Is Onam About Mahabali Or Vamana? The Debate That Refuses To Die

While Malayalis around the globe come together to celebrate Onam 2025 on September 5, the controversies surrounding the festival and its connection with the festival of Vamana Jayanti 2025 (celebrating on September 4) have risen once again. Onam is Kerala`s biggest cultural festival founded on a myth of King Mahabali, while Vamana Jayanti is observed every year to mark the birthday of Vamana, Lord Vishnu`s fifth incarnation. The confluence of the two has been witnessing political conflicts and cultural conflicts due to it.

You know Vamana Jayanti?

Vamana Jayanti is a Hindu festival that commemorates the 5th avatar of Lord Vishnu Vamana, the dwarf Brahmin.As per the legend, in Hindu scriptures, Vamana was a son of Sage Kashyapa and Aditi who was born at that time during Treta Yuga. The reason for Vamana’s descent to earth was to restore cosmic order on earth by taking back the heavens from the kind but powerful Asura king Mahabali. The legend narrates how Vamana asked Mahabali for land measuring just three steps. 

When granted, Vamana expanded to a cosmic size covering the earth and skies with two strides, before placing the third on Mahabali’s head. After seeing the devotion of Mahabali, Lord Vishnu blessed him that he could visit his people every year as per his wish. Whereas Vamana Jayanti is celebrated each year on the Dwadashi of Shukla Paksha in the month of Bhadrapada. 

‘Aarppo’.. Onam

Since Onam arriving at the doorstep, it is preferable to know the story of Onam. It is the state festival of Kerala and one of the most significant harvest and cultural festivals for Malayalis all around the globe. Onam’s story is related to the annual comeback of King Mahabali. Onam also symbolizes themes of richness, equality, and harmony in society.

The 10 day festival, that ends on Thiruvonam, is marked by the traditional games like Vallam Kali and Puli Kali. Another major attraction is floral decorations (Pookalam) that put outside premises of every Malayali home, next comes cultural activities. And how come Onam can end without a grand vegetarian feast Onam ‘Sadhya’.

Onam is observed to remember the visit of King Mahabali, better known as ‘Maveli’ to his people, who was sent to (Patala) by Lord Vamana. Although beaten, it was permitted to him to visit his people once a year.

Malayalis are convinced that Onam is his bi-annual return. Hindu mythological ties Onam to the Vamana-Mahabali myth. However, the critics view Onam as a secular, cultural festival celebrating Kerala’s agrarian past and tolerance. 

Onam and Vamana Jayanti Controversies

The joint festivals of Onam and Vamana Jayanti have generated passionate discussion on several occasions throughout Kerala and the rest of India, with politicians and religious leaders debating how to interpret the mythos differently.

For example, BJP president Amit Shah invited Malayalis for the “Vamana Jayanti” rather than for Onam on the evening before Thiruvonam in 2016.  The remark caused the nation to outrage on social media using the hashtag #PoMoneShaji which went viral and even provoked the vitriolic response from Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who demanded an apology, as he recognized the welcome “an injury to Keralites and Keralite culture.”

Certain years later, in 2022, the then Union Minister V. Muraleedharan also joined the fray by claiming that Mahabali was a mythical figure who had nothing to do with Kerala’s history. He further claimed that Mahabali might have been a king of Narmada valley in current-day Madhya Pradesh, while further adding Hindu sacred texts’ description of Vamana not as a villainous figure but as a divine who saved Mahabali and gave him moksha. 

There’s more related to controversy when Kerala’s former Finance Minister Thomas Isaac tweet posted in 2020 termed Vamana as “a cheat” and suggested that Onam was an observance of Mahabali’s egalitarianism and not of Vamana’s conquest. The Hindu community and BJP leaders reacted strongly to Isaac’s comments and Isaac later sought to clarify he was referring to reformist Sahodaran Ayyappan’s alternative interpretation of the festival.

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