The Legend of "ONAM" - A Short Story

PART-I

No, I am not revising a tradition that has cultivated harmony and an indelible accountability in the hearts and emotions of the Keralites. Neither I am interested in evincing my protagonism or rather be a proponent for legitimising an ancient historical tale thereby propitiate a supercilious rumpus in the corridors of the literary community intuitionally. Onam is our traditional festival or the season of harvest and the historical saga associated with this festival has a charismatising effect on the most ordinary malayalee for it manifests their hospitability ingenuously. According to the local belief, in a war that took place between the gods and the demons, the demons won. Deeply hurt by the defeat and the intensified prayers reverberating in the premises of the deity, Lord Vishnu in the guise of a Brahmin boy, vamanan, went to destroy the incumbent king of the demons, Mahabali. During the yaga conducted by the king, he asked for three steps of land which was granted. Vamanan covered the whole land with his two steps and then he came back to the King asking him where he can place the third step. The king to honour his word offered his head as the third step. Vamanan pushed Mahabali deep down into the earth. Pleased by his honesty and generosity, the lord in turn granted him a wish that he could visit his kingdom and people on a particular day once a year. Thus the particular day (or days) envisaged into Onam festival; the reception given to the king a distinguished feature of this traditionally resplendent festival. But a king who was deeply committed to his people had such an ill fated end? As Bhagvad Gita quotes “A king is revered to a god once he is faithful to his people”. Was it because of this that Krishna, another incarnation of Vishnu added this in his sagacious verses to Arjuna during the kurukshethra war? If Mahabali was a king who ruled on behalf of the demons, why only the keralites celebrate Onam? Let the myth not eschew our desire to flip the pages through the past.

Once upon a time, there lived a king named Mahabali, whose kingdom lied adjacent to the Arabian Sea on its west and the Western Ghats on the east. As a result of its location, the kingdom comprised of farmers, artisans, potters and many others of the working class community. The king was immensely interested in maintaining the law and order of his kingdom thereby bestowing the cumbersome work of economic management to his most faithful minister. The kingdom had a complacent law and order system with no caste or class distinction or discrimination. In order for the smooth functioning of his kingdom’s judicial system, he ensured the formation of a tangible group in every village, comprising of the elder men, contiguous with him commentating him the day to day state of affairs of their villages. He made sure that the wealth got distributed unilaterally among his people and his kingdom remained free of miseries.

Adjacent to Mahabali’s territory was the kingdom of another legendary king Indr, who unlike Mahabali was not all interested in serving his people but to wage battles so that every kings gave him his share and there by an exacerbation of his supremacy. He had a longing desire to occupy the fertile and prosperous banks of Periyar River, the river flowing through the hearts of Mahabali’s kingdom. But, Mahabali had a very well disciplined army who were willing to withstand all the predicaments to protect their king from the peppery Indr. A messenger was rushed to Mahabali’s court beckoning him to prepare for the war. The king at once summoned his army chief.
“Soldier, the days are less, I bequeath you the responsibility to protect our kingdom and our people from those wretched mercenaries of King Indr. Financially, my minister will assist all your requirements. But, at first you should make provisions for alerting our people about the impending danger we are enveloped in”.

The notion of a war panicked the people. They were quite aware of king Indr’s merciless regiment and their tales of brutalities became the heat of conversation even in the corners of the villages. Travellers, who had been to far off land, narrated them about tales of pathos of the regions Indr captured. Finally, a group comprising of village head man decided to meet the king in order to rejuvenate him and offer their explicit support to their majesty. The very thought of their king serving Indr aggravated their anxiety.
“Your majesty, we all stand beside you in this hour of despair and we offer our support to our soldiers who have been accomplished for this painstaking mission”.

The war began. The grounds trembled beneath their feet as the soldiers battled to save their pride and honour. Initially Mahabali’s army faced serious reverses, but with villagers adhering to the battlefront, Indr’s army could not break through their defence barriers. Finally, they conceded defeat and had to retreat. Probably, this was their first defeat, for Indr had suspended all his amusements in the court, the performance of the gorgeous and rubious damsels. The news of their defeat petrified him and a thumping desire for vengeance preoccupied him. But the war devastated the monetary situation of Mahabali. In order to feed the public during the war, the king had to drench his treasury to a huge extent which left the minister gasping for funds. The situation was quite morose that the king had to confer his golden necklace to garland the victorious warriors on their return. The people got no holiday to rejoice their victory.
“Soldiers and Villagers, This victory shall be perused by generations to come as not just an ordinary battle, but a battle filled with the pride, emotions and most importantly the lasting love showered upon me by all of you. But, we have no time to waste. Rather, I request everyone to commence their work at the earliest”.

