Sept. 1: A state-backed plan to install a statue of demon king Mahabali at a temple to Vamana, incarnation of Vishnu, has drawn protests from a Hindu outfit amid Kerala's ongoing Onam festival.

Mahabali, whom mythology paints as a just ruler, was banished from earth by Vamana for allegedly challenging the gods but was allowed a visit to his kingdom before the punishment began. Onam celebrates the Asura king's brief homecoming every year.

The Sangh parivar had stoked controversy last year by projecting Vamana rather than Mahabali as the central figure of Onam, drawing allegations of trying to "Brahminise" the festival.

So, the latest decision by the Travancore Devaswom Board, the state government body that runs temples in the southern districts, to put up a Mahabali statue at the Thrikkakara Vamanamoorthy Temple in Ernakulam has angered pro-Sangh groups.

"The statue is part of a larger project to erase the current image of Mahabali as a comical character with a handlebar moustache and a massive potbelly," Devaswom Board president Prayar Gopalakrishnan told The Telegraph.

Indeed, the usual portrayal of Mahabali as a podgy, jester-like figure in government and commercial ads during the Onam season - as well as in literature on the festival, paintings and TV pictures - has for years rankled with the king's admirers. "This needs to change," Gopalakrishna said.

The statue, to be installed a year from now, will be made by melting bronze vessels from the Devaswom Board's collection. It will be modelled on a Mahabali painting by the former Travancore king Uthradom Tirunal Marthanda Varma, which shows the mythical hero as a handsome man.

The concrete pedestal, already under construction, will cost Rs 9 lakh while the artist's fee for the statue will be Rs 12 lakh.

Hindu Aikyavedi president K.P. Sasikala believes there is no room for such a statue at the temple.

"If Mahabali was a king, the statue should be installed in front of the Assembly, not in a temple," Sasikala told this newspaper.

"We respect Mahabali as a mythological ruler. But there is nothing spiritual about him for his statue to be placed in a temple compound."

During Onam last year, Sangh mouthpiece Kesari had angered many Malayalis by attempting to rename Onam as Vamana Jayanti, or Vamana's birth anniversary.

BJP president Amit Shah posted a tweet with an image that showed Vamana's foot on the head of a kneeling Mahabali, marking the demon king's banishment to the netherworld. It provoked social media outrage.

According to M.G.S. Narayanan, historian and former head of the Indian Council for Historical Research, "records like the poems of the Tamil Alwars and copper plates from some central Kerala temples suggest that at least till the 11th century or so, the hero of the festival was Vamana".

"But, by the 16th century, the festival, which had till then been confined to temples, began to be celebrated at homes as well and Mahabali gained prominence over Vamana."