Anupama Nair
Onam is a festival celebrated in Kerala, the southern-most state of India. It is celebrated in the month of Chingam or Leo which falls mid-August-September and Malayalis call this month ‘Ponnin Chingam’ or golden month. Onam, a harvest festival is celebrated across India and the world and is one of the main festivals among Keralites. I, a ‘Shree Padmanabha Dasi’ born in the capital of the kingdom of Travancore – Trivandrum has many memories of Onam. My city Trivandrum will be decked in lights for 10 days and there will be meals held to celebrate the event. “Onam brings together a multitude of colours and flavours from across God’s Own Country”, and is a sight to behold.
The harvest festival of Kerala is also called the festival of ‘rain flowers’ and is a ten-day-long festival celebrated with fervour across Kerala. According to the Malayali calendar month of Chingam, the festival falls on the 22nd Nakshatra Thiruvonam. Onam is the shortened form of Thiruvonam or Shravan, as this festival occurs in the Shravan month under the Shravana nakshatra in the Hindu calendar. Shravan is the month in the Hindu calendar that falls between July-August in the North and between August-September in the South. This month is called Shravan since the full moon during this month occurs on the Shravan nakshatra.
Literature and epigraphical evidence suggest that Onam has a long religious context and history in not only Kerala but also neighbouring parts of South India. The earliest known reference to Onam was found in a Sangam era Tamil poem. It mentioned Onam being celebrated in temples of Madurai where games and duels were held in temple premises, people wore new clothes and had feasted. The 9th-century ballads ‘Pathikas and Pallads’ written by Periyazharwar described Onam celebrations and offerings to Vishnu, and also mentioned feasts and community events. An 11th-century inscription in the Thrikkakara Temple (Kochi) that was dedicated to Vamana, who was an avatar of Vishnu mentioned a series of offerings made by people over two days prior and on Thiruvonam. A 12th-century inscription in the Tiruvalla Temple, one of the largest Hindu temples in Kerala dedicated to Vishnu, mentioned Onam and states a donation was made to the temple as the offering for Onam.
Uddanda Sastrikal, who was a Sanskrit poet in the court of the Zamorin, had written about a festival called ‘ Shravana’. It is believed that it is none other than Onam as Shravan is the Sanskrit name of the nakshatra Thiruvonam. A 16th-century European memoir also described Onam. It stated the “Malayali people adorned their homes with flowers and blot them over with cow's dung believing in its auspicious association with goddess Lakshmi”.
The Onam festival traditionally begins on Atham day and ends on Thiruvonam. The ten days are sequentially known as Atham (Hasta), Chithira (Chitra), Choti (Swati), Vishakam (Vishaka), Anizham (Anuradha), Thriketa (Jyeshta), Moolam (Mula), Pooradam (Purva Ashada), Uthradam (Uthra Ashada) and Thiruvonam (Shravan).
As you can see Onam has a long history of more than a thousand years. In the next part, I am going to talk about the legend of Onam. (to be continued….)
Onam is dear to us. Nice to read about it.