01Three steps
The Bhagavata Purana tells how the asura king Bali, grandson of Prahlada, ruled the three worlds and was generous to all who asked. Vishnu came to his yajna as a dwarf brahmachari with a palm-leaf umbrella and asked for three steps of land. Shukracharya warned him; Bali gave anyway. The boy grew to Trivikrama, measured earth and sky in two strides, and Bali offered his own head for the third. Bhagwan sent him to rule Sutala and granted that he might visit his people once a year. That visit is Onam.
02Onam at the temple
Nammalvar sang Thirukkatkarai in the sixth decad of the ninth hundred of the Thiruvaimozhi, eleven pasurams, where he says the Lord of Katkarai melted his heart. The ten-day festival ends on Thiruvonam in Chingam with the aarattu, the deity’s bath in the pond outside the north wall. Under Travancore the Onam festival here was conducted jointly by the local chiefs of the region. The compound also holds a Shiva shrine, a serpent grove and rows of lamps on the walls that are lit for festivals.
The life of this place
- Alvar periodNammalvar sings Thirukkatkarai in the Thiruvaimozhi.
In Thrikkakara near Kakkanad, about 10 km from Ernakulam. Go on Thiruvonam for the aarattu and the Onam sadya.
