan region (coastal region) of Maharashtra. Other such Brahmin populated kingdoms includes Dravida, Andhra and Karnata. They have migrated in the later periods to the south as far as Kerala.

The name Konkana probably have originated from the older name Kanwa-gana (meaning the clan of Kanwa) a clan of Bhrahmins. Kanwas were a sub-clan of the Kasyapa-clan of Brahmins. They arrived at the western shores of Indian peninsula, which were the stronghold of the Bhargava clan of Bhrahmins. This history is hidden in the myth of Vamana who arrived at the sacrifice of king Mahabali, conducted in the land of the Bhrigus (Bhrigu-kaksha (Brauch in Gujarat), on the banks of river Narmada. This sacrifice was officiated by king Mahabali's priest named Sukra, who belonged to the Bhagava clan. In spite of the protest of priest Sukra, king Mahabali gave some land for Vamana. Starting with Vamana, many Kasyapas, in large numbers, settled in the kingdom of Mahabali. Their settlements outumbered those of Bhargavas and of the ruling clan of Asuras. Thus Mahabali lost his kingdom and was forgotten into the underworld of memories. .

The Narmada River and Saivism

The Narmada River is one of the most important sacred rivers, believed to have descended from the sky by the order of Lord Shiva. It is said that the mere sight of the river will make a pilgrim pure because of its sanctity. As a result, the river represents an important pilgrimage site, and one of the highest acts a pilgrim can perform is to walk from the sea to the source of the river, in the Maikal Mountains and back along the opposite bank, a process that can take one to two years to complete. The town of Maheshwar is a particularly important pilgrimage site along the route of the river.

The Narmada is closely associated with Lord Shiva. Naturally formed smooth stones called banas, made of cryptocrytalline quartz, are found in Narmada which are known as Shivalingas; the rare and unique markings on them are regarded by shaivaites as very auspicious. The Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, constructed by Rajaraja Chola, has one of the biggest Bana Shivalingas. Adi Shankara met his guru Govinda Bhagavatpada on the banks of river Narmada.

The Narmada River is also worshipped as mother goddess by Narmadeeya Brahmins.Reva is another name of Narmada River.

Believed to have originated from the body of Shiva, the river is also known as Jata Shankari. The worship of Shiva is common in these areas, and each stone or pebble found in the bed of the Narmada is believed to be a Shivalinga. Places along the banks—Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, and Mahadeo—are all named after Shiva.

Omkareshwar has several old and new temples. There is an island on the river that is supposed to have one of India’s twelve great Shivalingas. Maheshwar is on the northern banks of the river. Cenotaphs in memory of the Holkars beautify the landscape at Maheshwar.

“In the present Manwantara, Vishńu was again born as Vámana, the son of Kaśyapa by Adití. With three paces he subdued the worlds, and gave them, freed from all embarrassment, to Purandara” VISHŃU PURÁŃA. BOOK III. CHAP. I.

Hence the logical assumption will be that Mahabali was a Saivite against whom Vaishnavites plotted.  This is the opinion of most modern historians.

ONAM

“Thiru Onam (from Sravana?) is celebrated in the second half of August (the Chingam month of Kollam Era) when the August monsoon rains come to an end and the summer heat gives way to the pleasant warmth of the Kerala autumn. Anthropologists see in Onam a great fertility rite, the ceremony of Thanksgiving for a plentiful harvest. For Keralites Onam is the celebration of the return of Mahabali, their once and future king. This king once ruled over the Keralites during the Golden Age before caste existed, “when all men were equal, when no one was poor, when there was neither theft nor dread of theives” (Maveli natu vanitum kalam/ manusharellam onnu pole ..). As the folk song suggests, the great king Mahabali ruled before the caste system was introduced in the Chera society even before the Cheras’ arrival in Kerala in the eighth century. The complete folk-song is given below in its English version:

When Maveli, our King, rules the land,

All the peoples form one casteless race.

And people live joyful and merry;

They are free from all harms.