But words just could not redeem the dilapidated plight of the villages. Penury of seeds resulted in poor showing by the farmers. As a result the kingdom was slipping into a viscous famine as the besotted relationship between the people strained. Village headman complained of minor burglaries in their provinces.
“Minister, I hear burglaries in my kingdom. I am sure these sprouted up due to the economic imbalance that’s developing among the people. The potters and artisans are able to trade while our most dependable economy agriculture is in shambles. We have to give them more grains”
“Sire, Treasury is almost empty”.

Mahabali opened his eyes after a deep reverie to find a fresh smile on his minister.
“Minister, my smiles have dried up like our fields outside”.
“Sire, I have the solution for your tension. A few days back some traders arrived in our territory. They expressed their willingness to buy our land. Due to our financial strain, I find this a preferable solution. Since we have a lot of barren land where we do not cultivate anything, we can give them that part of it.”
The king nodded his head unwillingly.


PART II


The traders were from the north. They bought the land and decided to do contract cultivation. They bought the seeds from outside and asked the villagers, already reeling in a magnanimous crisis, to cultivate in their land for a small share of the cultivated product. Farmers oblivious of the impending admonition, decided to work with them later found it reproachable. The traders after cultivation took huge profits and gave them only a small portion of their production. But they lured them with loans, pawning their houses and thus enslaving the farmers to work for without even paying them. Slowly they started acquiring the nearby land engaging a hidden pact with the minister. This aggravated the animosity of the villagers for they found the traders at their doorsteps even at the middle of the nights. The relation between the village committee and the King also mitigated which further intensified their woes. Finally, the group decided to meet the king.
“Your majesty, we know very well about our kingdom’s situation. But letting loose these traders will have consigning effects on our people. They come even in the nights knocking our doors, scaring our women and children. They have displaced many a families to streets, who are unable to repay what they have taken. Your majesty, it is in your hands. Only you can help us”.
“Yes, I will look after this”.

The news spread like fire. It shocked everybody in the village. It spread to other villages. Rage and emotion filled everyone’s hearts. For the first time everyone mourned together. From far and wide, people came to see the dreaded scene. Slowly, the king arrived. Tears poured form his eyes. He never knew the situation had become this worse. He saw all the villagers that had assembled there bewailing and filled with grievances. The king returned back and summoned his minister immediately. His eyes were pouring out fire. The minister knew about this in the early hours itself.
“Minister, today I saw four bodies hanging on a tree; a father, mother and two children. This is the first time in my life that such a dreadful thing occurred in a part of my land. And it’s all because of your economic modernisation. Now listen to me. I want to meet those traders. We all will repay their debts. I have decided to save our farmers. We are going to implement cooperative farming. Irrespective of the land whether it belongs to them or me, our farmers together in a cooperative style of functioning will do the cultivation as directed and managed by us. We will then pay their debts and what we have borrowed from the traders. This procedure should be implemented with immediate effect”.

This came as a big blow to the traders. People now completely aware, that it was their honourable king asking them to cultivate, took up their fresh duties with utmost sincerity. Together they worked with fresh rains pouring in as a blessing in disguise. Traders were not all happy for they lost their chance of slowly occupying the parts of the land. They complained to the minister and offered him plenty a reward including the kingdom, if he was successful in halting the king’s evolution. Every field had its own style of product. Some had banana, while some was filled with cardamom. At the end of an agricultural cycle, king directly bought the cultivated products from the people and gave them their share. The rest he showered it on the traders. He kept a small share to feed his army and men. But this did not satisfy the minister, for he found the treasury not catching up to his hidden expectations and agenda.

