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Ramkatha in Oriya folklore

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Ramkatha in Oral Narratives and folk performance of Orissa

Mahendra Kumar Mishra, Orissa

The number of Ramayanas and the range of their influence in South and South
east Asia over the past twenty-five hundred years or more are astonishing.
Sanskrit alone contains some twenty five or more tellings belonging to various
narrative genres.(epics,Kavya or ornate poetic compositions, puranas or old
mythological stories ands forth.) If we add play, dance drama, and other
performances, in both the classical and folk traditions, the number of
Ramayanas grows even larger. (AKRamanujan in Three Hundred Ramayanas- in
the Collected Essays of AK Ramanujan)i

Introduction:

Indian poetics is expressed in two major art forms. One is sravya

kavya (text) and another is drisyakavya (performance). The Ramayana
and the Mahabharata are two purana and Itihasa which are found in
both the forms. When it is recited it is text and when the text is
performed either in ritual context or in social context it is performance
.While the text is accessible to the learned elites and the literates of
the country, its performance is helpful to the non-literate people to
visualize the text-in-performance and equally they share the text with
religious purpose.

When oral narrative is called text its display in any art form in a given
ritual or social context is performance. Therefore even the Ramayana
text is recited by the sacred singers and listened by a host of audience
is considered as performance. But the weaknesses of the text are that
unless it is performed, the real purpose and meaning of the text is
incomplete. The purpose of the listening, reading and performing the
glory of Gods and Goddesses have four aims. They are dharma, artha,
kama and moksha.People perpetuates their development through
progeny(kama)economy( artha) and religious ethics and
morals(dharma) and finally urge for emancipation/salvation after
death to have a state of eternity.
According to Karin Barberii, The text is the permanent artifact , hand
written or printed , while the performance is the unique , never to be
repeated realization or concretization of the text , a realization that
brings the text to life. Text fixes, performance animates. (2005:
264). In Indian context when we find many texts in the Ramayana, it
is not true to say that text is fixed. Even the text is also moulded by
many writers of the country in much form. There fore there are many
Ramayanas in texts and much performance in the performance.

The objective of this paper is to explore the Ramkatha in Orissa, both

in oral and written form and the performance of the text cutting across
rural, urban and tribal society. The sacred centers in Orissa
representing the worship of Lord Rama as incarnation of God are the
center of text and performance of the Ramayana.

Socio religious context of the Ramakatha:

In India two epics are considered to be the sacred texts which is

found in living socio- religious practice over a period of more than
three thousand years. These are the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata. While Mahabharata is considered as a reality on
conflict between the brothers for power, the Ramayana is the ideal
model of sublimating the power into brotherly love and dedication.
The characters and events of the Ramayana are ideal in terms of
maintaining their ideology. Therefore Rama is ideal for his father, his
brother, his wife and also to his enemies. The ideal in the character in
the Ramayana is the guiding principles of an Indian family where every
body wish to follow the characters of the Ramayana. A husband like
Rama, an obedient brother like ,Bharata and Lakshman, an ideal wife
like Sita who is ready to share the pains wither husband, and an
ideal villain like Ravana who is ready to help Rama for bridging of
Setubandh are some of the instances which attracts the people of
India. Even Ravana , as a devil king has never touched Sita while she
was in Ashoka batika in Srilanka. This indicates the ideal of the
Ramayana. The socio religious significance of the Ramayana is that
it is an ideal model which regulates the individual as well as the
society to follow the ideals of Indian culture. Therefore, reading or
enjoying the text and performances of the Ramayana in the society
respectively plays a role of social function. ON the other hand, the
characters of Mahabharata like the Pandavas are not compatible to the
status of God incarnate, so they are not universally worshipped. The
Mahabharata is the story of every day conflict between the brothers
for sharing of land. A proverb runs that, either a lifer is lost for a
woman (Ramayana) or a life lost for land (Mahabharata).

Temple as the foundation of Ramakatha:

Temple forms the center of all religious performance of Ramaleela and

Krishna leela.
It is found that while Rama is popular in south Orissa, Krishna is
popular in eastern Orissa and both the popular gods have
synchronized in the cult of Lord Jagannath.In Oriya Bhagavata it is
written that Lord Jagannath is the embodiment of 16 kalas
(incarnation) and Krishna is one of that avatar. Thus Vishnu or
Jagannath takes form of Rama and Krishna in different time to perform
their leela on the earth to appease their subjects.

