Maveli naadu vaneedum kalam, manushyar ellarum onnu pole…
It is Onam, and amid the merriment, a debate has been rekindled: who exactly was Maveli, the king believed to return every year to meet his people?
For generations, the answer has been woven into the festival’s most enduring legend: Mahabali, the Asura king who was sent to Patala by Vamana, the fifth incarnation of Vishnu, returns once a year to see his beloved subjects.
But what if the Maveli of Onam was not that Mahabali at all?
Keerthi Kumar S, chief trustee of Swami Gurukulam Trust and a folklore researcher, argues that the two are entirely different figures. The Maaveli of the popular Onam story, he claims, was actually Maveli Mannan, the last of the Chera kings of Kerala, ousted by Travancore ruler Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma in the 18th century.
“He was indeed as shown by people now — pot-bellied, pleasant and full of bright spirit. The legend of Mahabali and Vamana panned out somewhere near Afghanistan. To tag it to the Onam festival was a strategic move to whitewash historical wrongs,” says Keerthi Kumar, whose social media podcast on the subject has gone viral.
For history student Ambika Shaligraman, the argument pops a question up. “Vamana is the fifth incarnation of Vishnu, and Parasuraman, who is believed to have founded Kerala, came after that as the sixth. How can then Vamanan come to Kerala even before it was founded and push its ruler down to Patala?”
Keerthi’s podcast places the argument against the backdrop of the decline of the Chera empire. According to him, Maveli Mannan was a Chera king whose capital was centred around present-day Kayamkulam. It was called Odanaadu, with the kingdom stretching from the Bhoothathankettu region to Mavelikkara.
“There are records from the Sangam period that show Onam being celebrated in places like Madurai. The festival is associated with ‘Maayon’, the black-hued God, which can be interpreted as Krishna,” he says.
“Vamana may be an incarnation of Vishnu, but the Krishna here is not an incarnation but a powerful king from the west of India, Dwaraka, whose sea route connects directly to coastal places like Ezhimala, Vizhinjam, Karunagappally, Panthalayani (Kozhikode), etc. He helped the Cheras consolidate power, and maybe it was in that memory that Onam began to be celebrated in the places where Chera kings ruled.”
As Chera influence waned, Keerthi says, it became concentrated around Jayasimhapura, which he identifies with present-day Karunagappally. It is here, he argues, that the Maveli-Onam link emerged.
“There are places too that subscribe to that link — Onattukara and Mavelikkara. Then, there are certain rituals of the people of that area which subscribe to this understanding,” he says.
“From Atham onwards, there are families, including mine, from that area which used to keep a lit lamp, cleansing accessories, cloth, etc., as though they expected someone to come. On Onam day, the head of the family would not partake of the feast. Food for someone would be arranged and kept in a room.”
Keerthi says he was curious about this and went asking about the ritual. “It is then I came to know that my ancestor Appeliamma started this some 300 years ago, around the time the new Travancore was being forged by Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma, which led to the Chera king Maveli being forced to leave his kingdom,” he says.
Yet Onam was celebrated across the Chera empire. “Inscriptions at the Thrikkakara temple refer to it as an end-of-spring festival of the Chera land, with a feast for chieftains,” says Keerthi.
The sadya, too, was different from today’s. It consisted largely of tubers and vegetables served with rice. Staples such as sambar and pappadam came later.
“There are inscriptions in Thrikkariyoor and Irinjalakuda Sangameshwaran temple about Maveli, who moved there after being ousted from his land. The pact supposedly was to allow Maveli to visit his people once a year, coinciding with the festival. People waited for Maveli around that time,” says Keerthi.
“Even after Maveli’s death, people kept up the rituals, including the feast, which later came to be known as ‘chavoottu’. Maveli was interred at a place known as Thirunaya Thodu, near Nedumbassery airport now.”
For Keerthi, Maaveli’s association with Onam is therefore more a matter of Chera legacy than mythology.
“Chera kings were more into the worship of Bhadrakali, going by the shrines they endorsed like Panayannorkavu, Muthootkavu,
Kodungallur, Thirumandhamkunnu, Valayanadukaavu, etc. The Krishna sankalpa too is an offshoot of this, and has nothing to do with the Vishnu legacy that the Vamana and Mahabali mythology propounds,” he claims.
He cites the famous Onappaattu, still sung as part of the festival tradition: ‘Maaveli naadu vaneedum kaalam….’
According to Keerthi, the original version was taken to a German university by linguist Herman Gundert. Researchers later came across the song and found lines such as ‘ammavane konnavane, ente mannu kavarneduthavane’.
“These imply the then king Anizham Thirunal, who could not be criticised directly, and hence it was sung as though a lamentation to Lord Krishna, whom Maveli believed in,” he says, claiming the story is still recounted in lectures by experts who have researched the subject.
But this interpretation is disputed. Manoj Kuroor, who has worked on the Onappaatu procured from the German university, says the song need not necessarily refer to Anizham Thirunal.
“Stories connected to Onam are likely to have a mixed composition. There are possibilities that it is a festival that originated in the Assyrian regions, as the concept of Asuras (Ahuras) being venerable kings was prevalent in the regions around the Iranian belt,” he says.
“There are also mentions of Onam in some Tamil Nadu temples and even in William Logan’s accounts. So, the ancestry of Onam cannot be brought down to just one contention. As they say, it is better not to go hunting for the source of things that have grown in greatness. If we go to stories, each age will have its meaning. So, let’s celebrate nature’s bounty this way.”
M G Sashibhooshan, too, cautions against treating folklore as history. “Onam can be analysed through folklore and history. Folklore may have history in it, but folklore alone cannot be taken as history,” he says.
“Onam, in all likelihood, was brought in from the west of India — the tale of Mahabali and Vamana — but got regionally twisted as an agrarian festival that was celebrated in Tamil Nadu as well as Kerala. Some records in Thrikkakara also say Onam was celebrated for 28 days and was more of a temple festival where folk art and debates were held.”
The Maaveli Mannan stories, he adds, may simply be one interpretation.
Other history researchers offer a mixed response. “Two points that Keerthi Kumar raises seem relevant. One is the manner of operation of the Travancore kings, known for their ruthless stance in political matters,” says Dr Rajan Chedambath, director of C-HED.
“Next, that Onam was a Chera festival is also quite feasible. The existence of a Chera king like Maaveli, who comes to see his people, is also probable.”
However, he adds that there is nothing called ‘authentic’ history. “Different interpretations, biases, manipulations and a bit of fiction seep in. So you often have multiple blends. This has been the case with history across the world from time immemorial. Different media houses cover the same news in different ways, right? So one can imagine about history,” he says.
“Different views are good. Let there be more studies. Only thing, we need to see to it that they do not ascribe to sectarianism. Revisiting history, at the end of the day, should benefit people.”
Sruthin Lal, founder of Archival and Research Project (ARPO), believes the observations made by Keerthi certainly “call for deeper study”. “But, as of now, they should be viewed as interpretations rather than established fact,” he says.
Well, the Maveli mystery ensues. The king who returns every year may have acquired different identities across centuries — mythical, historical, folkloric, political.
What remains constant is not necessarily who he was, but what ‘his’ return means to the people of Kerala. The spirit of Onam.