In our country, certain annual ritual performances such as the Ramleela in north India, the Raasleela in Vrindavan and also in Manipur, and the Draupadi Amman of northern Tamil Nadu have had an unbroken tradition of performance for decades, if not centuries. On the other bank of the Ganga in Varanasi, there is a month-long celebration of the story of Shri Ram, in a place appropriately called Ramnagar. Documented in detail by Doordarshan, it is currently being telecast every night for a month.
The Ramleela here is not a spectacle for the inhabitants of Ramnagar, they are part of it. Every evening they gather in thousands to witness the spectacle. On the first day, actors playing the trio of gods—Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva—hold on to their large mukuts (crowns) as they sonorously recite couplets whispered into their ear by one of the Vyasas. In the audience, many hold a copy of Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas, the version followed here, and recite the dialogues with the actors. Across the acting arena, an extremely young Ram and Sita sit enthroned on a pavilion.
The king of Ramnagar, who is the patron of this Ramleela, selects the actors for the lead roles. For three months, they all stay in a gurukul as they prepare for their roles. Since these are all school-going boys, the king organises teachers to come to the gurukul.
A unique feature of this Ramleela is that it is performed over an area of 10 kilometres, with Ayodhya, Panchvati and Lanka in separate locations. In 2005, UNESCO recognised it as an intangible world cultural heritage.
Between April and June in northern Tamil Nadu, a similar ritual takes place. This is the Draupadi Amman festival.
For the first 15 days, the narration of the epic is done following a hereditary tradition since the 6th century. But it is in the subsequent 15 days that unique traditions are observed.
In the courtyard of every temple to Draupadi stands a statue of Aravan, the son of Arjun and a Naga princess, who was sacrificed with his consent before the Mahabharat war begun. The story goes that Aravan had two wishes. One, that though he was to be beheaded before the war begun, he wished to witness it, and second that he wanted the experience of sleeping with a woman before he was sacrificed. To satisfy the second, Krishna appeared as Mohini. In a fascinating replay of their tragic union, transgenders congregate at these Draupadi temples dressed as Mohini to marry the statue of Aravan, and the next morning they smash their bangles and wail as they are now widowed. While scenes from the Mahabharata are enacted by Therakottu troupes through the night, people are at work creating a 30-foot-long mud sculpture of Duryodhana lying on the ground, that will be destroyed by stomping feet on the last night, recalling the smashing of Duryodhana’s thighs by Bhima.
Participatory theatre this truly is, the audience can question actors, participate in the Draupadi swayamvar, carry out rituals for the dead as part of Karna Moksha… .
Two wonderful performance rituals, the first excellently documented by Dr Anuradha Kapur, former director, National School of Drama, and the other by Dr Muthuswamy of the Folklore Centre in Chennai. Both these scholars in their own unique ways have been able to capture these living traditions before they disappear.
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