Mangaluru: Diwali or Deepavali, the festival of lights, as per Hindu mythology marks the return of Lord Rama, his wife Seetha and brother Laxman to Ayodhya after completion of 14 years of exile. The celebration also marks victory of good over evil in context of Lord Rama killing Ravana.
But, here in the coastal belt of Karnataka, Diwali is all about celebrating the ‘home coming’ of demon king Bali Chakravathy or Balindra, as the Tuluva call him.
The agriculture families throng to their cultivated lands with traditional lamps, sing a particular song, which is punctuated with a ‘kooooo’. Melodious it may sound, but the song is an ode to benevolent King Bali Chakravarthy, who had ruled over this land. The people sing the song in praise of King Bali and invite him to come to the land that belongs to him. They believe that their king visits them during Diwali to see how his land and people are living. They believe that he would visit the fields to take stock of the situation and also bless them enough with all that is good!
The legends have it that King Bali (son of King Prahlad) was a benevolent and a righteous king under whose rule the subjects were happy and the kingdom was prosperous. However, Bali conquered the universe and took over authority of Lord Indra. An ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu, Bali had disproportionate powers over the universe and to humble him down, Lord Vishnu incarnates as a dwarf or Vamana and seeks grant of three steps of land from him. A generous Bali grants Vamana the wish. With first step, Vamana claims the skies and the earth with the second. With no more space left to claim the third step, King Bali urges the Vamana to keep the third step on his head, only to be pushed to the netherworld or ‘Pataala Loka’. However, the Vamana, who was moved by the humility of the King gives him a boon of immortality and that the King would visit his subjects once a year.The celebration of Balipadyami finds its roots in this story.
The Tuluvas decorate their homes with oil lamps and being an agrarian society, the tuluvas perform several rituals at the fields in honour of King Bali. Similarly, prayers are offered to the crops and to the livestock too.
‘Kargal Kallanaga, Bolkal Poovanga, Urdu Maddoli aanaga, Goddemme Gone Anaga… Uppu Karpura Aanaga, Jaal Paade aanaga…………. Bala Balindra…… Kooooo….. Koooooo….. Koooooo’….. goes the song.
The belief is that the earth would end when impossible phenomenon start happening. The lyrics imply that Balindra would continue to visit his people till the doomsday.
However, with shrinking agricultural lands and disintegration of joint families, even the celebration has now become a rare sight. There are very few agricultural families which perform these rituals and more specifically, there are very few who even know the song.
Another unique feature of the Tuluva Parba is that, the celebrations are devoid of brahmanical rituals. The prayers and rituals spread over three days are performed by the heads of the family and not by priests. While beaten rice and jaggery delicacies are served as offerings during rituals, it is a traditional lip-smacking fish curry that is stirred up in Tuluva households (non vegetarian) during Deepavali.
The home coming of the King is celebrated as Onam in Kerala.
According to experts, 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 as well.
