CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
The history of mankind has witnessed various collective engagements which marked in the
every society and every civilization over time. The prominent engagement among that is the
involvement of festivals and celebrations which are marked in every society and
civilizations. Social science disciplines of the twenty-first century give much attention for
the study of festivity as well as the study of societal collectivity. The Indian sub-continent
celebrates different festivals throughout the calendar, which includes, the seasonal festivals,
harvest festivals, cultural, religious and different kinds of festivals both national and
regional.
However the harvest festivals are having great significance as the primary
occupation of the local people were agriculture and related works, meanwhile, in most of the
festivals, which are associated with the agriculture and allied activities.
In every civilization, agriculture plays a crucial role, where the process of sowing and
harvesting are celebrated with great joy and happiness. But with the intrusion of caste, class,
religion, gender, the various socio-religious and cultural upheavals in the social life had
attributed the existence of the people which resulted in a drastic change. These changes
forced the people to adopt the new situations and a new mode of festivity and celebrations.
Even though the agriculture and allied works remain a greater part of the picture, along with
that mythology and folk stories in the respective societies had created a background for the
festivals and celebrations to flourish. The most of the stories, folk tales, mythologies related
to festivals, celebrations are oral in nature and had passed over generations in making a
crucial understanding for the present festivals which are practicing all over the globe. Indian
Society is considered as the land of diversities, the Indian society experience varieties of
festivals throughout the calendar. Wliere most of the festivals celebration possess a mythical
or unexplored past where the Onam festival celebrations comes imder the umbrella of
thought where it shares the uniqueness as well as vagueness regarding the origin and its
existence and at the same time it is widely celebrated around the world by the Malayali
people as a part of their cultural identity. The significance of the Onam festival got increased
after the state has declared the Onam festival as the National Festival of the Kerala state in
1961, where it is celebrated irrespective of caste, class, and religion. Through this doctoral
work of the Onam festival gives an understanding of the relevance of celebrating Onam
festival in Kerala, which identifies the various practices which are traditionally prevailed as
a part of the Onam festival celebrations, which the predecessors are still practicing without
losing its significances.
The Contemporary Kerala Society gives more importance to the festivals and their
celebrations. In most of the time Onam festival becomes a great platform to debate for
various debates and sometimes in to controversies. It surrounds around the identical issues,
priority of dominant religious and cultural groups and people, concept of space, mythology,
authenticity in the history of Onam, State and citizen, etc. But at the same time regarding the
Onam as a festival Malayali community create and maintain a special emotion of sharing of
memories which can be seen among the migrated malayali commimities. The homogeneous
emotion of being malayali is exposed on the day of Onam celebration. The festival provides
heterogeneous expressions and while being seen as a cultural symbol of the Kerala society
and the region. The Malayali community on other side making Kerala state, a greatest hub
of consumerisations. Whereas the Kerala state machineries provides platform for the
economic celebrations which happens in the Onam days. The identity of the Malayali and
being malayali is been limited to purchase of new dress and eating food (Sadya).
This chapter concentrates on the general introduction for the study, as the chapter divides
into two parts including a separate introduction and conclusion. The first part which covers
the unportance of the festival studies in understanding a society in detail and also
understands how a study on festival is making an innovative step in Indian Sociology.
Whereas the second part focus on the background of the study i.e. the historical analysis of
the social and cultural situations wliich made the Onam festival to flourish and remain in the
Kerala society. The researcher used a wide variety of literature in making a concrete
understanding of the chapter.
1.2 Festival as a Icnowledge of enquiry
Festivals are the channel of spreading the traditions from one generation to other. In all
societies, all civilizations people do celebrate festivals, which are closely related to their
livelihood. In every culture, the festivals are the mirrors of their historical, social, economic
and cultural life. Referring to the life and festivals of Akans, an ethnic group in the Ghana,
South Africa, where Ayisi underlines that “a festival is a combination of social and religious
activities where the people are observed it with material things, for that puipose they
constitute foods and animals as the main instrument of festivals”. And also adding to that m
every society the humans are getting believed by some or other powers, it may be spiritual,
supernatural or some cosmic powers and trusts that they react and think in the same way as
the human does. In that case, to make them happy and pleased they do observe certain
festivals. But the festivals get vaiy from ecology and social structure of the people (Ayisi,
1997).
