Mahabali - not just Malayali!

Onam for some reason so much resonates with Malayalis, while Mahabali the king whose legend is the backbone of this festival has a lineage and empire that spreads far beyond the paddy fields of Kerala. He was the grandson of Prahlada whose father Hiranyakashyap (clearly not Malayalis) was killed by Vishnu in his Narasimha Avatar. When Vishnu’s another avatar Vamana decides to stop Mahabali from his Ashwameda Yagna on the banks of the Narmada river (in Madhya Pradesh), we now know this is no more an exclusive Malayali event.

 

So my non-malayali friends, just because the final step that Vamana took happened in Thrikkakkara (in kerala), where Mahablai was sent down to the ‘heaven like underworld’, Mahabali was assumed to be a Malayali king and the traditions that layered around Onam for centuries stamped him with a birth certificate and a pot belly that’s very much part of the Malayali culinary and rangoli ethos. So if you do not know how to wrap a thin porous mundu around your not-so-rounded waist and hate rice, still join the celebrations. After all he was not just a Malayali king! Happy Onam!

Hampi - Ruins that follow you...

Dramatic boulders playing a dexterous balancing act, on wayside hills welcomed us to the magical ruins of Hampi. It was the last day of the shoot of Lailaa O Lailaa in Bellary and we were on our way to Bangalore with a detour to Hampi. The early morning drive from Bellary to Hampi was going to be a memorable one; not only for the experience that Hampi would offer, but we were accompanying the legend and hero of our movie, Mohanlal.  The moment we stepped barefoot on the cold, stone-laid pathway that led to the Virupaksha temple, Mohanlal was heard whispering ‘déjà vu’; later he mentioned that the landscape and architecture resembled Amba Samudram where he had shot for Raja Shilpi.

The ruins are just too vast, magnificent and tragic. We followed him as he walked down the neatly manicured stone lanes of the ruins, sometimes deeply engrossed in the architecture and sometimes cracking a joke while being his usual self.

Walking amidst the ruins, one cannot but feel the glorious Krishnadevraya kingdom brimming to life all around you; you vainly hope thousands of defaced Hindu Gods and Goddesses on the walls of the numerous temples regaining the perfect posture and mudra the artists then etched, and the golden Gopuras transforming to their grandeur that once shown above the Vijayanagara Empire with the Tungabhadra river cutting through it.

The sheer majesty and grandeur of the ruins is as overwhelming as the determination and effort the invaders took, a few hundred years ago, to chop the limbs off numerous deities, to hammer down temples and to uproot a civilisation. While leaving the premise Mohanlal seemed to be affected by the sheer violence that the ruins bore. Hampi, a celebrated UNESCO site is also a harsh reminder of the ruins in the making, across the globe that could challenge Hampi in its epic tragedy.