Thousands of people watched the ‘Bhor Ki Aarti’ at Ayodhya Maidan in trans-Ganga Ramnagar during the wee hours on Monday. With the Ram Rajyabhishek, the month-long internationally famous Ramnagar Ramlila came to an end on the auspicious occasion of Sharad Purnima.
The local people started thronging the venue after midnight hours to get a place near the Lila stage and by the time of aarti performance, not an inch of space was left as several thousands of people reached there. The entire area was echoed with the slogan of ‘Jai Siya Ram’. Later, during the lila, Lord Rama asked various groups of Banar Senas to return to their homes.
Elaborate security arrangements were made on the occasion to avoid any untoward incident. The venue and its adjoining areas wore a festive look. This month-long internationally famous Ramlila began with the birth of ‘Demon King’ Ravana at Lanka on the occasion of Anant Chaturdarshi as per Hindu Calendar last month.
Ramnagar Ramlila drew global attention since UNESCO proclaimed the tradition of this Ramlila ‘a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity’ in 2005. Later, the Central government and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) produced a two-hour documentary entitled ‘Ramlila’. Ramnagar Ramlila is still organised under the patronage of the royal family of the Banaras Estate, though funded by the state government since the abolition of Princely Estates.
The unique feature of this Ramlila is the use of 'patromaxes' for lighting at the stage instead of electric lighting and the artistes are selected on the basis of their loud voices as they do not use mikes. There are separate venues, some of them are one-two kilometres away from each other, for different shows. There are Janakpur, Ayodhya, Chitrakoot, Panchvati and Lanka apart from some minor venues of some Rishis like Valmiki, Bhardwaj and others. This Ramlila is known for its sets, dialogues, visual spectacle and permanent as well as temporary structures. Its uniqueness is the active participation of local people as when the marriage procession of Lord Rama is taken out, the audiences themselves become the ‘baratis’ and during the time of Rama’s ‘vanvas’ (exile), the scene generally turns gloomy there.