In India, the festivals are mostly associated with celebrations related to agriculture and
associated activities, the seasonal phases of sun and moon, the birthday of the divinities,
coming of New Year, etc. Though the most of the festivals are related to religion their
purpose is recreational, as they look ahead for the togetherness of the people and family. The
notion of food plays a vital role in the festivals as it got more importance to the agriculture.
The understanding of Hindu festivals is having an important role in the Indian society, where
Lall emphasizes that “Hindu festivals are celebrated in a background of their rituals and
devotion towards their gods and goddesses. If we carefully observe the different festivals,
the customs and manners are st:ange and mysteriously mixed with the new and old
traditions”. (Lall, 1933). But whether it is Hindu festival in specific or other festivals, In
Indian society, it makes people celebrate it with great joy and enthusiasm.
1.3 Background of the study
Kerala society is explained with a great tradition of cultural heritage and archaeological
explorations had detailed the emergence of Kerala as a legendary territory. Regarding the
origin of the state, there remains a lot of confusions and dilemmas. The history of Kerala
was brought into the limelight through the oral traditions and folk stories before writings and
inscriptions were found out. The early writings were based on the mythical stories which
made a parallel history along with the present day celebrated Kerala history. To drag a
separate line between the history and myth of the Kerala will be a herculean task as both are
interred twined to each other. Kerala’s history is part of the general history of India and its
culture is one of the major streams that have enriched the composite culture of India
(Rahman, 2005). The geographical location of the state Kerala is in the southern part of the
Indian peninsula which is a narrow coastal strip on the southwest tip of India, the
geographical isolation of the Kerala state from the other part of the country flourished in its
culture and its identity. Paradoxical as it might seem, this geographical position has helped
to ensure, to some extent, its politioal 'and cultural isolation from the rest of the country and
also facilitated its extensive and active contacts with the countries of the outer world (Menon,
2007), (India Planning Commission, 2008). The land is spread over 38,863 km2 (15,005 sq.
mi) and it is bordered by Karnataka to the north and northeast, Tamil Nadu to the east and
south, and the Lakshadweep to the west. Subsequently, the state Kerala was formed on
November 1956, on the basis of the language according to the State Regulation Act 1956.
Constructing a unified history of Kerala subcontinent is an phenomenal task as the historians
were working on that for a long period, as the historians and social scientist has reached to a
conclusion that the Kerala does not have an independent history of own, it is assorted within
the general history of South India or the history of the ancient Tamilakam (Nair, 2006). The
land Kerala is mentioned in the ancient epic as Mahabharata (800BC) at several instances as
a tribe, as a region and as a kingdom. Tlie myth of Parasurama created the Kerala was most
popular myth and folktale regarding the origin of Kerala, the books like the Keralolpathi, a
narrative which gives an account of the Kerala’s history from the creation of the land by the
inevitable Parasurama, which is expressed m the puranic interpretation, but this mythical
explanation as Parasurama was considered to be the sixth incarnation (avatar) of Lord
Vishnu which creates uncertainty in the history. On the myth of Parasurama and land possess
a mythical origin (Sadasivan, 2000) points to the history and myth is deliberately created
and are made by the bralraiinical powers, which are supreme in order to get a popular
sanction and had made the territory which the Parasurama raised jfrom the sea as ^'Bhargava
Khethram or Parasurama Khethram”. But (Sadasivan, 2000) opinions that, the myth of
appeared in the Parana’s as part by part only from 11th Centuiy AD. But the Keralolpathi
was giving priority to the myth of Parasurama. “The Keralolpathi begins with an account of
Parasurama’s creation of Kerala, the land between Gokarana and Kanyakumari, by raising
it from the Arabian Sea with a fling of his axe and settling it by the Brahmans bought from
the north in sixty four gramas, of which thirty-two are in Thulanadu and thirty-two in the
present day Kerala”. The Keralolpathi is an attempt to historicize Kerala as a si^parate
territory, with its own defined territory and peculiar institutions, but the book tried to show
the supremacy and ownership of the Brahmins on the land i.e. the ‘secure and usable past
(Veluthat, 2009). Clarifying the history as well as myth on the origin of Kerala, Rajan
Gurukkal and Raghava Varier points that the myths, folktales who had transferred to the new
generation through folktales and local myths, where the myth of the Parasurama is
considered to be important in making the general history (Varier & Gurukkal, 2011).
