Ramleela in the times of Babri

As Babri threatens to raise its ugly head again and Sabrimala threatens to be another Babri - -  

Few weeks ago the Babri Masjid was again in the news; action at the Supreme Court. At the same time many parts of our country were celebrating Ramleela. Some of us fought in the court over his birth place while many celebrated his life. Not many appeared to have made the connection.

The legal aspect has been discussed enough. Let us try to look at the Ramleela beyond the clichéd images of joy at burning a large figure bearing ten heads and the loud news channels. The images, like most which is clichéd, did not do justice to the Ramleela while the television appeared to have an aversion to a lot that is positive.

First the books.

Ramleela is primarily based on Tulsidas’ Ramcharit Manas an epic referred to by British scholars and administrators as the ‘defining work of Indian culture’.

Philip Lutgendorf in the introduction to his translation, The Epic of Ram, published by the Murty Classical Library of India, states, ‘there is a verbal magic in every stanza’. Consisting of roughly 12,800 lines spread across 7 sub-books (or kaands) it is one of the first non Sanskritized versions of the story of Ram’s life. The richness and diversity of the text can be gauged from the fact that it use 29 different terms to describe Lotus and 22 for Beautiful. It also benefits from more than 90 Arabic and Persian terms.

Then public conversations.

During a discussion at the 2016 edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival Professor Harish Trivedi talked of how the epic was written at a time when the Mughal empire was at its peak. Emperor Akbar had been in power for 18 years when Tulsidas finished working on Ramcharit Manas during 1574. Babri Masjid was then aged 46. Ashok Vaypeyi, the poet, stated that it was a living text. One that was not confined to scholarly books and libraries but underwent changes with singing and performances. He added that Indian epics have a life very different from those of their Western counterparts.

Finally the vernacular newspapers.

From Jaipur we move to Kashi where incidentally Tulsidas also spent large part of his life. The well-known Ramleela of Ramnagar which goes on for about a month requires up to 150 effigies. Six of them are large sized. These consist of 3 parts each which are put together at the venue itself. These effigies are made at the same place as the Tajiyas for Mohurram. Mr Khan leads the 20 member team that works on both. His family has been involved in the act since 5 generations. The paper described Kashi as the city where the shadows of Vishwanath temple and Gyanvyapi Mosque mingle each day at sunrise and sunset.

Continuing with Kashi. The Ramleela at Laat Bhairav Temple, the oldest in the town, is believed to have been first organized by Megha Bhagat, Tulsidas’ friend, around 473 years ago. The temple shares its courtyard with a Masjid. Both the Ramleela performance and namaaz take place here. The Ramleela begins, takes a break during namaz and then resumes. The paper also carried images that depicted people getting ready for namaz in the foreground while in the background Ramleela characters appeared to rest. The azaan has been in sync with the choupais and dohas since long. All we need to do is to listen to the music.

Moving to Lucknow. A muslim family has been organizing Ramleela for 3 generations in the Bakshi Ka Talab locality. Both Hindus and Muslims portray various roles. Mr Khan, the director, who played the role of Dashrath during the recent edition has, during the past, played other roles including those of Hanuman, Sugreev and Kumbhkaran. There have been seasons where Ramleela and Ramzaan have gone hand in hand. During those days the Ramleela began, stopped as soon as the time for iftar came up, and then resumed.

In times such as today these incidents do more than just present hope. They suggest that a culture as rich and diverse as the Ramcharit Manas needs to worry neither about evolving with time and nor about meeting the challenges. For this however we may need to look beyond our urbania and its boxed problem solving approach. An approach it appears to have aped from the west.

The other connection between Babri and Ramleela is that, besides Kashi, the place where Tulsidas was based at when he composed Ramcharit Manas is Ayodhya.