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mkmishra · Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 11 Location: Bhubaneswar India

Relevance of Ramayana and Mahabharata in Indian Society and Culture
Mahendra Kumar Mishra, Bhubaneswar) mkfolk@gmail.com)

Today evening I opened the TV I saw that Mr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India is putting a fire on the image of Ravana- the demon king of lanka, on the eve of Vijaya Dashami. Vijaya Dashami is considered to be the auspicious day as it is associated with the war of Ramayana. Lord Rama on this da won Ravana, the demon King of Lanka.
I thought, how a myth of Ramayana is symbolicallyattached with thecollective memory of the country that even the Prime Misnster is also burnung Ravana in his own hand. Even there were many a characters like Hanuman, Rama,Lakshman, and many more mythic characters in the dasahara Ground of New Delhi. The past is living with present and its visual representation is remembered and enjoyed I ritual, performance, music, dance, costumes and also in oral tradition.

The performing arts like Ramleela, Krishnaleela are staged in the rural areas of India during ramnavami and Janmastami. Even during summer, almost all the villages having ample time to have entertainment form their mobile drama group in bicycles and move from one village to the other to perform the story of Ramayana and the episode of Mahabharata. The hostvillage wel come the performers ( irrespective of asking their castes and status) with a jug of water and some incense and they are given food and shelter till they complete the performance. Many people having “Mansa” wish intheir mind prefer to host the performance. I remember my child age in Boden village of Kalahandi in Orissa, when the Ramleela Drama Group of Bihar used to come to my village and were performing the whole ramleela with in a month. People were listening the Ramayana in Hindi language , but the audience were belong to local Oriya language. When Rama was appearing in the stage, womenfolk were entering in the stage to worship the living Lord Rama.They were offering 25 paise to one rupee coin at the feet of Rama. The managers or the director of Ramleela were to wait the audience till thw worship was completed by the womenfolk. Each and every women were touchin the feet of Lord Rama. Similar was the case of Krishnaleela. This signifies the presence of their Supreme God worshipped in the worship place in the home, and the same God appearing on the drama stage.

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