The ancient history of Kerala mainly starts from the myths and folklore, but the reference of ’
Keralaputhra (Velutliat, 2009) in the 3"* Century BC rock inscriptions of the Mauiyan
emperor Asoka was considered to be the first written mention of Kerala seen was indication
of the four independent kingdom lays to the south of his empire. There were the kingdoms
of Cholas, the Pandyas, The Keralaputhras and the Satiyaputras (Rao & Reddy, 2009),
(Sharma, n.d.). Till the first five era’s the Kerala was a part of Tamilakam, regarding the
origin of the name Kerala, as it is an imperfect Malayalam word that fuses “Kera” (coconut
palm tree) and “Alam” (land or location). Another explanation regarding the origin of the
name is from the phase “Cher- alam” (land of Chera), referring to the land of Chera kingdom,
where there were no authentic historical writings regarding Kerala until 19th Century apart
from the Keralolpathi and Keralamaliathmyam. The two major works, Keralolpathi and the
Keralamahathmyam in the Sanskrit language are considered to the oldest text which
describes the history of Kerala but the authenticity of the text is doubtful and it was pointed
out by many historians at the same time to maintain the Vedic religious supremacy and
establisliment of the brahminical existence which resulted in making a class relationship
between dominant group and submissive group of workers group (Nair, 1986), (Sadasivan,
2000), (Menon, 2007). But in the 1583AD, Shaikh Sainudheen Maqdhoom wrote the history
of Kerala in the Arabic language called ‘Tuhfuthul Mujahideen’, his narratives were based
on own experiences of that time, it contains the experiences of the Portuguese invasions
during the period from 1498-1583. The book not only a reference to Portugese invasion but
also it studies the social and cultural life of the Kerala at that time is mentioned. So according
to historians, the book is a reliable piece of infonnation of the history and social life of that
period (Parmikkasery, 2012). But the social situation of the time made Shaikh Sainudheen
Maqdhoom to write the history as till that time the history was narrated based on the
Keralolpathi, (Varier & Gurukkal, 2011). In short, the Kerala history has evolved through
the adaption of the new situations and cultural and social changes happened along with the
time. Kerala has adapted and accommodated the various cultures came m the land and had
merged with the local existing culture and formed a new way of cultiu'e in every aspect of
the life of the peoples of Kerala (Pannikkasery, 2012), (Rahman, 2005), (Rao & Reddy,
2009), (Pillai, 2012), (Vaiyar, 2014).
1.3 a
Kerala: People, Culture and Belief
The people of southern part of the Indian peninsula are known as Dravidians. Lots of
confusion still exists among the historians and anthropologists regarding the history of the
Dravidians (Guneratne, 2011). Some had pointed out that the early inhabitance may be
migrated from the Mediterranean areas, anthropologists also agree in terms of the racial
similarities seen while comparing the Mediterranean people as well as the Dravidian people
and regardmg their culture also there found lots of similarities. The Modem anthropologist
argues that the Dravidians are the diffusion of the Mediterranean and Astoloid races. The
beliefs and religion of the Dravidian people had an independent religious existence, in the
beginning, similarly, the ancestor worship, deity worship, the tree worship, mother god as
the deity of their clan, etc. shows the evidence of the Dravidian remains was very common.
