The loss of political unity did not lead to the loss of political independence in Kerala during the fag end of 14th century. The ghost of the Chera kingdom haunted the destiny of Kerala as a guardian deity for many centuries to come. Each minor chieftain claimed the gift of the last Cheraman Perumal as the sanction behind his throne. It was essentially a game of power politics.
Within a generation of the decline of Chera power, the governors of Eranad shifted from their interior headquarters at Nediyiruppu to the coastal strip of Kozhikkod. Gradually, the Eradis(rulers of Eranad), now known to the world better as the Zamorins of Kozhikkod, grew in prosperity and power. The locational advantage enjoyed by their new headquarters with its proximity to Kozhikkod was a decisive factor in attracting a growing number of Arab traders. The rulers also exhibited a measure of statesmanship in quarantining religious tolerance to all sects and creeds in the big international mart at Kozhikkod. In due course, they roped in the chieftains of Parappanad and Vettattunad in the south as well as Kurumbanad and Puranad (Kottayam) in the north, within their sphere of influence.
Post Chera Period
The post Chera period witnessed a gradual decadence of the Namboothiris, until by about the 16th century, they put of their affairs in the hands of their Nair secretaries. A Namboothiri - Nair alliance came into being.
Another feature of this period was the widening gulf between the Namboothiri - Nair upper class and the Thiyya - Pulaya lower class. In order to accommodate the class differences properly, the four - fold caste system came to be sub-divided with infinite gradations, based on real occupation, habitat and political influence. New dimensions were invented and added on to the scale of unapproachability and unperceivability.
With increasing rigidity of caste, the worst sufferers were the Parayar, Pulayar, Cheramar, etc. They were attached to plots of cultivable land and unceremoniously exchanged along with the plots without any right to family or children. This feudal society, however, was prosperous and complacent. With agricultural and commercial prosperity on the increase, festivals like Onam and Vishu, which began as mere sectarian religious observances, acquired the character of popular celebrations. They were fixed up at a time when the tenants had to pay their feudal dues to the owners of land. The enthusiasm of the tenants transformed Onam, a Vaishnava sacred day commemorating the Vamana incarnation, into a harvest festival.
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show details Sep 13, 2008 |
Dr. D. Babu Paul wrote:
Happy Onam! - Looking at Mahabali from a different angle?
Another year and another Onam. The most reassuring thing about Onam
is that it is one festival that is common to all. Nobody has tried to
hijack it. Well, no religious fundamentalist has taken to it, for or
against. Ashtami Rohini and Vinayaka Chaturthi were observed by us
without branding them exclusive. However people started projecting
these festivals to foster religious sentiments. So too Christmas and
Good Friday being taken to streets. And Ramadan is no exception.
These are seen as occasions to assert identity. Onam fortunately is
free from such religious identities despite the Thrikkakkara concept.
Yet Onam has been hijacked too. By commercial interests. They try to
convert this as the great shopping season of Kerala. Newspapers vie
with one another to produce two dailies daily (which means two front
pages but for advertisements two full back pages too!) and special
pull-outs and marketing supplements extra. The net result is that the
village familiarity has been replaced by the commercial and selfish
tones of the marketplace. When I was young we in the village moved
from one house to the next, collecting whatever flowers were
available, and then laid out a pookalam sometimes in the village
square (big boys a.k.a. chettans), sometimes in some tharawad (mainly
chechis), and occasionally as mobile ones, today in Ramu's courtyard
and tomorrow in John's. What mattered was the sense of camaraderie
and oneness. I do not know whether back in my village in Ernakulam
district the ambience still lives on. I cannot find any sign of such
continuity in the rural areas surrounding the capital here.
Onam is celebrated as a Kerala festival. If it is commemorating an
event in Kerala Vamanan is an anachronism unless you rule out the
Parasurama legend. Legend has it that Kerala was reclaimed by Lord
Parasurama, one of the ten incarnations of Mahavishnu. If we accept
that we must also concede that a king who ruled Kerala could not have
been vanquished by another earlier incarnation called Vamanan. My own
guess is that Mahabali was never King of Kerala. According to
Bhagavatam Mahabali conducted his yajna on the banks of Narmada when
he was accosted by Vamanan. It is well known that there were Brahmin
migrations from the north to Kerala. These were perhaps Gowda
Saraswats or other Saraswats or Nampoothiries. These migrants would
have carried the story with them and over many generations the story
may have got embellished and edited to its present form. This
argument would at least take care of the problem of anachronism!
Who was Mahabali? Mahabali was an Asura King who conquered our earth,
Bhoolokam, and the heavens, Devalokam. And Vamanan staged a bloodless
anti-imperialist coup by which he sent away the king of the
netherworld to rule there while at the same time generously granting
a multiple entry visitor's visa to come back once a year for a few
days. If you analyse Mahabali's career and character you will find no
reason to be apologetic about the role of Vamanan who like Mahatmaji
much later forced a peaceful exit of a conqueror.
Mahabali was not merely an ambitious conqueror. He was an arrogant
and presumptuous personality too. He was so full of pride that he
invited a curse from his own grandfather, and later at the critical
encounter with Vamanan, from his guru, Sukracharyar. Sukracharyar had
seen the evil intention of the dwarfish Brahmin even as he approached
the site of the yajna. Mahabali having won the sovereignty of the
three worlds was now keen to ensure his reputation as a
philanthropist. In this ambition he was blinded and could not see
what the guru saw. When the guru finally tried to stop the jaladanam
before Vamanan could begin measuring by posing himself as a mole to
block the water from flowing out of the vessel into Vamanan's palm he
was pierced by a sharp grass and lost his eye thus becoming
ekanetran. There the guru also cursed Mahabali. Cursed by the
grandfather, and the guru, Mahabali went down a tragic figure.
The moral of the Mahabali story is two-fold. On the one hand it
teaches that over ambition does not pay ultimately. On the other it
teaches that God does not tolerate human pride.
Having said that I must also say that Onam is a beautiful nostalgia
we all enjoy. It is a dream about utopia. Utopia is not a concept
that began with Sir Thomas More. Plato indulged in it and called it
republic. Moore's title was added to the vocabulary of course. In
Greek OU means none and TOPAS means place. So Utopia means `no
place'. Campanella called it City of the Sun and Harrington called it
Oceana. Spensonia, Pala and Shangri-La are other names which hold a
similar concept. And then we have Eldorado. El Dorado is the name of
a tribal chief in Columbia, Latin America. He was covered with gold
dust on festive occasions, according to the story that the Spaniards
heard, and he cared so little for all that gold that at the end of
the festivity he would take a dip in running water and clean himself
of the gold dust. This gave rise to the idea that there was a country
in Columbian jungles which was rich, full of gold and precious tones
and jewelry. And El Dorado the chieftain became Eldorado the
mysterious country. In the Mahabali legend we are in search of our
own utopias and Shangri-La's and Eldorados. That is understandable
especially in the modern context where we need our dreams to keep
ourselves sane! I am reminded of a visit to Trivandrum made by the
former autocrat-Diwan of Travancore, Sir C P Ramaswami Iyer in 1960s
as Chairman of India's Law Commission. People of Trivandrum forgot
for a day that he was banished wounded in 1948. After more than
twelve years what remained was the nostalgia for an able
administrator. As we welcome the Asura King Mahabali who conquered
the world of the humans and ruled over us we are also overcome by
nostalgia for a distant past. Distance lends charm just as
familiarity breeds contempt. No harm in taking refuge in nostalgia in
a world where anyway we have little refuge available.
Happy Onam!
D. Babu Paul
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