Ram Leela (Ramlila) Dance

Understand

Where Ram Leela (Ramlila) Dance comes from

Ramlila (literally 'Rama's play') is the dance-drama of north India enacting the epic Ramayana of Valmiki, with its primary centres in Uttar Pradesh (especially Varanasi / Kashi and Ramnagar) and the Braj region. The Varanasi Ramlila tradition dates back at least to the 16th century, when Tulsidas — author of the Awadhi-language Ramcharitmanas — popularised the dramatic enactment of the Ramayana at Varanasi. The Ramnagar Ramlila (Ramnagar Fort Ramlila, across the Ganges from Varanasi) has been continuously performed since the time of Maharaja Udit Narayan Singh of Kashi in the 1830s and is one of the longest open-air theatrical performances in the world — running for 31 days each autumn during the Dussehra festival. Ramlila dance-drama traditions are also practised in Ayodhya, Varanasi's neighbouring districts and other UP cities, with the Chitrakoot and Allahabad Ramlila traditions being particularly important.

How it's practiced

Ramlila is performed by large open-air troupes of actors (typically men) playing the cast of the Ramayana — Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata, Hanuman, Ravana and the vanaras. Performances run for days or weeks in sequence across the villages of the region, often at the Ramlila ground. Dancers enact both the dialogue of the play and the elaborate battle scenes — particularly the bow and arrow combat, the chariot driving, the forest walks and the cosmic battle with the army of Ravana. The dance-and-song segments are intermixed with dialogues of Awadhi or Braj Bhasha verse drawn from Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas and similar texts. The Ramnagar Ramlila at Varanasi uses over a hundred performers and runs for 31 nights, culminating in the burning of Lanka on Dussehra. Costume is the elaborate epical dress — the crowns of the rishis, the armour of the warriors, the costumes of the vanaras (with masks and fur) and the splendid dress of Rama and Sita.