Meveli belongs to India and Meghvansh

I received few phone calls from N.Delhi, Indore, Jaipur and other places. None of the callers questioned relationship of Maveli and Meghvansh (Maveli belongs to Meghvansh) rather they were aware of it. The Balijan Cultural Movement retells the mythological story of King Mahabali. Mr. Mohan Devraj Thontyal, a research scholar from Pakistan has done his research on Origins of Meghwars and Megh Rikh, has observed that:-

“I am delighted to read the article Maveli or Mahabali and the subsequent article about the festival Onam. Perhaps one can agree with the historical point that one ancient tradition is often told by the people of different regions of India into the different versions for instance, the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata and their several versions. In case of Raja Bali, I found a tradition in the Meghwar origin story (Book Megh Mahayatamaya in Gujarati authored by Nathguru Jivannathji) where Raja Bali has been shown interacting with Rishi Shringya and Megh Dharu.

To my own opinion Vamansthali or the present Vanthali (a modern town in Gujarat state) should have been the royal seat of Raja Bali, where the Incarnation Waman is said to have pressed down the king into the earth, later the place came to be known after the name of Waman Dev. However the further research in this regard is yet to be done. The tradition of Raja Bali might have been received in the certain period of time by the South Indian region with more exhilaration.

15 September 2010 18:59”

In this context we find King Mahabali’s presence in Gujrat region as well. The stories may differ as they have been distorted sometimes even beyond recognition.

I asked all the callers whether they were inclined to celebrate Onam festival in respect of Mahabali. The response was positive. Then I suggested them an Onam festival which is without other symbolic items like Pulikali (lion dance) that has a non-contextual image of another distorted story. Secondly, on Onam, so far as possible, it should be ensured that only such goods and products are used which are produced by Meghvanshis especially the poor one. On this occasion we may use candles rather than electric lighting. It can do wonders. There is some activity in Balai community after this suggestion.

Balijan Cultural Movement

Recently I had written a post regarding Meveli and Onam. Now I got some additional information through further search.

Folk culture never dies. It forms basis for many religions, schools of thoughts, political thoughts etc. The myth of King Bali has survived with two images in two different cultures of Indian society. Both the cultures admit that he was a great king who is known for his humanism, justice, charity and egalitarian regime. His image is used by brahmins as well as non-brahmins, by shudras as well as non-shudras of course with opposite intentions. His name may not appear in the manifestos of political parties but the ground reality is that his present generations are divided in various castes and names. All political parties try to divide their votes for obvious benefit. So much so, their hutments are pulled down in order to rehabilitate them at a far off place where their vote becomes isolated and ineffective thus further reducing their political say.

I know nothing about the political ideology of Eklavya but he is curious about the present position of Balijan Cultural Movement. I learnt only from him that the manifesto of this movement was released in Osmania University in the year 2009. Recently (in the past two days) I have come to know that the movement is alive though moving slowly. It is active in New Delhi and other states. One periodical named ‘Balijan Samaj’ is being published from Indore. I hope to get a copy of it in near future.

The work of Mahatma Phule and Mr. Braj Ranjan Mani’s book form the basis of philosophy of this movement. We await other details and literature.

Bali Island has a regard to King Bali

An idea occurred to me whether Bali island of Indonesia had anything to do with King Bali. I wrote a post and asked my non responding readers to give a clue, if they had. After posting I had restless hours. I again got up and started searching on the net. Wikipedia is a wonderful reference aggregator. Soon I could see articles like Bali Island, Balinese mythology, Balinese people, Shiva, Bali aga, Takshaka leading to Kurukshetra, Hinduism in Indonesia and its subhead Hinduism in Bali. There were many other relevant links and inter-links. Then I saw an article ‘Onam – a festival of Exuberance’. For the time being I have stopped my search. Many more investigations are required. Anyhow, you may read this article à Onam – a festival of Exuberance

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