Both text and performance on Ramaleela and Krishnaleela are

institutionalized by the sacred centers or temple management in
Indian tradition irrespective of the city or village. The texts in
Ramkatha are intergenerational and are perpetuated in the palm leaf
manuscript. After use of paper it is found in printed form. But the
Ramaleela nata (text for performance) is mostly available in rural
areas of Orissa which may be more than hundreds of Ramayana
episodes found in performance.

Ramakatha in written texts:

Ramakatha is found in written Oriya text over a period of last six

hundred years of literary history of Orissa. This was disseminated
through palm leaf manuscript. Village headmen were used to purchase
the Ramayana from the Brahmins/Vaishnavs paying alms to them as
the token of respecting knowledge. The manuscript was
institutionalized through a ritual in the village where every body in
the village was participating. The palm leaf manuscript was
worshipped either in the village temple or in the house of the village
headman. Needless to say, irrespective of lettered and non-lettered,
every body were taking part in the listening and performing. Even the
most illiterate of the village, by listening the text from the singer, use
to recite Ramayana. Even to day it is seen that, nonliterate also play
the role in folk drama Ramaleela.

Text is created and it is transmitted verbally by the traditional Guru of

Ramaleela, the drama director in the village. Text is also transmitted
through palm leaf manuscript. Even after the printed epics of the
Ramayana were available it was not easy to get a copy of it in the
rural areas of Orissa. The typical weekly village market of rural and
tribal Orissa have a small mobile bookshop which makes available to
the people with the sacred books along with epics and songs of Orissa
as the basic need of spiritual life. These printed books were not
available to every one. Even to day, when the Ramayana is available
in electronic form in rural areas of Orissa through VCD, people lack
getting different version of Ramayana in the market.

Ramayana has been reinterpreted by many a poets and writers.

Sarala Das the great poet composing a complete Mahabharata in
Oriya language during 15th century, was also the poet of writing the
Ramayana. Dandi Mahabharata is the first written text composed by
poet Sarala Das. He was the pioneer of Oriya literature not only for
his writings of 18 parvas of Mahabharata , but it was also the biggest
text in the palm leaf manuscript. Out of eighteen parva(chapters),
description of the Ramayana is found place in the Vana Parva( the
Pandavas exile in the forest).There poet Sarala Das has imagined
many episodes connected to Ramkatha which are not found place in
Sanskrit Ramayana. These local imagination of the Ramkatha, since
found in written form, after listening this people believe to be true and
the episodes are still alive in the social memory of the people.
Some of them are,
King Dasaratha had 750 queens
Son of Surpanakha( Ravanas sisters son)killed by Lakshman
Hanuman wear divine clothes during his birth
Valmikisbirth from Brahma, the Creator god
After the killing of demon king Ravana, Rama ,with all his
monkey soldiers returned to Ayudhya by foot, through a route
Kiskindhya.

Similarly Balaram Das in his Jagmohan Ramayana has created some

imaginary episodes .These are
I. Episode of maya (illusion)Sita,
ii. Episode of Vedabati,
Iii.Ravana in Sitas swayamvara (marriage ceremony where Sita
choose her husband)
Iv.Curse of Lakshman to Sita etc.
People believe these episodes to be the part of greater Ramayana and
this is the dissemination of the Ramkatha. The cheap books on Sita
Vilapa ( Sitas Lamenting), Ramanka soka( crying of Rama)Sita Chori(
abduction of Sita) Lanka Dahana( burning of Lanka),Rama janma(
birth of Rama) Sravana Kumar and many more episodes are found in
written form which consists of 4 pages to eight pages and available
to the people.

After the popularity of Vichitra Ramayana, poets like Raghunath Das,

Ananga Narendra, and Vaisya Sadashiva, Bipra janardana, Vikram Dev
Narendra and many other poets have written Ramayana in leela form
as part of their socio-religious institutions.iii
This was open to all irrespective of castes, so poets from Brahmin(
Bipra) Kshatriya( Narendra)Businessman( Vaisya) were writing the
Ramayana and was accepted every where.

