When I wrote the story of Mahabeli in my novel Spice trader of Muziris, I was deeply confused for reflecting it as the story happened in Kerala. The celebration of Onam and the story of Mahabeli are part and parcel of the life of a malayali. On every Onam celebration we discuss it by giving a variety of shades to the story. Some claim that it is Vamana Jayanthi that we are celebrating as Onam. Another view about Onam is that, it is a harvest festival that malayalis had celebrated from time immemorial. The myth of Mahabeli is attached to Onam only after the Brahmanical dominance in Kerala.
Yuval Noah Harari argues that story telling is humanity’s greatest super power to shape our world. I personally believe that this had happened in attaching the myth of Mahabeli to Kerala history. The subjugation of asura king to a Aryan god is important to establish the dominance. No other states other than Kerala had such a celebration making Mahabeli more personal to malayalis. Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talatala, Mahatala, Rasatala, and Patala describes seven realms of as per bhagavat purana. King Bali ruled in Sutala and sent to Patala after surrendering to Vamana.
According to me, the land mass comprises of parts of Karnataka , Kerala and Sri Lanka had all probability to become Patala. The other name for Patala is naga Loga means the abode of serpents. In India the most prominent place for naga worship is Kerala and Karnataka even though naga worship is observed in all over India . Sage Narada described Patala as more beautiful than Svarga with beautiful groves and lakes exactly suits with the land scape of Kerala. After analysing all these facts , according the me, Mahabeli ruled the land mass near Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and later deported to south even though in Spice trader of Muziris I accepted the fact that Mahabeli ruled kerala and deported to Patala (in novel it is srilanka) . When brahmins migrated to south, they used this story for their dominance.