This Onam, a very different, Dravidian-looking, Mahabali on Kerala campuses

Kerala’s harvest festival Onam in all its essence is incomplete without Mahabali. But this Asura King of Dravidian origin has sported Aryan features since time immemorial and everyone identifies him as a pot-bellied person of fair skin wearing a poonool (the sacred thread worn by Brahmins), gold jewellery, and a cycle-bar moustache. Every opportunity to cosplay Mahabali is given to people who fit that physique.

While over the years several attempts have been made to reimagine Mahabali, this year many colleges across the state are leading the initiative. The ball was set rolling last year when a cartoonist who goes by the pen name ‘Mean Curry’ created a dark-skinned image of Mahabali and invited others to draw their own versions.

This year, the initiative is getting a lot of visibility at Maharaja’s College in Ernakulam, Sree Kerala Varma College in Thrissur, and Brennen College in Kannur, all under different universities but strongholds of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI).

Amaljith Kuttyadi, unit president of SFI at the Maharaja’s College, says the idea is to counter the Savarna narrative of Mahabali. Kuttyadi says it assumes significance because it stands with the depressed class of society and is also a protest against attempts to celebrate Onam as Vamana Jayanti. But it was just a coincidence that many colleges took the same decision at the same time, he says, suggesting this was not a collective decision of the SFI.

Artist Pavi Sankar, who created the viral Mahabali, says his idea was to make a realistic portrayal of the mythological King. “I don’t know much about mythology, but it’s romanticised a lot, especially the image of men in the Ramayana and Mahabharata. So, I thought logically about Mahabali and his attire based on the time. The chain of hibiscus originated from that. Also, he is said to be a Dravidian, so I imagine him to be dark-skinned,” says Sankar, who first made a similar image of Mahabali in 2019.

He says he decided to retain the olakkuda (a palm leaf umbrella) as it is not associated with any caste identity.

Sankar, also a concept artist for many popular movies including the recent superhero blockbuster Minnal Murali, says since the image is widely used on campuses that have SFI unions it may create political polarisation even though he didn’t make it for anyone in particular. Though happy that his concept has gone viral, Sankar says many consider the image an SFI initiative as he isn’t credited properly. “Many even used it without my permission,” he says.

Sankar, who has also created many artworks of political satire, says most of the discussions about the work are in the virtual space and real change will happen only if it’s visible outside. He also says that more such versions of Mahabali will come soon.

Kerala-based historian K K N Kurup says the Aryanised version of Mahabali was introduced at some point in history as part of inducting him into the Vaishnava tradition. “Onam itself is a Vaishnava cult,” he says, adding that it is better to not mix history with myth since Mahabali is a myth. “Introducing a new image of Mahabali instead of the normalised one is not wrong. But at the same time, there’s no need for that,” Kurup says, adding these changes are part of the social psyche. “Brahminising Mahabali was an act of social psyche and redrawing it too can be considered as that.”

“In history, there’s no good change or bad change… If some campuses introduce a dark-skinned Mahabali, it may not be accepted by the entire state,” the historian says, adding the current projection of Onam as a national festival is itself an act of the ruling class.

According to the myth behind Kerala’s harvest festival, the benevolent Asura king Mahabali was sent to pathalam or the netherworld by Vamana, the fifth and dwarf avatar of Lord Vishnu, after the gods conspired to end his reign as they were jealous of his popularity.

The myth says Vamana came to Mahabali asking for a piece of land he could cover in three steps and when the king agreed to his demand, Vamana transformed himself into the Trivikrama form and covered the entire earth and sky in his first two steps.

As he knew the earth will be destroyed if Vamana took another step, Mahabali allowed him to put his foot on his head and ended up in pathala as a result. However, Mahabali was allowed to visit his kingdom once a year, and the celebration of Onam is to remember him and the egalitarian prosperous society he ruled over.