King was in his jovial mood when the minister came in. The minister was not that delighted to find the majesty happy after quite a long time.
“Minister, from this year onwards we are going to conduct a cooperative market policy too. In fact we don’t have to distribute the materials they are cultivating to them. Rather, those who sow should reap. This market policy will be substantiated and later thoroughly implemented with proper guidance as soon as the harvest season begins. People from any part of the world can come and sell their products and buy what they want in the most reasonable configuration. We should make sure that no farmer who produce gets cheated. This will meet the requirements of the most ordinary man. We will be able to adopt a system where people can cultivate and sell for their way of living. And as for us, since you are bothered too much of our treasury, those people coming from outside our provinces, to sell and buy, should be charged. And I am directly responsible for any farmer who gets cheated “.
The minister was completely speechless.

One fine day, there were a group of men who had come to see the minister.
“Minister, we have heard of you and your modernisation programmes. The traders who had been here have not come merely with the intention of trading alone. They are king Indr’s special force assigned to topple mahabali. They have told me about a reasonable share they used to give you for your explicit support. King Indr has all his minds set on this land. In fact there is a no way out for your king. If you stand with us we will unite and you shall be given this kingdom as such a present. Now the new market innovations implemented immaculately by your king is infiltrating into the minds of our people too. We should not let this market reforms to be a success. We should make some provisions to disrupt his experimentation. With the peoples support, your king is having, we find it very difficult to move into this territory. You should sort a way out”.

The minister was galloping his horse through the village. There was just one day left for the majesty’s glorified market to become a reality. Suddenly, he stopped in front of a house. It was a very small hut with palm leaves not fully laid on the roof. But he was surprised to see a lemon that was growing in front of the house. It was not an ordinary lemon. It was something bigger, something as the size of a jackfruit.
“Anybody inside”
A lady came outside. She was not delighted to see the minister especially when she found his eyes feasting on the lemon.
“My name is adity. This is my son’s labour. His name is vamanan. My husband, a Brahmin, filled with reverence and sycophancy for the king went into the war. He was killed in the battle. Vamanan used to daily water this lemon as a reminiscence of his father. He loves it very much and considers this most auspicious to serve his father”.
The minister reached his court and summoned some soldiers.
“On the last day of the market, you have to go to a nearby village. There you will find a small hut with a huge peculiar lemon growing in front of it. Tell the lady it’s for the king and give her a few grains in return, just the price for an ordinary lemon”.
The minister was scrubbing his hands to and fro for he knew his majesty’s love for children.


PART III

People started pouring in on the opening day of the market. There were people coming from far and wide too. The king had sent his messengers to different territories to ensure the success of his new innovation and make his market acquainted with the people. He was present at the venue when the first ray from the sun had hit the earth so as to completely envision the proceedings right under his nose. Ladies and children also had their agricultural commodities and in turn were able to satiate their requirements. Gaiety and contentment filled the premises except for the minister who stood at the entrance welcoming the people with a cold smile. An open field was divided into four zones based on the professional distinctions. The first zone, the largest and most wide spread consisted of the farmers. There were stalls with the roofs covered by the palm leaves and the banana leaves. The king was present near the grain stall which had the maximum rush. While the second zone comprised of potters and artisans who did the exchange for food materials. The third zone comprised of toys made of clay specially designed for the children. The soldiers who were at the entrance were given strict orders to let only children through. The fourth zone was made for people who had come to sell their products from outside the territory. The king had given the charge of this zone to his minister, to ensure that the treasury keeps running.

The first three days went smoothly. The trading came to a halt only at the sunset. A few stalls continued even after the sunset to meet the demand. The king had arranged the accommodation for the people, who were assigned in the stalls and bestowed with other duties in the market area, in the make shift tents near the field. The astrologer’s prediction was true for it never rained all the three days. The king on his return to the court was explicitly happy.
“Minister, just one day more for this event to go. After that, I will be the most revered king in this world for I have the happiest people with me. I will make sure that everyone is equal not only in front of law but economically. There should be no more hunger in my kingdom. With my new innovations, I will displace all those traders and distribute my land among my people under our authorised control so that they could decide what to sow and what to sell”.
Minister laughed, but his mind was quivering at very thought of the next day.