There is neither theft nor deceit,

And no one is false in speech either.

Measures and weights are right;

No one cheats or wrongs the neighbor.

When Maveli, our King, rules the land,

All the peoples form one casteless race.

The celebration of the return of Mahabali takes four days for the Keralites. The house and yard are cleaned; a temporary mud stall is put up and washed with the purifying cow-dung solution for the royal visitor. Flowers are strewn over it for the king to sit upon; pyramid-shaped images of the king called Trikkakarayappan, made of wood or clay, are placed upon it as the onlookers applaud and cheer in sheer welcome. Pujas (worship service) are performed during the four days of Onam every morning; parents give children presents, especially dresses on the occasion. Large-scale feasts are held at this family reunion –increasingly Onam is a holiday, like the American Thanksgiving Holiday, which is characterized by family reunion and feasting. Three foods used to be essential for the festival: split bananas, pappadam(wafer) and payasm (rice pudding). After the sumptuous midday dinner, all the family members dressed in fine clothes amuse themselves: adults and boys play handball, chess, dice, and/or cards: wrestling and display of swordsmanship are not common any more; women and girls sing and dance. In the backwaters of Kerala, young men race the long snake-boats (chundan vallom), which in construction look like ancient Egyptian boats.

Onam celebrates the legendary King Bali. Only two versions are told these days. According to the orthodox Brahminical version, Bali was a wicked demon (asura) king who was “good” enough to become a yogi by virtue of his austerities (tapas). He controlled earth and heaven; the gods, of course, felt threatened by Bali. So they sent Vishnu to get rid of this menace; Vishnu assumed the form of a holy Brahmin priest-beggar, the comical dwarf Vamana and asked for the gift of as much land as he could cover in three paces. Vamana grew into cosmic size and in three strides encompassed the whole earth and heaven and Bali’s own person, and Bali was forced to retire to the only space left, paatalam, the nether world.

In the Kerala version, Bali is Mahabali, the benevolent ruler who aroused the jealousy and envy of the gods. He gave up his kingdom not just because he was a victim of a trick but because he was too generous to refuse a request and too honorable not to fulfill a promise. He asked the dwarf Vamana to place the third stride on his head ; Vamana-Vishnu kicked him down into the nether world. Mahabali, however, was granted his final wish, before he retired to hell, that on a day each year he be allowed to return to his dear people, the Keralites, to see them and to be with them as father and friend during the Onam Festival.

Obviously, these two versions of the Mahabali-legend represent the conquest of the non-Aryan Keralites by the Aryans on the battlefield and in the field of their religion. The Aryans and their gods triumphed over the Keralite Gods; instead of completely banishing their gods to the realm of non-being, the Brahmins demonized one god, Mahabali, and accepted Shiva, the god of Bali. Keralites on the other hand, would not consider their God Bali as a demon, but rather a vanquished god and popular ally.

There is a third version of Bali retained by the Mundas of Central India, the cousins of the Keralites. This version is untouched by the theology of the Aryan Brahmins.

The Cheras of the Chotanagpur region, the ancestors of Keralites, had a great king called Bali who governed the Dinajpur area; he was an asur, who did not worship Vishnu, the Aryan God. He continued to worship the native Munda god, Lord Shiva. Bali introduced the severe mode of worship in which the votary is swung around, while suspended from a lever by iron hooks which are passed through the skin of the back. He spent a thousand years in this penance and obtained the favor from Lord Shiva that no god (Aryan) should ever have the power to kill him. While the king was reigning in his great glory, Anirudha, the grandson of Krishna , the King of Brindaban and Mathura, came in disguise to Mahabali’s court and seduced his daughter Usha. The young man was arrested and thrown in prison. In order to liberate his grandson, Krishna came with a great army and defeated Mahabali; the young man was released and was allowed to marry Usha: King Bali’s city was destroyed by Krishna’s barbarian army later in an unprovoked battle. According to modified Munda and Santal traditions, it was an Aryan Kharwar Chief by the name of Madhu Das who attacked them at night and drove them to the fortresses of Vanchi (vindhya) Hills (the future name of Kerala) for the Bali’s refusal to let one of his girls marry the son of Madhu Das. Such eponymous legends are similar to the Greek legends of the abduction of Helen and the Trojan War.