(Menon, 2012). But due to the continued influence of the Aryan invasion had made a change
in the structure of religious beliefs. They had given priority for women in their culture as
they followed a Matriarchal family system whereas Aryans followed a concrete patriarchal
family system. The acceptance of the Buddhism and Jainism which later followed by the
Brahmanism had changes in the life and style of the local inliabitances.
The Jainism came to the south India before the Christ, the remaining of the existences of the
Jainism were evacuated from the various places in and out from Kerala. The two prominent
old Tamil literature Silappathikaram and Manimekhalai highlights about the existences and
the life of the Jainism is detailed. Hlangoavadikal the author of the Silappathikaram was a
Jain follower. The decline of the Jainism in Kerala was started in the S* century A.D when
it reached to the 16"* Century A.D it totally vanished from the Kerala Society. The existences
of the Buddhist religion in Kerala was traced out to the 3rd Century B.C during the reigns of
the emperor Asoka, the Sangam literature gives enough data regarding the existences of the
Buddhist followers in the Kerala. Manimekhalai is considered to be a Buddhist literature,
lots of present-day Hindu temples of the Kerala were considered to be the Buddhist temples
or Buddhist monasteries of the olden days. The kings and the rulers of that time, they used
to be encouraging and accommodate the new religions with enormous help, this can be seen
in various old writings, the inscriptions in the Paliyamshasanam of the ruler of the
Vizhinjam, the Aayi king Vikramadliithya Varagunan (885-925 A.D.) were the it is detailed
inscribed of the giving boom to the Buddhist monks by the ruler. The decline of the
Buddhism was started gradually from 8th Century A.D. onwards when the Namboothiri
dominances were getting stronger in the social life of Kerala. Much old writing which was
found out in the 9* century mentions about the decline of the Buddhism in Kerala.
According to the historians assumptions on the decline of the Buddhist culture in Kerala the
process of cultural diffusionism were held in that period as the dominance of the Aryan
culture over the other culture were started, which resuhed they have to assimilate or diffuse
themselves to the dominant cultures. The Aryans adopted the primitives worship for their
ancestors at that time it was very common among the Dravidians. The Aryans dif&sed and
accepted the local existing cultures and made their own new mode of worship. The mother
god worship was one among the diffused worsliip existing in Kerala. The mother gods were
the part of Dravidian/primitive worship as well as the Aryan worship. The fusion of the belief
can be seen as the goddess worship like Lakshmi, Badrakali and Saraswathy in various
fornis. Even the festival celebratior called Navaratri is dedicated to the goddesses among the
male Aryan gods.
The Hindu religion had adopted and assimilated various rituals and practices along with
various celebrations of the Buddhist religion to their own. The Lord Ayyappan or Shasthavu
of the Sabarimala is considered to the perfect blend of Buddhist and Hindu culture by the
historians and archaeologists. The lord Ayyappan is considered to be a merge of the Buddha
into the Hindu god tliis theory was refused by many and they point that it is Shasthavu
Ayyanar who is a Dravidian deity. They believe that it was adopted by the Aryans. The
popular snake worship, the reference of The Snake worship was not mentioned in the
Sangam Literatures as it got emerged with the adaptation of the Buddhist rituals by the
Aryans. The name Thiruvananthapuram itself shows the same, as the name denotes Thim
(the Sri or the prefix) Anatha (Lord Ananthan, mentioned in the Vishnupurana) and.Puram
(literally means Place). So the direct translation of the Thiruvananthapuram is the place of
Lord Ananthan, this is the considered to be the adopted from the Buddhist religious practices.
