Rama Town Analysis
Rama’s Play in Rama’ Town The Dusshera festival that falls on the 10th day of the waxing moon during the Hindu month of Ashvin (around September or October) celebrates the victory of Rama over Ravana and Ramlila; a dramatic folk play is enacted during this festival. During the Dusshera festival there are many thousands of these Ramlila productions being staged all over India. It is widely enacted throughout northern India. The most popular Ramlilas are those of Ramnagar, Varanasi, Ayodhya, Vrindavan, Sattna, Almora, and Madhubani. The performance tradition of Ramlila that forms my case study spans particular geographic region that is, Ramnagar (literally Ramatown) a midsize settlement across the Ganges
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Samvad (Dialogue): In a makeshift stage amateur actors in ornate costumes play out their assigned roles. Earlier the performers mimed the action however today the dialogue is spoken or rather, shouted with great vigor by the actors. It is necessary to shout because Ramlila uses no microphones. Ishwari Prasad Narayan Singh (1835-1889) a maharajah in the mid-19th century, commissioned a group of poets and scholars to compose dialogue in vernacular Hindi for the Ramlila. Each episode is confluence of lila (Play, enactment) and mela (fair, festivity) ‘Lila ground is a place for worship and the mela is a place to socialize’ (Bonnemaison & Macy Source, 2-23)
3) Jhanki (Tableaux): literally, 'a view, a glance.' Norvin Hein defined jhanki as a specific form of traditional religious drama, "a tableau of living deities exhibited for worship, the "actors" in which are always, as in the Ramnagar Ramlila, "Brahman boy(s) under the age of puberty." "A jhanki performance does not enact any narrative. The situation presented is always the same: Sita and Ram enthroned, holding, as it were, their durbar” (1972, …show more content…
Bright colored masks and huge, glossily painted papier-mâché effigies depicting the frozen iconic moments from the manas enliven the performances. Invocation's of 'Har Har Mahadev' and 'Raja Ramchandra ki Jai' (victory to Lord Ram) rends the air at the completion of each lila and arati concludes it. On most days, Ramlila begins at 5 p.m. and continues until 10 at night. The staging is simple and iconographic, replicating images from temples, religious paintings and popular posters. The costumes are richly woven silks in resplendent gold and red. The faces of some actors are adorned with glittering jewels. The ramlila uses archaic methods of lighting up the performance and sound amplifications, electricity and microphone are not put to use. This adherence to an earlier technology — kerosene lanterns and flares provide the lighting — is a major aspect of the
Samvad (Dialogue): In a makeshift stage amateur actors in ornate costumes play out their assigned roles. Earlier the performers mimed the action however today the dialogue is spoken or rather, shouted with great vigor by the actors. It is necessary to shout because Ramlila uses no microphones. Ishwari Prasad Narayan Singh (1835-1889) a maharajah in the mid-19th century, commissioned a group of poets and scholars to compose dialogue in vernacular Hindi for the Ramlila. Each episode is confluence of lila (Play, enactment) and mela (fair, festivity) ‘Lila ground is a place for worship and the mela is a place to socialize’ (Bonnemaison & Macy Source, 2-23)
3) Jhanki (Tableaux): literally, 'a view, a glance.' Norvin Hein defined jhanki as a specific form of traditional religious drama, "a tableau of living deities exhibited for worship, the "actors" in which are always, as in the Ramnagar Ramlila, "Brahman boy(s) under the age of puberty." "A jhanki performance does not enact any narrative. The situation presented is always the same: Sita and Ram enthroned, holding, as it were, their durbar” (1972, …show more content…
Bright colored masks and huge, glossily painted papier-mâché effigies depicting the frozen iconic moments from the manas enliven the performances. Invocation's of 'Har Har Mahadev' and 'Raja Ramchandra ki Jai' (victory to Lord Ram) rends the air at the completion of each lila and arati concludes it. On most days, Ramlila begins at 5 p.m. and continues until 10 at night. The staging is simple and iconographic, replicating images from temples, religious paintings and popular posters. The costumes are richly woven silks in resplendent gold and red. The faces of some actors are adorned with glittering jewels. The ramlila uses archaic methods of lighting up the performance and sound amplifications, electricity and microphone are not put to use. This adherence to an earlier technology — kerosene lanterns and flares provide the lighting — is a major aspect of the