“Please don’t take that away. My son loves it so much. When he comes back he will ask for it. I will have no answer then. It’s his love and care that has blossomed into such a large fruit”.
The mother’s plea did not reach their ears for they were given strict orders from the minister.
“Sorry, but we have received orders from his majesty. This lemon should go into the market today and should be kept for sale”.
With these words, they took the big lemon which almost required a man’s full vigour to lift it. Without saying a word, they kept a few grains in front of her house and left the scene as directed by the minister.

The last day of the market was particularly crowded. There was not a space to turn around in the field. The most crowded stall was that were the big lemon was kept. It was a beautiful sight to see the gigantic lemon among the ordinary small ones. In fact, the king was eager to see it too. He arrived at the stall as soon as he had been informed about an entirely special thing setting foot in the market.
“It’s extraordinarily beautiful. Let this be a prize. At the end of the day, the most hospitable stall will get this lemon as a reward”.
With these words, he took a sword and split the lemon into two, a cut straight through the middle.

No one might have noticed a small kid, about the age of five to seven, with his bare chest, a thread stringed on his body in a vertical manner, and a thick white cloth neatly folded around his waist reaching his legs, carrying an umbrella, like the most typical Brahmin. He had come there searching for something very important for his eyes was rapidly hunting for it, but the crowd there did not let him move through easily. He decided to meet the king with whom he was quite familiar due to the blind worship by his father. He found the king comfortably seated in one of the stalls with his subjects on his side resembling a yaga, which the Brahmins used to perform for sanctity.
“Your majesty, my name is Vamanan. I am looking for a lemon that has been the subject of conversation here and outside. I would like to verify whether it is mine”.
“Soldiers, please guide this kid to that counter where the lemon is kept. Let him examine it.”
The king thought it was the kid’s mere inquisitiveness that gave birth to that question.

Tears rolled form his eyes, as he saw his lemon, cut into two, the one that he had pampered, nourished, the one that remained a reminiscence of his father, and a last look at the fruit, he could see the very same position his father was on the ground when he was killed during the war. Immediately he rushed to the king, his eyes choking with rage and fury. The king saw him coming from a distance and ordered all his subjects to be silent.
“You are the most hated and wretched king in this world. First you took my father away from me, on the pretext of some war just to satisfy your greed, whom I loved more than my life. Now you took away my lemon which I used to nourish and pamper as a token of my love towards my father. How cruel of you. You deserve to be in the same comportment as my father and my lemon is now else the whole world will one day curse you for this”.

The king got to his feet. He looked at the minister, who kept his head down. With folded hands he went to Vamanan.
“I apologise; I really was unaware of it. But a crime committed is a crime and my law is same for everyone irrespective of who has committed it whether he is the king or his subjects. Minister, I order the royal executioner to have my head cut into two in the very same manner as I have done to his father’s reminiscence.”
Words poured out like thunder bolts from the king. Everyone was petrified. People started to look into each other’s faces completely shocked and amazed at what had been announced by the majesty himself. Ladies, with their children on their hips for a moment raised their hand to their mouth in order to hide their exasperation at the unexpected proclamation by their most revered figure after the lord. The trading stopped instantaneously. Everyone rushed to the zone, where the king was standing with a kid in front of him, looks of whose were quite divine and sacrosanct. The king with hands folded, as everyone watched, bent down touched the legs of vamana.
“Vamana, you are the most precious son a father can have and any son who loves his parents is the god himself. I humbly apologize for my misdeeds. But you should promise me one thing. When you grow up, you and your generations should keep the concept of equality among the people alive and make the people realise the importance of a tangible society where all are equal in front of god as well as the law. You should also keep this market alive once in a year so that the succeeding generations will know about me and I could look up from the skies on this day to see my beloved people happy. Hope you fulfil my promise.”
For a moment words from his father filled his heart for his father used to say that we have the most humble king in the world which was lucid from the manner with which he pleaded to him.
“I promise you your majesty. I promise”.

Years passed when in 1957, EMS Namboodiripad, another Brahmin, who levered a motion for the winds of equality in the land of the legendary king Mahabali and together with the people unanimously, gave a rousing reception to the king, the materialisation of our traditional Onam. Whether Mahabali, acknowledged as the king of the demons and the glorified Vamanan, an incarnation of Maha Vishnu, were portrayed with reverence, Mahabali’s vision of a sagacious society and equality among the people propelled the malayalees to insinuate the flames of socialism in Mahabali’s own Kerala.