The contributions of the Buddhist culture towards Kerala culture is very much highlighting
which includes major temple related festivals of Kerala, their processions, the idols of the
deities, all these were taken up from the Buddhists cultures by the new Hindu Culture, the
Buddhist influences in the Kerala culture is very much visible in every field of the society,
the Ashtangahridhayam, Amarakosham, the usages of the Malayalam- Pali language
combination is very much common, the architecture, and the literary works of the Malayalam
Poet Kumaranashan, whose works were mainly pointing to the Buddhist cultures.
The emergences of the Aryan religion in Kerala were identified few centuries before the
Christ, which conquered the existing the Dravidian culture and religion and has changed the
local cultures with their way of life, and the migrant's culture. Wlien it became 5* Century
A.D. The Aryan culture made their visible presences in the Kerala culture, this change
created to the hierarchy in the social existences. The caste-based hierarchy came into
existence, which overpowered the Dravidian as well as the tribes into the lower stratum. The
process of Sanskritisation started to emerge, the certain tribal communities like the Kuricher,
A tribal community which was the first agricultural tribe which settled in the Wayanad
district (Doron & Broom, 2013) and others along with Nairs claims themselves to remain
the upper side of the hierarchical order. The emergence of brahminical powers into the top
of the hierarchy, which directly and indirectly resuUed in the eradication of the Buddhism
and Jainism in the Kerala society. The Presence of the Sree Sankaracharya (788-820 A.D.)
had enlightened the Kerala’s Social and Cultural scenario by giving more priorities to the
Vedanta. He tried to combine both the Hinduism and Buddhism, and want to make the
Hinduism as a powerful institution. By keeping this he formed four madams (the
monasteries) in four parts of the India. He used to converse through the Sanskrit language
and this was focused on the elit^ group of people, the reach of his ideas to the local
inhabitances were very less. The coming out of the Bhakthiprastanam in the 9th Century
A.D by the Vaishnavite scholar Kulasekhara Azhwar, The Perumal Thirumozhi was written
by the Kulasekhara Azhwar is considered to be the first literature in the Bhakti Prastanam in
Kerala and the Shivaite scholars like Cheraman Perumal Nayanar and Viralminda Nayanar
which made great positive reception among the common people and this resulted in the
complete wipeout of the Buddhism and Jainism in Kerala.
The coming of the Christianity, Judaism and the Islam made a lot of changes to the life and
culture of the Kerala society. It was believed that the Christianity came to Kerala with the
St. Thomas in the 52 A.D in to the place called Maliyankara near the Musaris and he
converted the Brahmin families in that place and also had built seven churches. But this story
was denied by the historians howfc%^er the trade link between the Kerala and Mediteiianean
coast makes there is a probability of the story of St. Thomas to be true. The rulers facilitated
the Christian migrates as they were good in trades. They enjoyed equal status and equal
acceptance in the Kerala Society along with the Hindus. The growth and establishment of
the Christianity became increased and were made easier with the coming of the foreigners
likes Portuguese, Dutch, and British. While analyzing the growth and existence of the
Christianity in Kerala, it always remains to have existed in good terms with the foreign
countries. But the Christianity had accommodated and adapted the regional culture regarding
the food habits, clothing and the rituals, a synchronization of the Hinduism and Christianity.
From the ancient days onwards Jews maintained a good trade exchange between Kerala and
Israel which resulted in the settlement of the Jews in Kerala. To escape from the religious
tortures they migrated to Kerala m 68 A.D. were they made their first settlement in the
Musaris later they moved to the various parts of Kerala. Tliey were good in the business;
they got flourished as tlie local chieftains were very much supportive to the Jews. They
always remain good to encourage the business with Jews. But their dreadful conditions stated
with the coming of Portuguese. And in 1565 they shifted their capital from Musaris
(Kodimgallur) to Cochin; there they had created a synagogue in 1567, which shows the life
and culture of Jews in the Kerala. Later in 1948, the Israel new country came into existence,
most of the people left to their country from Kerala.
