Living tradition of Ram Katha and Ramlilas

The Ram Katha manchan, play, is a popular living tradition in India and Southeast Asia. And its images and narrative depictions are found profusely in ancient temples from 5th and 6th century CE onwards. The basis of all such depictions are Valmiki’s Ramayan, and from 16th century onwards, the Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas in north India and Kamban Ramayan in south India.

Ram Katha and its manchan present the epitome of devotion and moral-ethical values, highlighting the country’s cultural ethos, as can be seen in several episodes from the Ramayan. Sita-haran, Sita’s abduction; Vali-Sugreev fight; Jatayu-Ravan fight; and Ram-Ravan fight, all these episodes give out a strong message of unceasing respect for women’s dignity and the terrible consequences of not doing so.

Selfless devotion of Hanuman for Ram shows the intensity of bhakti, and Bharat-Milap, meeting of Ram and Lakshman with their brothers Bharat and Shatrughan after their return to Ayodhya from Lanka, provides an ideal model of love and affection between brothers.

The strong tradition of Ramayan and Ram Katha became such a compelling source of human values that it was assimilated in Jainism and is mentioned in texts such as the Paumachariya and Padma-Puran; and in Buddhism, in the Dasharath Jatak. Ram Katha and its manchan crossed the sectarian and geographical boundaries to offer virtue-based Indic tradition, world over.

There are two parts of any text. One is the content of the text itself and the other is its concern for society, which was demonstrated by way of Ramlilas, in which the ideal embodiments of virtues in the forms of Ram, Bharat, Lakshman, Shatrughan, Sita and Hanuman can be virtually experienced. Instead of being in temples as stationary murtis, these characters come alive with a living identity for greater impact. Kashi-Varanasi, for instance, has more than 100 Ramlila committees, which in the month of October-November undertake the enactment of Ramlilas in different places in the city. Detailed schedules are prepared and different lilas, episodes, are performed at different places to encourage greater involvement of different communities, for wider impact.

The Ramlilas of Ramnagar, Maunibaba, Tulsi Ghat, Shivapur and Chitrakoot in Varanasi and Sarai Harkhu in Jaunpur and Khajuha in Fatehpur have their distinctive features in terms of selection and enactment of episodes, patronage and aesthetic expressions. Some of them are in the form of only jhanki, only visual appearance, without any samvaad, dialogue, as can be seen in Chitrakoot’s Ramlila, while in Ramnagar, no electric lights and loudspeakers are used during the performance.

The Dhanush-Yajna; Nakkataiyya; Bharat-Milap of Nati Imli – known as Lakha-Mela of Varanasi as it is attended by more than one lakh people; Raj gaddi, coronation of Ram, and Ram-Darbar are the most common episodes of the Ramayan that are performed and sought after by viewers. And interestingly, Ramlila audience is not called darshak, they are referred to as Lila-Premi.

It is believed that Ramlila was first performed by Narayan Das, also known as Megha Bhagat, in the mid-16th century. It was based on Valmiki’s Ramayan. And the first lila organised by Tulsidas was on the Raj gaddi episode, in the locality known as Asi.