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`Fun'tastic Ramlila, Dandiya, Jatra

By Brishti Bandyopadhyay ; Illustration by Anup Singh

Whether it is a pesky 11-year-old Dashrath struggling to maintain his flowing beard during the enactment of the Ramayana in a street Ramlila, or handsome young artistes enacting Rama and Sita on a professional stage, the feeling is the same for the viewers.

They know the story of Sita and Ram by heart, but every year they wait with bated breath for yet another performance of the Ramayana in performances across the country, and specially in northern India. It is as if they are seeing it for the first time. In the actors they see the epic come alive; the actors, too, do not remain untouched by the fervent chants of the audience every now and then, 'Bol Siyapati Ram ki Jai' (Hail Sita's husband Rama')

In Gujarat, Dussehra is unthinkable without the hugely popular and highly energetic men's folk dance of the Dandiya-ras or the Garba by women. And, in West Bengal or any Bengali-locality in India celebrating Durga Puja, life is incomplete without the melodrama of the Jatra folk theatre.

`Fun'tastic world of Ramlila
These performances enable people to get together and feel a sense of community, though each individual may see something different in them. After all, epics like the Ramayana are full of role models for humans - the ideal ruler, the ideal son, the ideal husband or wife. And depending on who the viewers are and what their situation is, they see these performances differently. Plays in the Jatra form also touch upon everyday values and situations.

Few traditional performances match the popularity of the Ramlilas though, which are a dramatised depiction of events in the life of Rama. These trace their origins to more than 300 years ago when the Hindi poet Tulsidas dramatised certain portions of his Ramcharitmanas and presented them at Banaras (Varanasi). Different areas of the city of Banaras were named after places in the epic Ramayana and Ramlila plays were enacted there over several nights. The presentation culminated on Dusshera with the burning of the effigies of Ravana and his relatives.

It continues to be a colourful affair to this day in Banaras, whose neighbourhoods are choc-a-bloc with Ramlilas. The performances go on at their own pace: in one locality Rama and Sita are getting married; in another, Sita is being abducted; and in yet another, Rama's forces are fighting Ravana.

The Mother of all Ramlilas - in Banaras
By far the most spectacular and popular Ramlila in India is held at Ramnagar on the bank of the Ganga, near Banaras. Enacted over a period of 30 days, this Ramlila is a moving performance - literally. If the action moves from a palace to a jungle, the acting area changes too, and the audiences also move with the performance.

Different scenes are enacted at different places, which in turn are associated with the actual locales of Ramayana. The Ramlila performance becomes a moveable feast for the eyes!