After that poet Arjun Das wrote Rama Bibha (Marriage of Rama).
Dhananjaya Bhanja , the king of Ghumusar wrote Raghunath
Vilasa,After that poet Upendra Bhanja, wrote Vaidehisha Vilasa( 52
chhanda-chapters).

Sri Viswanath Khuntia wrote Ramaleela in 18th century. His Ramayana

is popularly known as Vichitra Ramayana. Prior to that though
performance was in practice, it was confined to urban cities and the
villages with temples. Rest of the villages had no scope of enjoying
Ramakatha performance. After the popularity of Vichitira Ramayana
the villages with out temple also organized the Ramaleela through a
ritual..

Ramayana has equal popularity irrespective of rural, tribal and urban.

Even in rural Orissa Ramkatha is available in varied form. In western
Orissa the folk poets have written Jaiphula Ramayana and (Halia
Ramayana (ploughmans Ramayana).These are cheap books available
in village market.

Ramaleela text is considered to be the Kavya Natya ( epic drama)

and a number of poets have written it .The purpose is to propagate
the Ramayana for social values and moral teaching through ritual
performance. This was the only source of the non literate people to
see the living Gods and goddesses acting like human and even in the
electronic age, people like to see Ramayana in living performance.

Ramakatha in Oral text:

Ramakatha is embedded in the mental text of many a people of the

country, cutting across ages. Many non-literate women in rural areas
use to see the drama performance and retain the story of the
Ramayana. Interestingly enough, the same stories are reinterpreted in
their mental repertoire and recreated.The rural non literate men and
women who create an opportunity to listen the Ramayana by
instituting the recitation of Ramayana ( parayana) organized by the
villagers/ temple administrators.

The tribal region of Orissa associates the Ramakatha from own ethnic
context.
Ramkatha, one way or the other are associated with many waterfall,
mountains, rivers, and forests and bear the foot prints of characters of
the Ramayana. Each space has its own story of the Ramayana. The
event is variables, and since this a universal story in the country, the
characters are constant. Tribes like the Gonds, the Kishan, Bondas, the
Jatapu and the Gadaba tribe of Orissa have their own myths and
legends associated with the events and characters of the Ramayana
and they believe it to be true.

In folksongs of western Orissa Rama is imagined to be a farmer and

Lakshman and Sita assist him in cultivation.

The ploughman of western Orissa sings the song as follows:

Bailare ,
Rama Laikhana je dui goti Bhai,
Rama lhande langala, Lakhana ;hande mai,
Palhapaprasibe lakhmana
Sitaya jibe rui ho.

Translacin:

Bailare (refrain) Oh it is told,

Rama and Lakshman are two brothers
Rama ties the plough and Lakshman levels the land
Lakshman distribute the sapling and Sita will plant it.

The Binjhal tribe of western Orissa has the Ramkatha in their Karma
song. They sing,

Sita Sita bolije banaste pade huri,

Bada dusta se Ravana Saitake kala chori
Kandi kandi Rama je laikhana,
Bhumire pade gadi ho.
Churailu Ravana re luchaibu kahhin
Jogamaya bolinaje Sitaya tora giana nahinje

Translation:
Shouting of Rama for Sita echos the jungle
Devil Ravana stolen Sita
Rama and Lakshman fell on the ground
With rolling tears from their eyes.

Oh devil Ravana,
As though you have stolen Sita
Where will you hide her?
She is Yoga Maya (has illusion power with yoga)
You are ignorant of that!

Tribes of Orissa have a rich oral tradition. They narrate Ramakatha

associated their myths and legends with the Ramayana. The Bonda
tribe of Orissa is most endangered language group consists of about
six thousand people. The women folk of Bonda community remain half
clad and shave their head and dont keep hair. They also dont use any
cloth in upper part of their body and clad it with a bunch of beads.
Being asked they answer that Goddess Sita had cursed them, so they
dont use cloth and shave head. The myth runs among the Bonda
related to Ramkatha is:

