सनातन पुस्तकालय Sanatan Cultural Library

Ramlila means "Rama's play" — the community re-enactment of the Ramayana, from Rama's exile and Sita's abduction to the great war in Lanka and the triumphant return to Ayodhya. Tradition credits the flowering of the modern Ramlila to the circle of Goswami Tulsidas, whose sixteenth-century Awadhi retelling, the Ramcharitmanas, put the epic into the spoken language of the people; its verses still form the sung narration of most performances. Over the centuries every qasba and mohalla of the Hindi belt came to mount its own cycle, some lasting ten nights, the famed Ramnagar Ramlila near Varanasi unfolding over roughly a month across the whole town, with the audience moving from site to site. UNESCO has inscribed Ramlila on its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, recognising it as theatre, scripture and communal devotion in one.

Performances run on open-air stages through the nights of Sharad Navratri. Local boys traditionally play the svarupas — the divine roles of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Bharata — and are treated with reverence for the duration, devotees taking their darshan as they would an image in a temple. A vyas or director prompts the actors while singers chant the Ramcharitmanas; episodes such as Sita's svayamvara, the breaking of Shiva's bow, the exile, Hanuman's leap to Lanka and the battle with Ravana each get their own night. The cycle peaks on Vijayadashami, when towering effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghnada, packed with fireworks, are set alight before huge crowds — the ravan dahan that gives north-Indian Dussehra its signature image. The following days often close with Bharat Milap, the brothers' reunion, played to intense emotion.

A full month-long Ramlila belongs to the towns of north India, but its heart — hearing and living the Ramayana together — travels easily. During Sharad Navratri, Ottawa families can read a kanda of the Ramcharitmanas or the Sundara Kanda aloud each evening, letting children take the voices of different characters; many diaspora communities across Canada stage condensed Ramlila plays or dance-dramas around Dussehra, and joining or watching one is a wonderful way to pass the story on. Live streams of major Ramlilas, including Delhi's and Ayodhya's celebrations, are widely available in the season. On Vijayadashami itself, an evening aarti to Shri Rama at the home mandir, with the story of Ravana's defeat retold, completes the observance. Check the site's calendar for this year's Navratri and Vijayadashami dates in Ottawa.