Onam is a festival celebrated mostly in the state of kerela in India. Basically Onam is a festival of malayalees. Onam is celebrated in honour of King Mahabali (king of asuras) who ruled kerela and that period is considered to be the best period for kerela. Mahabali was the grandson of Prahalad who was great devotee of lord Vishnu. Hence Mahabali was also a great devotee of Vishnu.
There was a war between the king of asuras and king of devas. In other words the war was between Mahabali and lord Indra and Mahabali did a special yagna to get some special weapons to fight the battle under the guidance of Guru for asuras shukracharya. With a great tussle Mahabali won the battle and defeated Indra. All the demigods were afraid because Mahabali had conquered the entire universe. Hence to avoid any problems in the future all the demigods approached Vishnu (the maintainer) to rescue them.
Mahabali made an announcement that he is ready to offer anything which a person wants from him. Mahabali itself means great sacrifices. Vishnu took an avatar of a brahmin boy and asked for bhiksha (alms) from Mahabali. Shukracharya knew that the boy was a special person and hence he advised Mahabali not to honour the promise. However Mahabali was stubborn and asked the boy what he wants. The boy said that he will take away the land which he covers with 3 steps. Mahabali agreed. The boy increased his size to a gigantic one and stepped on the earth. With the second step he covered the brahma lok(heaven). When he stepped in brahma lok, Brahma washed the feet of Vishnu and chanted the Purushasooktam. There was no place left for the boy to keep his 3rd step. Mahabali offered his head and asked the boy to keep his feet on his head and The boy pushed Mahabali in the patala and he became the king of patala. The avatar taken by Vishnu is known as vamana avatar.
However Mahabali was allowed to meet his subjects once in a year and that day is celebrated as Onam. Mahabali being a great devotee of Vishnu and having defeated the Indra was promised to become an Indra in a manvatara (the office of indra is a rotating one). In the next manvatara Mahabali is the Indra. Onam also marks the start of harvest season.
PS Manvatara is a very long period. It is defined in Rigveda. Will find out the exact mathematics of years and all
2 comments:
thank you very much for the information.i think you have inspired by harish sir huh?
anyways it is nice to read such things.pls keep it up.if u want you can take some tips from harish sir.
take care
keep smiling:-)
yes i am always taking tips from him
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