Similar to the Christians and Jews the Muslims also came to Kerala during the early phase
of the 1st century. Tlie trade relation between Arabs and Kerala were made this bond
stronger. They bought the Islam arid had made the first mosque in Kerala in the 8th Century
A.D, the local chieftains and Kings welcomed and facilitated the new religion and the
Arabian trade links. This resulted in the growth and spread of the new religious way of life
in the Kerala. The Cheramman Perumal, who is the last Chera ruler who converted himself
to the Islam and who went to Mecca, this story is very popular in Kerala. The Zamorin, the
highness of the Calicut gave immense help to the Muslims to settle in his kingdom which
were inscribed in the 13th century inscriptions, the contributions of the Muslims as the armed
services, under the leadership of the Kunjalimarakkar, the chieftain of the Zamorine in the
Indian war of Independence struggle against the British. Zamorine proclaimed, at least of
one person should convert to Muslim from the family and should join the war against British;
this was the reason for the comparatively high number of Muslim in Northern Malabar
especially Kozhikode and Malappuram. (Menon, 2012).
The historians who tried to draw the past of the Kerala’s histography attempted to study
centered on a question of accepting or rejecting the authenticity of the history known to the
date. But it is clear that the social situations always welcomed and gave space for diverse
cultures in the history. There remained a great exchange of the culture and lifestyle
throughout the history among the religious groups. Acculturation (Heine, n.d.) made the new
change in the social phase of Kerala as the new religious adjustment had tolerance and
sharing among the people. Tlie religious tolerances were highlighted in the
Mushikavamsham (11 A.D). Diffusion was held and which resuUed in the architecture,
literature. Language, rituals, every phase, at the initial stages the diffusion of the local culture
and Aryan culture were held, later the fusion and adaptation of the new cultures resulted in
the shaping a new unique culture of Kerala.
1.3 b
The religion and social life of the people of Kerala
The folktales and ballads which said the oral stories of the ancient period of the Kerala.
Along with the history, they had mentioned the life, culture, social situations, customs,
maimers, were also detailed. (Somashekaran, 2010). Tlie references to the burial rituals of
the Nairs and Ezhavas were mentioned in many ballads but where there is no mention of
‘Bali’ annual rite to the ancestor or the ancestor worship. The emergence of the new religious
groups created religion as an institution which followed by a new method of worship. To
make a hold in one’s own religion, they started to create temples, monasteries, mosques,
churches, etc.
Cultural diffusionism was commonly found in the temple related rituals and the armual
processions of the temples, most of the temple rituals can see which are borrowed from the
Buddhist way of worship. It was during the 15th and 16th Century the Bhakthiprastanam
•\
was getting powerful, the focus of Shaivism and Vaishnavaism sects became very popular
and this resulted in the powerful Bhakti tradition among the people and the festivals like
Shivarathri, Ekadeshi became inevitable along with the ritual offerings.
1.40raganisation of the chapters
The present doctoral thesis entitled “Changing rituals and practices o f traditionalfestivals:
A study o f Onam festival in contemporary Kerala society” is organised into six chapters
including general introduction and conclusion.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
As the introductory chapter deals with the background of the topic of study. The chapter
focus on locating the Onam festival in the contemporary Kerala society through Kerala
history. The study details the transformation of the man from the food gathering to the
agricultural settlement and from there to the present complex life, the role of festival in the
social life of the man is been clearly understood. The statement of the problem is detailed
along with the objectives of the study which the whole thesis will be built of. The statement
of the problem of the study will be followed by the review of literature, the previous studies
on the problem and significant writings on the topic under the study will be detailed, which
will be the building stone for the thesis. Review will provide the summary of the current
state of knowledge in the area of investigation and the research gap of the study will be
identified and will attempt to fill the gap (Swami, 2002). The scope of the study and will be
comprehensively mentioned, which is followed by defining the concepts of the study will be
mentioned.
