page_title: Vamana
section_title: Onam
hierarchical_section_title: Vamana / Festivals / Onam
caption_attribution_description: Onam 2013 in Bangalore. The pyramid structure with four faces and a flat top is an abstract icon of the Vamana-Mahabali Hindu mythology. The tallest one represents Vishnu's avatar Vamana after metamorphosis into a giant form for the three steps. It is used for Onam celebrations, called Thrikkakara Appan or Thrikakkarappan (Sanskrit: Trivikrama). Onathappan.
context_page_description: Vamana, also known as Vāmanadeva, Trivikrama, Urukrama, Upendra, Dadhivamana, and Balibandhana is a Brahmin avatar of the supreme almighty god Vishnu.
  Originating in the Vedas, Vamana is most commonly associated in the Itihāsa and Puranas with the legend of taking back the three worlds from the Asura-king Bali in three steps to give back to Indra. Vamana is listed as the fifth incarnation of the Dashavatara, the ten principal avatars of Vishnu.
context_section_description: In one version of the Vamana legend, when Mahabali offered himself for Vishnu's third step, it was an act of Mahabali's devotion. Vishnu granted him a boon. Mahabali chose to revisit earth, once every year, the lands and people he previously ruled. This revisit marks the festival of Onam, as reminder of the virtuous rule and his humility in keeping his promise before Vishnu.
  According to Nanditha Krishna, a simpler form of this legend, one without Mahabali, is found in the Rigveda and the Vedic text Shatapatha Brahmana where a solar deity is described with powers of Vishnu. This story likely grew over time, and is in part allegorical, where Bali is a metaphor for thanksgiving offering after a bounty of rice harvest during monsoon, and Vishnu is the metaphor of the Kerala sun and summer that precedes the Onam. According to Roshen Dalal, the story of Mahabali is important to Onam in Kerala, but similar Mahabali legends are significant in the region of Balia in Uttar Pradesh, Bawan also in the same state, Bharuch in Gujarat, and Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra. The story is significant not because Mahabali's rule ended, but it emphasizes the Hindu belief in cyclical nature of events, that no individual, no ruler and nothing lasts forever, except the virtues and self understanding that overcomes all sorrow.
caption: Thrikkakara Appan Onathappan idol (anicon of Vamana avatar) inside Pookalam during Onam
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