In Bondaiv highland, there is a stream called Kingubodak. The stream

was running undera big mango grove. While Rama in exile they
reached in Bondaland. Sita saw the stream and was fascinated to take
a bathe. She took her bathe with out any clothes in her body. A group
of Bonda women were walking on that way. Sita got up from the
stream water. Mean while a bird flied on the sky and on its chirping,
the Bonda women laughed at this. Sita saw them in front of her.
She was angry. She said, Being women you saw the naked body of a
woman and laughed at me? The whole world will laugh at you. You will
be naked in kali Yuga. You will have no hair on your head. If you
grow hair in your head, then a single grass will not sprout on the
ground and you Bonda people will perish.
Hearing this from Sita, the selani( bonda girls) started crying. They
had no intention to laugh at Goddess Sita. Sita could not tolerate their
crying. Out of compassion she torn a string from her cloth and offered
it to them. She said, In Kali yuga, you will prepare ringa (a two feet
cloth that is used by the bonda girl as their cloth) and wear around
your waist.
 After that Bonda women use ringa - on their waist.(Ray Pratibha: in
Adibhumi)

The myths of the Gonds signifies the importance of Ravanavamsi

and Suryavamsi Gonds found in the middle India.Some Gond
communities of south India claim their origin from Ravana and thus
they are known as Ravana Vamsi Gondv. Similarly the Malyavantagiri
is associated with the Malkangiri district of Koraput which forms as a
part of Dandakaranya forest .A water source called Patalaganga is
associated with the glory of the Ramayana. The story of Rama in exile
is connected with the water source.vi

Besides, myths and legends, there are oral epics of the tribal and
non-tribal communities which have been influenced by the Ramayana
tradition. The story of the Ramayana has been reinterpreted based
on the themes suitable to them. The epic singers pick up those
episodes which are required for the family or the society to validate
their ideological needs. All the episodes of the Ramayana have strong
social function. Oral epics and written epics are the best examples of
recycling the Ramayana tradition in form of oral performance.
In folk and tribal communities, the Ramayana are re-imagined either
originally retold in their language or moulding the topic through
adding the local episode in the existing themes of the Ramayana. The
Bonda myth narrated in this volume is the wandering of Rama with
Sita and Lakshman is added to the Bonda etiological myth( Why the
Bonda women dont keep hair on their head?).Similarly the Gond
myth of origin also portrays the Rama in exile and their connection
with him.
Another method of narration is found in the folk society where the
narration is influenced by the events and characters of the
Ramayana.Kotrabaina Ramela , a Gaur epic which has captured the
thematic structure of the Ramayana (from abduction of Sita to fire
ordeal of Sita) and reimagined the story from their ethnic point of
view.(Mishra ;2007:184)vii
The Banjara oral epic Raja Isalu has the events and characters
that are inversed, or imitated. Similarly the thematic structure of the
Ramayana is adopted by the Gaur epic singers and their ethnic epics
is created. Role inversion is found in both the Banjara and the Gaur
epic. (Mishra: 2007:165 )viii

Proverbs and riddles related to the events and characters of the

Ramayana are another genres which is most popular among the
people. Even the game called kasadi- a fourteen pit wooden board
played by two three girls with tamarind seeds are most popular
games in Orissa . It is believed that this game is known as Sita-
khel.ix, and it is believed that when Sita was imprisoned in the Ashok
vatika she was used to play this game. The same wooden board was
also available in the royal families of Orissa where the princes were
used to play the game with their companions and were learning
counting and measuring. Another game was Ram Ravan in which
two groups of boys fight each other and try to win. One group
becomes Rama group and another Ravana.

The birds and animals, the fruits and flowers are associated with the
story of the Ramayana.

The socio religious significance of the Ramakatha in Orissa society has

a deep involvement in the collective life of the people. Scholastic point
of view it may be inferred that how an epic is lively in the present day
life influencing the socio-religious life and is found institutionalized in
the whole country as the form of living tradition.

Performance:

Raghunath temple is found in the Odagaon village of Nayagarh.Rama

is other wise known as Raghunath. Every where in the country Rama
and Lakshman are two handsome god with out beard in their face. But
in Raghunath temple both Rama and Lakshman have beard in their
faces. The legend runs that the place where the temple is built was
the hermitage of sage Atri.Rama while in his forest exile had rested in
the ashram of Atri and after spending some days with him he started
to Dandakaranya regionx.( Mishra:1981:141-149)

Similar images of Rama and Lakshman with beard in their face is

found in another temple named Biranchi Narayan temple in Buguda
village of Ganjam district.
The Ramaleela of ancient princely states of Orissa has rich heritage in
the context of maintaining the Ramaleela institutions through support
from the society, even after the royal patronage is stopped. People
manage the temple and the tradition of Ramaleela is perpetuated
through text and performance in some fixed time of the year.

