Academic interest in Ramayana seems to be gathering momentum all over again. As a religious text, the epic was always sacred to the devout but taking it outside the purview of religion, scholars from across the world are getting increasingly enthused by its aesthetics. The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi, under the aegis of its ongoing programme “Living Traditions of Ramkatha and Mahabharata” is hosting a seven day International Conference on Ramlila and Ramkatha manchan under the theme “Epic Processes: Mobility, Patronage and Aesthetics”. In 2013, National Ramlila Council of Trinidad and Tobago had hosted the first International Conference on Ramlila. “Scholars and performances were selected so as to cover the multi-dimensionality of the tradition in a holistic manner. The vision is to understand Ramlila both as an aesthetic spiritual experience and from the perspective of historical and social-cultural processes which lend multiple meanings to this performance genre and are responsible for its mobility across regions and beyond time,” says Molly Kaushal, Professor, Performance Studies, IGNCA.
Traditions of Ramlila and Ramkatha manchan are not homogenous. Besides Ramnagar Ramlila, a unique Ramlila staged over 31 days in Ramnagar documented by IGNCA last year, there exist several other forms of Ramlila be it Jhanki Ramlila, Tulsi Ramlila or Nakkataiya processional form. Add to it the traditions of Mathura-Vrindavan, Ayodhya and Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, Almora in Uttarakhand, Sattna in Madhya Pradesh, Swang and Rasdhari Khayal in Rajasthan and scores of nukkad Ramlilas across North India.
The list is not over yet. Madhubani Ramlila from Bihar, Ram Jatra from Bengal, Daspalla, Bisipada and Boudh Ramlila from Orissa, Ankiya Nat from Assam, Khamti Buddhist tradition and Aji Lamo performances from Arunachal Pradesh, Kutiyattam and Kathakali from Kerala, Yakshagana, Doddatta and Sonnatta from Karnataka, Bhagwatmela from Tamil Nadu and Kuchipudi from Andhra Pradesh are other performative traditions associated with it.
The visitors are being given a glimpse of some of these traditions through the evening performances taking place at the IGNCA daily in the evenings. “67 scholars from Indonesia, Germany, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Mauritius, Canada and the USA are taking part in the conference. Primnath Gooptar, Shrivatsa Goswami, Linda Hess, Paula Richman, K.D. Tripathi, Rustom Bharucha, Purshottam Agarwal, William Sax, Edin Khoo Sal Morgiyanto are some of the important speakers. Shobha Deepak Singh, Jalabala Vaidya, Gauranga Dash are giving lec-dems and then there is international star Pichet Klunchun from Thailand who will perform on November 29,” says Kaushal.
The story isn’t restricted to India. “The tide of Rama spreads across Southeast Asia and East Asia. The diaspora takes it to Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji, Caribbean Islands and elsewhere. Individual creativity firmly establishes the Rama story on modern stage and celluloid across the world. Enabled by the oral modes of transmission, this widespread mobility of the text, which transcends spatial, temporal, linguistic and generic boundaries, testifies to its fluidity,” adds Kaushal.
Through this bouquet which comprises cultural performances, arts and crafts, workshops on music traditions of folk and tribal communities, film shows, ritualistic food, exhibitions, is probing the mobility of text in space and across time.
(The festival is on at IGNCA, C.V.Mess, Janpath, till November 29.)
