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II"Ramlila"
- Traditional Indian Performance of Ramayana
II
Ramlila is the the enactment of
the story of Lord Rama. In Ramlila the life of Rama is shown in
the form of a series of plays. The complete life story of Rama
is covered in ten days.
It is one of the most popular
festivals of North India. Ramlila is associated with the
Vijayadashmi (Dussehra)
celebrations in late Sept. & early Oct. and also with Ramnavami,
the birthday of Lord Rama. The Ramlila ends on Vijaya Dashami -
the day of victory when Rama defeats the Demon King Ravana.
Ramlia is India's most famous theatrical experience.
Historically, this staging of the Ramayana is based on the
Ramacharitmanas, one of the most popular sacred text of Hindu
religion. Ramacharitmanas was composed by Tulsidas in the
sixteenth
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century in a dialect that is close to Hindi in order
to make the Sanskrit epic available to all.
The festival of Ramlila centers around Lord Rama (the Hindu god) and
his life as a mortal being on the earth. The ideal human
character Rama, is an ideal son, brother, friend, husband and
king. Rama accepts a fourteen years exile to enable his father to
fulfill his pledge to one of his queen Kakayi. Rama spends a
simple, pure and arduous life in deep forest. His life in the
forest is full of hardships. His wife Sita is abducted by Ravana
in the forest. Rama then gathers an army of monkeys to fight
Ravana. He crosses the sea to reach Ravana's kingdoms and fights
to save his wife. After fourteen years he returns back to his
kingdom Ayodhaya, people celebrated his arrival with lights all
around Ayodhaya.
During Ramlila, this story of Rama's life is enacted to mark his
victory over Ravana and his return to his kingdom. The central
theme is "the victory of the good over the evil". During its
performance the Ramayana is constantly recited accompanied by
music. It presents a fine blending of music, dance, mime and
poetry before an enthusiastic and religious audience sharing
every event of the story with the actors. The drama is enacted by
young boys and the play ends with Rama shooting burning arrows
towards the effigies of Ravana (containing fire crackers) which
catches fire and burns marking the end of the evil-Ravana.
The festival of Ramlila ends with Dussehra. It is performed
across the whole of northern India during the festival of
Dussehra. These Ramlila shows are very popular in Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh and to an extent in Maharashtra. The most
representative Ramlilas are those of Ayodhya, Ramnagar and
Benares, Vrindavan, Almora, Sattna and Madhubani.
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