The Ramlila of Ramnagar [India]

Abstract

Ramlila is a cycle play lasting ten to thirty-two days performed annually outdoors in the Hindi speaking region of north India. Its season is around the Dasarha holidays in September-October. The performance is based on Tulsidas’ late 16th-century epic poem Ramacaritamanas (RCM), a Hindi version of Valmiki's Sanskrit Ramayana. Although thousands of Ramlilas are performed, we shall describe only one—the 31-day cycle of Ramnagar across the Ganga River from Varanasi (Benares or Kasi). Due to the patronage of the Maharaja of Benares who resides in Ramnagar this Ramlila is the most extensive, best performed, and draws the largest audiences of any. It developed its present shape during the early and mid 19th-century. The whole subject of Ramlila is vast, touching on themes of pilgrimage, bhakti (devotional worship), Hindu ideas of reincarnation, the nature of a mixed oral-literate culture of immense sophistication, relationship between government, Maharaja, and ordinary people.

The Ramayana Narrative Tradition as a Resource for Performance

“…Moreover, secondary literature about Indian performance traditions that include Ramayana-based productions tends to focus largely on legends of its 10 Space limitations make it impossible to cite all secondary literature on the Ramnagar Ramlila, but the following exemplify diverse approaches: Schechner and Hess (1977); Kapur (1990); Kumar (1995); Hess (2006); Lothspeich (2020). A team of scholars published a translation and analysis of Āścaryacūḍāmaṇi in Jones, ed.…”

Introduction: The Field of Ramlila

“…In the late 1970s, Richard Schechner and Linda Hess were largely responsible for initiating a wave of scholarly interest in the Ramlilas of Ramnagar (and Varanasi) (Schechner and Hess 1977;Hess 1983;Schechner 1985Schechner , 1993Schechner , 2015Bonnemaison and Macy 1990;Kapur 1990;Sax 1990;Swann 1990;Lutgendorf 1991;Kumar 1992;Pandey 1993;Parkhill 1993;Mehta 2011Mehta , 2015Rani 2011;Singh 2016). Before the 1980s, there were just a few now classic works on Ramlila generally (Gargi 1966;Hein 1972;Suresh Awasthi 1974;and Induja Awasthi 1979a, 1979b, 1980.…”

Ramayan: The Video

“…The famous Ramnagar production (see Schechner and Hess 1977) is often termed a "visible commentary" by its aficionados, who emphasize the opportunity it affords for the experience of divine darian. The famous Ramnagar production (see Schechner and Hess 1977) is often termed a "visible commentary" by its aficionados, who emphasize the opportunity it affords for the experience of divine darian.…”