Chapter 2 - Methodology
This chapter primarily focus on the all the aspects of the methodology and their implications.
The doctoral study titled “The changing rituals and practices of a traditional festival- A case
study of Onam festival celebration in the contemporaiy Kerala society”. The study will be
qualitative in nature. The study will be interdisciplinary in nature. Considering the nature of
the objectives of the study, the study will have descriptive cum analytical design.
1. The source of the data - tlirough this the data for the study will be collected both
primary and secondary data. The study will be interdisciplinary in nature.
Secondary data: The study will be dealing with a traditional festival and availability of the
secondary data will be a hectic work. The secondary data will be collected to give a
background for the current study, the sources of the secondary data will be following The
books ,Joumals and Magazines ,The archives (including audio and video achieves on the
Onam festival in the Kerala),Newspapers
2. The primary data- Primary data for the study will be gathered through intense
fieldwork throughout Kerala state where the samples for the study will be selected
purposively based on the case availability in the particular districts. The 14 districts
are divided in to three zones based on the geographical and cultural differences in the
practice of Onam festival.
•
North Zone (Kasaragode, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malapuram)
•
Central Zone (Palakkad, Thrissur, Emakulum, Idukki,)
•
South Zone (Kottayam, Alapuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kollam, Thiruvanthapuram).
Data were gathered by focusing on in depth interview with the ritual practitioners in the
*v
Onam festival celebration. Tlie methodology employed in the research was Qualitative
techniques participant observation techniques and in depth interviews and group discussions
made to collect data.
Tlie researcher had used both photographic and vediographic
recordings to keep the study alive.
3. Field work - In the present study the identification of field for the respective study
will stratified on the basis of the regional variations and nature of festival practices,
the entire districts of Kerala would be clustered into three zones fi-om which typical
sites would be purposively selected based on availability.
•
North Zone (Kasaragode, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malapuram)
•
Central Zone (Falakkad, Thrissur, Emakulum)
•
South Zone (Idukki, Kottayam, Alapuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kollam,
Thiruvanthapuram).
Chapter-3: Onam festival in Kerala: A structural Approach
This chapter intends in identifying the relationship of myth and history in formulating a
common identity. It analyses the ideological paradox of good over bad in the Onam
celebration through the lens of myth, history and practice. How the image of Both Mahabali
and Vamana is constructed and existing in the Kerala society through the Onam festival.
This chapter is divided in to two parts as in the first part deals with the relationship between
the concept of story, myth and history in making narrative a strong discourse in the
understanding the sociology of the festival. The second part deals in formulating the
background for the Onam understandings.
Chapter 4: Sociology of the Festivity: a Reflection fi-om Field.
This chapter is purely based on the field work. This chapter is devoted to the process of
identifying the strait line in the Kerala territory of how it celebrates Onara as a practices.
And how it is becoming the global identity of Malayali people.
Chapter-5: Analysis and Discussion
This chapter is the analytical chapter which looks the research problem through the lens of
Sociology discipline and placing' a new independent discipline. Here the study were
exammed by focusing on the analysis of the case which has been identified firom the various
fields are analysed based on the research questions.
Chapter 6: Findings and Conclusion
As the final chapter of the thesis the chapter completely and concludes the chapter by
summing up with the recommendations and suggestions.
1.5 Conclusion
In a society the festivals and celebrations remains as channels of transferring culture from
one generation to another. Festivals and celebrations acts as an agent in the handing over
traditions fi-om one generation to another. Study on the Onam festival in the Kerala society
is considered to be key understanding on Kerala’s cultural and social transformation.
Through this study how the Kerala’s society is looking towards the Onam festival as a whole
by understanding the culture and festival in detail. The Introductory chapter tries to locate
the historical background of the research problem by identifying the various historical data
of Onam celebration in the Kerala archives. The concepts were identified and which were
detailed as it becomes the base structure of the doctoral thesis in the rest chapters.