In 2005, the UNESCO had proclaimed the traditional Indian performance of the Ramayana — the Ramlila – as one among the masterpieces of the ‘Oral and Intangible Heritages of Humanity’.

The recognition would mean that UNESCO would fund documentation of the vital aspects of Ramlila in various pilgrim towns of India like Chitrakoot, Ayodhya, and Benares and help popularise its cultural value. It is also proposed to adopt measures to revitalise this art form.

The Rama’s play
Ramlila, meaning ‘Rama’s play’, is a performance of the Ramayana in the form of a series of scenes that include song, narration, recital and dialogue. It is performed across the whole of northern India during the festival of Dussehra, held around the month of October or November.

The most representative Ramlilas are those of Ayodhya, Ramnagar-Benares, Vrindavan, Almora, Sattna and Madhubani. This staging of the Ramayana is based on the Ramacharitmanas. The majority of the Ramlilas recount episodes from the Ramacharitmanas through a series of performances lasting about 10 to 12 days. In some places, like Ramnagar-Benares, the performances last for 31 days instead of 10. Hundreds of Sadhus, called the Ramayanis, come to watch and recite Ramayana.

Fading glory
But despite the publicity due to the recognition by UNESCO, it is found that the popularity of Ramlila is on the decline. The young members of the families who are traditionally engaged in these performances are no longer keen to take it up  because of the lack of artistic recognition and limited remuneration. The growth of the mass media, particularly television soap operas, is also leading to the lack of popularity of this art form.

Majority of artistes perform voluntarily and monetary gains are not a driving force for them. In New Delhi, as many as 1500 Ramlilas are organised, but only about 30 of them are prominent with budgets running into lakhs of rupees. In Haryana (only eight performances take place at present compared to as many as 28 a decade ago) and parts of Bihar also, the nine-day fiesta is losing audience.

The secretary of Sri Ram Lila Samiti, Aishbagh, Lucknow, which has been organising the event for the past 62 years, says that with the new age innovations and developments, the viewers seemed to have lost interest in coming to the venue and watch the cultural display. “Earlier, we used to receive about 100,000 people everyday, but now the number has decreased.

The audience
The majority of the audience these days are the middle-aged and elderly people, while the youngsters are hardly interested,” he says. He  admitted that a number of artistes working for his Samiti had lost jobs for devoting more time in rehearsals and training for the event.

With the local troupes losing interest in staging Ramlila, professional repertories from Brindavan in Uttar Pradesh are invited to perform in some towns of Uttar Pradesh.

While the local Ramlila committees do not pay any honorarium to their artistes, the Vrindavan troupes charge about Rs one lakh for their show. Such shows are generally sponsored by big industrialists or traders’ organisations.

Chandigarh has at present around 50 groups who perform in the city with a population of about 900,000. “Earlier about 5,000 to 10,000 spectators used to see Ramlila daily. But now only around 1,000 people come. The donation collected from them would come upto a meagre Rs 10,000,” says one of the organisers.
“The art of erecting effigies of Ravana, Kumbkaran and Meghnath may die soon,” says Abdul Bari of Rajpura, professional builder of bamboo effigies for the Ramlila.

“The reason for this is very obvious. There is hardly any encouragement from the authorities.” In many places, the Dusserah ground has been converted into a park with benches and swings around the place, forcing the Ramlila artistes to get only a portion of the park, thus restricting audience and donations. To attract more crowds, the Ramlila committees also have to hold Kavi Sammelans, Jagrans and invite film stars and singers to perform.

Of late, there have been attempts to rescue Ramlila from dying down and attract the younger public, especially in metros like New Delhi — venue for the most famous Ramlila in India. The script and story line remain the same; only, the staging has gone hi-tech.

Computer-aided designs, laser technology and advancements in information technology are being used in Ramlilas. Elaborate preparations have been made to make the war between the armies of Ram and Ravana more impressive.

“It is all automatic. We have developed a special software which will guide the laser arrows and give the impact of missiles hitting with a bang in the sky,” said an innovator-patron of the modern Ramlila.