Happy Onam
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I wish you a Happy Onam to all :)
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I wish you a Happy Onam to all :)
Thanks a lot Rajesh!! Wish you the same..Have a nice day!!
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I wish you a Happy Onam to all :)
Namaskarm, Sri Francis, And, a happy Onam to you. I have been fascinated by this festival of the yearly (temporary) return of the Asura King Mahabali from his exile in the "underworld" by Vishnu for several reasons, not alone for the fact that it is part of a world-wide corpus of "eternal return" sacred traditions, most often connected with the seasons of the year, fertility, etc. Some scholars assert the Mahabali tradition is pre-Aryan in origin, transformed, in the usual manner of cultural assimilation, during later Aryan dominance: other scholars claim that the difference between the "MahaBali" cultural identify in Kerala and the northern Indian cultural identify of King Mahabali of the Asuras who collaborated with the Devas in the "churning of the great ocean" to make amritsa, related to the slaying of Rahu, etc., reflects a difference between Indo-Aryan ancient settlers of India, and Irano-Aryan ancient settlers of India. Unfortunately, the one month I was in Kerala, in 1976, was May, so I missed this festival, but that month in Kerala was a wonderful high-point of my year in India on a Graduate Fellowship from UC Berkeley (Social Sciences). The Indian academic director of the program I was on was from Kerala, and we became best friends, and still communicate. I always smile when I think of Kerala because, as I remember my time there, Keralites were so friendly to me, and had the most beautiful smiles of any people I had met :) cheers, Bill
“I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot: They amount to 14.” Abd-Ar Rahman III, Caliph of Cordoba, circa 950CE.
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Namaskarm, Sri Francis, And, a happy Onam to you. I have been fascinated by this festival of the yearly (temporary) return of the Asura King Mahabali from his exile in the "underworld" by Vishnu for several reasons, not alone for the fact that it is part of a world-wide corpus of "eternal return" sacred traditions, most often connected with the seasons of the year, fertility, etc. Some scholars assert the Mahabali tradition is pre-Aryan in origin, transformed, in the usual manner of cultural assimilation, during later Aryan dominance: other scholars claim that the difference between the "MahaBali" cultural identify in Kerala and the northern Indian cultural identify of King Mahabali of the Asuras who collaborated with the Devas in the "churning of the great ocean" to make amritsa, related to the slaying of Rahu, etc., reflects a difference between Indo-Aryan ancient settlers of India, and Irano-Aryan ancient settlers of India. Unfortunately, the one month I was in Kerala, in 1976, was May, so I missed this festival, but that month in Kerala was a wonderful high-point of my year in India on a Graduate Fellowship from UC Berkeley (Social Sciences). The Indian academic director of the program I was on was from Kerala, and we became best friends, and still communicate. I always smile when I think of Kerala because, as I remember my time there, Keralites were so friendly to me, and had the most beautiful smiles of any people I had met :) cheers, Bill
“I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot: They amount to 14.” Abd-Ar Rahman III, Caliph of Cordoba, circa 950CE.
Namaskarm, Sri Bill, :) First of all I would like to thank you for wishing me on this special occasion. This is the only festival we celebrate as religion free festival :-D and this is the only festival that Keralites all over the world will gather around and celebrate (most of them will reach Kerala if possible). I am so excited to see my dear friends who is abroad and will come to Kerala this time. Thank you again, cheers Rajesh