The Ramalila (Set of 3 Books)

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The Ramalila
Ramalila Varried Perspective	Ram Lila-S in North India and Mauritius	Ramleela in Trinidad

Ramlila is the oldest traditional theatre of India which formed Near about 500 years ago. UNESCO declared it as an Intangible heritage in 2005.

Ramlila is introduced as a course study in many foreign universities. This book Ramlila: Varied Perspective under the editorship of Dr. Bhanu Shankar Mehta in which the top most Theatre persons, critics and well known authors contributed essays on Ramlila not only from India but throughout all over the world.

This is the first book of its own in which it shows that what Ramlila is and how to perform it in theatre?

**Contents and Sample Pages**

Ram Lila is the animated katha of Sri Ram as told by Sant Tulsidas in Ramcharitmanas and performed in LILA style and dramatic/theatrical style. It is a narrative that was seeded in North India but that sprouted huge trees across India and the diaspora, especially the indentured Indian diaspora countries like Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, and Fiji. The Ramcharitmanas is sacred to millions and serves as a moral and ethical guide in personal, family, and national life, as well as political leadership. Ram Lila is a unique identity marker for communities that nurture and practice this tradition; it brings people together, across cultural and socio-economic differences. While providing community entertainment, the performative style of Ram Lila is a powerful tool for teaching and learning, agent of darshan, and opportunity for personal spiritual transformation.

Dr. Indrani Rampersad is an independent researcher in Indian Culture and Hindu Dharma in the indentured diaspora. She has studied the Ram Lila performance in the indentured diaspora of Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname and Fiji, and also in North India. She serves on the Research Committee of the Ayodhya Research Institute, Ayodhya, India. In 2006, she studied Asian Performance Theory: India, under. performance master, Prof. Richard Schechner, New York University. In 2009, she designed and piloted the world's first known Ram Lila Theory and Performance curriculum for The University of Trinidad and Tobago.

Dr. Rampersad is an educator, researcher, journalist and women's activist. She earned the B.A. Hon. Degree from Benares Hindu University, India (1976); Masters and Ph.D. in Communication and Journalism from the University of Pune, India, in 1998 and 2003. respectively. From 2007 to 2012, she conducted post-doctoral research in Ram Lila/Ramdilla as Senior Research Fellow at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. In 1993, she became Trinidad and Tobago's first state certified female pandit under the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha of Trinidad. Among her several awards are: the Government of Trinidad and Tobago's National Award (GOLD) for Development of Women in 2013; the 1995 Woman of the Year Award by Women Working for Social Progress; and the National Council of Indian Culture's 1996 Divali Nagar Award for long and dedicated service to Hinduism. Dr. Rampersad has published research papers in international journals and Encyclopaedias.

This publication is the outcome of original research started on Ram Lila in the Caribbean at the University of Trinidad and Tobago, from 2007. The research then expanded, with a research grant, to include North India in October 2010, At the kind invitation of Mr. Veenaud Boodhun and family, I was able to visit Mauritius from Oct. 28 to Nov. 6, 2010 to study Ram Lila there.

In October 2016, I visited Fiji to study their Ram Lila. This has all expanded and enriched the initial research into one that now covers Ram Lila in the indentured North Indian diaspora. This publication, however, gives a bird's eye view of Ram Lila in several parts of North India in October 2010 and a report on Ram Lila in Mauritius.

The LILA style of Ram Lila started in North India and made its way to the indentured or girmitiya diaspora in places like Trinidad (with over 20 LILA style performances), Guyana (where it went into extinction and was revived in 2007), Suriname (with three LILA style performances, today) and Fiji, where this researcher found only one performance resembling the LILA style- in Labasa-and this had moved from the open-air setting to its current setting in a large hall, covered, with open sides and retaining many elements of LILA style.

In 2010, in North India, Ram Lila was facing strong competition from the Devi Navratri Puja celebrations. It is crucial to document the various performance styles of telling the story of Ram and to evaluate the role and status of this performance in individual and community life.

Journalist Ashish Kumar Mishra of Bihar, was extremely helpful in helping me to locate the Ram Lila in Buxar. He lamented the decline in Ram Lila performances in Bihar. An interesting discovery in my research was the presence of two Ram Lila-s where Ravan does not die, viz. Jaswantnagar in Etawah and Kalpi in Kanpur.

The literature in English on Ram Lila in India tends to portray the Ramnagar Ram Lila at Varanasi, as the premier performance. Undoubtedly, the Ramnagar Ram Lila is special bur there are many Ram Lila-s in rural communities across North India that remain largely unnoticed by researchers. Western scholars should be credited, however, with heightening awareness about and documenting Ram Lila.

**Contents and Sample Pages**

Indian history informs us that in ancient times the area in India known as Ayodhya was the same place known as Kosala. From about the 6th century BC to the 1" century AD, Kosala formed part of the greater geographic, cultural and administrative region known as Bihar. Bihar or Vihara (the country of monasteries) then encompassed the countries of Videha, Vajji, Vaishali, Malla, Mithila, Magada, Anga, and parts of Jharkhand.

During the Mughal era, Emperor Akbar divided the whole of India into administrative regions one of which was Oudh or Awadh. Ayodhya became a part of Awadh with the bordering city of Faizabad being its capital city. Later Awadh was incorporated into the United Provinces or Uttar Pradesh (UP), with Ayodhya becoming a constituent part of UP. It continues to remain within this geo-political administration. But from ancient times, right up to the present period, waves of migration of the peoples of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have taken place by road, sea and later by air, spreading India's vast treasure of learning and knowledge, including its rich literary and cultural heritage, traditions and life style, far and wide. While India has had a long relationship with the rest of the world, within recent times the Ayodhya Research Institute has been contributing its share in promoting the history, literature and tradition of our ancient civilisation. Established in 1986 as an autonomous organization of the Department of Culture of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, the Institute was set up to research and identify the significance and contribution of Ayodhya and this geographic region to Indian thought, philosophy, religion, literature, arts and overall culture.

The folk theatre of Ramleela is the story of a hero warrior and King named Ram. This story, dating back into antiquity, long before the Christian era, has been told and retold for millennia in many countries and cultures of the south- east Asian region. Ramleela, literally translated means, 'the play of Ram'. The mortal hero Ram, over the centuries has been elevated to a God, Shri Ram. His story is told in epic proportions; his birth, education and training, marriage, exile, trials and tribulations, battles and triumphant return to rule the kingdom of Ayodhya in Northern India.

The trend of the story is equally linear as its sub-stories which create detours, only to return in a circuitous way to the main narrative. The epic contains many key characters, each with their own sub story, all interwoven into the grand narration. It conveys messages on concepts of authority, leadership and management, morality and ethical issues in the quest for final freedom and release from the chains of human, earthly existence. It questions concepts of 'authenticity, whether classical, religious or secular.

To the Brahmin caste in India who kept the Sanskrit language and the knowledge that was written therein as their sole preserve, Tulsidas's rendering of the Ram story in the Dev Nagri script - the dialect of the common man of north India was blasphemy. But it has endured. It opened up more vistas of opportunities in other languages also, for India's far-flung off-springs to sup from this and others cups, which contain the essence of her ancient civilization.

**Contents and Sample Pages**