# Hindu Feasts, Fasts and Ceremonies/Chapter 20

20. The Onam Feast in Malabar
THE Onam is the oldest of the national feasts of Malabar. This feast commences nine days previous to Onam day from the Hasta asterism and lasts three days after it. The commencement of the festivities is announced by the youngsters twanging a bowstring which is called Villukkottal. This Villukkottal is very harsh but is carried on throughout the continuance of the feast for ten days. It corresponds to the sounding of harsh drums by the low-caste people of the Madras Coast during the Sankramana festivities—the entrance of the sun into the sign Capricorn. The Onam is celebrated to commemorate the reign of Mahabali, the mythological king who is said to have ruled over Malabar. He is reported to have been humbled by Vishnu in Tirukkakarai, a sacred town in Travancore, where Vishnu appeared as a fair young boy weeping. The Hindu legends put this appearance down as the Vamanavatara or the dwarf incarnation ​of Vishnu; but the homely Malayali prefers to describe him as a fair boy. Mahabali asked the boy what he warted and gave him fruits and sweetmeats, but the cunning young rogue would accept nothing. "What do you want, then?” asked the king who used to give all those who came to him whatever they asked for. The boy said that he required only three feet of ground and this was readily granted by the unsuspecting king. Suddenly the boy assumed a huge shape (generally called Visvarupa or world-pervading shape) and with one foot covered all Mahabali’s dominions. The second foot took in all the sky covering the king’s dominions, but where was the third foot of ground? The king was amazed and thought that Vishnu himself was before him. "Where am I to measure the third foot?” cried the deity. "On my head, my lord!” was the calm reply of the monarch. And so it came to pass, and Mahabali was humbled to dust. This event took place on the Onam day, in the asterism of Tiru-Ona (whence the name Ona, devoid of, Tiru which means holy) in the month of Simha answering to the latter half of August and the former half of September. ​ But a question may arise here as to why this day which is a sorrowful day on which a good sovereign died should be observed with festivities. It is stated that Mahabali requested Vishnu that the day of his departure to the other world should be observed with festivities and the boon, it is said, was granted by the deity. There is also another belief. On the Onam day, king Mahabali is supposed to again pay a visit to his country, his object being to see whether his subjects still enjoy the same amount of happiness and prosperity, as they did under him. So, to give a right impression to their whilom sovereign, the Malayalis keep up the festivities on this day, for, if they should mourn, Mahabali would return to his abode in the other world with a grieved heart and a vexed mind.
At the approach of Onam, the houses in Malabar are decorated with flowers and festoons. A clay image of Vishnu is made in every home and worshipped during these ten days. The god is inaugurated with a special feast called Puadai feast in which rice and nendra plantain are cooked and offered to the god. The duty of bringing flowers and boughs to decorate the ​houses is left to the younger boys. Each youngster takes a small basket and proceeds to the gardens and fields with his companions merrily singing a shrill hymn called the Onam hymn. The following is the translation of one of the. verses:—"Oh! the moon-disc-decorated (Siva) protect me. Oh! the husband of Parvati (Siva) protect me. Oh! the moon-faced deity protect me. Oh! the god worshipped by Indra and other gods protect me.” It does not matter if Siva is extolled while flowers are being gathered for the worship of Vishnu, the rule among the youngsters being that some deity or other must be praised. The image is called Mahadeva. The women and girls at home amuse themselves with a dance in a circle called the Tappattikkali; all stand up and circle round and round clapping their hands and singing sweet songs in praise of Vishnu or some other deity. One of the elders of the party starts the song and leads the dancers, and the others accompany her by repeating what she says and following her movements. These amusements continue until the Onam when presents of new cloths are made. All the male and female members of every ​family, including the children, receive their new cloths from the Karnavan, or family head. The women also receive any other new cloths meant for some future occasion, as Onam day is considered an auspicious one for receiving such presents. Early in the morning the labourers and cultivators visit their masters with a number of nendram kay, a species of plantain peculiar to Malabar, and receive in return a new cloth, oil, rice, ghi, etc., as becoming their position. There is nothing unusual in the food partaken during the Onam festivities except that the nendram fruit must form one of the dishes. The house of every Nambudri Brahman is thrown open to as many Brahmans as may care to visit it. The Pandi Brahmans, or the Brahman cloth merchants from Tinnevelly who visit Malabar with the mundu cloth specially made for the feast in Ambasamudram and Viravanallur in the Tinnevelly District, are well fed and their cloths are largely in demand. On Onam day a special dish of nendram is partaken by every Malayali—this is called pulukkiya pala norukka.
After the presents have been distributed, the worship of Vishnu succeeds and the feast over, ​the Malayali men assemble to witness a grand sham fight (Padakkali or Kayyankali). Each of the opposing sides must be under the patronage of some influential Malayalis who, a month or two before the Onam feast agree to conclude it in this, the usual way. This entertainment is a very costly one. The men engaged to fight are generally well known wrestlers and acrobats; they live at the expense of the person who engages them, and are specially trained in order to display their full skill on the Onam day. All the people assemble to witness the sports—men, boys and little girls, the women stopping at home to dance and sing the Tappattikali. The men divide themselves into two parties, or cheries, and sit on the ground in rows, 15 to 20 yards being left between them and here it is that the combatants display their skill. Two men are chosen as umpires on each side. The game commences at 1 o’clock every day and continues until 6 P.M. on Onam day and the two succeeding days, and at 6 P.M. on the 10th day of the feast—i.e., the third day from Onam proper which is also the third day after the commencement of the sports—the decision of the ​umpires is declared. A commencement is made by one party sending out ten boys to challenge ten boys from the other side. These display their strength and agility of limb by acrobatic feats, and then challenge the boys from the other party. The latter accepts the challenge by sending out ten boys to meet them. Both the sides return to their respective seats. The umpires then call out by name one boy from one party and ask him whether he would fight so and so, on the other side. Sometimes the boy accepts, sometimes he sneeringly says that it would be a disgrace on his part to be matched against such a poor and weak opponent. The doubts are decided by the umpires and the fight takes place. Certain conditions are agreed upon and woe betide him who disregards them. The conditions are whether the blows to be struck shall be all on the back (odaram), on the sides (kadakam), on the back of the neck (pedani), on the cheek (chekadatta), etc. The youngsters then set to, two at a time, and an account is carefully kept by the umpires of successes and defeats. Then in gradation of age, dexterity and skill, others, still two and two ata time, one from each party, appear ​and fight. This goes on for three days. On the last day the decision of the umpires is given. Every one, specially engaged for the entertainment, is rewarded on the night of the third day, in accordance with his powers and prowess. This closes the padakkali which takes place before a Rajah or local chieftain, now a rich tarawad, who witnesses the whole scene and distributes the prizes. It is considered a high honour to win a prize in the padakkali. Generally no harm is done in the sham fight, but sometimes, under excitement, and when the parties attacking each other are professional wrestlers or bear a grudge towards one another accidents do occur. This whole sham fight is called onitalla. But these are rare and never come into Court, for king Mahabali cannot thus be insulted. On the evening of the last day the clay image of Vishnu is placed on an ornamental plank made of jack-wood and with much tamasha, in which the young and the old freely join, is taken to a river, tank or some unfrequented place, and thrown away. From time immemorial the Onam seems to have been celebrated in the same festive way in Malabar. ​Several treaties, engagements and papers of importance edited by Mr. Logan, late of the Madras Civil Service—the greatest authority in Malabar matters—contain allusions to this Onam, so remote as in A.D. 1784.
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