These legends show that Mahabali, the Chera king of Munda race and worshipper of Shiva, was defeated by Krishna, the Vishnu-worshipper. The Mahabali-story of the Keralites, in the Munda-Chera tradition, indicates the triumph of the Vaishnavite brand of Aryans over the Shiva-worshipping Munda-Cheras. King Bali is immortal and, therefore, a god; though he is defeated, he is still alive because he is divine. It is this once and future king Bali whom Keralites commemorate during the Onam festival. Incidentally, Bali is also called Ban (Is Onam then named after Ban? If that is the case, then thiruvonam is not necessarily a Malayalamization of sravana, as it is generally believed). Further, Bali/Balia is a common personal name among the Mundas. The name appears later as Mahabali and Maveli in the South where the Cheras had settled down. In Tamil Sangam-work, Puram (234), Maveli appears as the Vellala chief of Milalaikurram who was very wealthy and generous. “The gates of the mansion were never closed and he never sat to meals except with a large company.” Maveli died of wounds received in battle fighting against the Pandyan King Nedumchelyan (Puram 233). Mahabali is remembered thus in another folk story in Tamil Nadu; in this story the enemies of Bali are Tamils. There are places bearing Bali’s name in Tamil Nadu like Mahabalipuram and in Kerala like Mavelikkara.

The purpose of this discussion on the legends of Onam has been to indicate a well-known folklore truth that there is an historical nucleus to most myths and legends and that they undergo many changes in time, especially during the migration of ethnic groups. My contention is that Mahabali was a great ancient Munda-Chera King, a Shiva-worshipper, who was defeated by the Vishnu worshiping Aryans. Mahabali is still remembered fondly by the Keralites of all religious denominations, the decendants of the Munda-Cheras. Malayalees celebrate the memory of Mahabali as the British (the descendants of the Celtic inhabitants of Britain) cherish the memory of their legendary King Arthur who fought against the invading Anglo-Saxons in the fifth century in Britain. Arthur is called rex quondam atque futurus (“the once and future king”); King Arthur is expected to return once again from his exile in Avalon, like the Mahdi of some Muslim Arabs. Mahabali is exactly that for the Keralites: Bali is still alive and will return every year during the autumn festival of Onam. For the Keralites he is also a Santa Claus or Father Christmas; someday, like king Arthur and Jesus Christ, Mahabali will return in all his former glory, and the defeated Chera culture will rise in splendor like the phoenix from its ashes.

Zacharias P. Thundy
1414 N. Ivy Road,B 4
South Bend, Indiana 46637
http://www-instruct.nmu.edu/english/zthundy

It may be worthwhile mentioning here that St.thomas landed in Kerala in AD 52. Apparently archealogy and history of Kerala indicates that there never was any Brahminic community or Hindu Temples until AD 600. The only reason would be that the few Brahmins we were stranded in Kerala in the first century accepted Christianity. So we have to look for non Hindu Dravidian King called Bali. Since Jains and Buddhists were non-violent people the Mahabali who conquerred all the three Indias cannot be from those religions. We are thus left with Christianity. The only possibility is that Mahabali was a Christian King. Maha Bali actually means “The Great Sacrifice” typical translation for Jesus. It is probably the name of the Christians in Kerala. Christian kings were ruling Kerala or part of Kerala until the 6th century. We will take this history later. But Puranas mentions that Maha Bali was a Saivite and we have the indication that Saivism was indeed an outgrowth of Christianity among the Dravidians. Thus we have Vaishanvism of North and Saivism of South both emerging from the historic Christianity. Later they developed into Hinduism as we know today.