Next to the Raghunath temple of Nayagarh which is famous in

coastal Orissa, Sri Raghunath temple of Boudh is another instance of
tradition bearer of Ramakatha .
Boudh was a princely state of the pre-independence India. It has a
glorious history of the Bhanja Kings .The creation myth of the Bhanja
kings reveal that they are the off shoot of Sage Vasistha who was
the Kula Guru of the Suryavamsi king of Ayodhya. Accordingly the
Bhanja kings of Boudh worship Raghunath as their state deity.

The Boudh King Jogindra Dev and his descendent Sri Narayan Prasad
Dev were famous for pro-people activities. During 1913,
queen Keshaba Priya of Boudh Bhanja dynasty built the Sri Raghunath
Temple in the capital city of the Boudh. Since then the Ramaleela
is performed in front of the Raghunath Temple. Nearer to the
Temple there is Ramaswara Temple. Both the temples are
important to propagate Hindu culture and the institutions have its
own assets of educating the people through staging drama and
performing rituals in different times of the year as per the tradition.

Prior to 1979 the Ramaleela was patronized by the descendents of

the royal family. But gradually they were not financially well off .So
the Ramaleela Committee constituted a Club to maintain temple as
well as to keep up the performance of Ramaleela every year. At that
time Ramaleela was performed in the styles of Jhataling,( poetry)
then it was written by Raghunath Badamali in Bachanika( dialogue)
form. Sri Hrudanand Meher wrote Ramakatha during 1970s and his
rendering is now performed in the Ramaleela as model text.

Every year the Ramaleela is performed for 18 days starting from

Ramnavamee(the birth day of Rama,it falls in the month of April).
Annually, the Committee collect about 4 lakhs rupees to organize
the Ramaleela.There is a huge ground which is known as Ramaleela
padia( ground) an open stage Ramkatha is performed for 18 days.

The Ramaleela Committee has built a Drama hall (Rehearsal Room

as well as practice room and store room) for learning and teaching of
Ramaleela. The actors are selected from the interested groups and the
writer and drama director use to select the actors and they are taught
on playing the different role. The practice room is in the vicinity of the
Raghunath Temples. Every day the trisandhya is observed by the
performers and priest.

The Ramaleela Committee has its own assets of dress , costumes,

musical instruments, light, sound, costumes, ornaments ,crown and
all the necessary materials that is required for the performance of
Ramaleela.
They have masks and dress of jatayu, Jambuban, Hanuman and
Ravana etc. which is based on the text of the Ramayana.

As though Ramaleela is organised in many other places of Orissa,

next to Nayagarh , Boud is the grand Ramaleela in the state which
has not been drawn attention by any scholars. The Ramaleela
Committee has also not taken any efforts to document the
performance since they dont feel the necessity of document them as a
heritage culture. The reason being, they observe the ritual
performance for the wellbeing of their region.

Ramaleelaxi in Baudh has some specific features which are worth

mentioning.

1. The space of Boudh city is imagined as Ayodhya and the river

Mahanadi as Ganga . Marya kud the island with two villages in the
bank of the river Mahanadi is imagined as Mithila Nagari.

2.The sacred text of the Ramayama is worshipped in front of

Goddess Durga during Dasahara and there after the performance
group use to open the sacred text for rehearsal and initiate practice
of learning.

3. Preparation and practice for Ramaleela continues from

Dasahara (October) to Ramnavamee festival.(April).

4. From Sri Ramanavami all the members take Sanyasa vrata for 18
days. During these days they observe many austerities. They dont
take meat, fish, and tobacco, use oil, eat once in a day, sleep on
the floor, etc).

5. The Ramaleela takes place for 16 days, followed by two days of

preparation and valediction through a procession where ten Ravanas
from ten villages take part in the city procession.

6. The seven Khanda of Ramayana is divided in to 16 episodes. These

are

Day -1. Ramajanma,

Day -2. Balya leela and Sibadhanu bhanga

Day -3. Rama Banavasa

Day-4.Killing of Khara Dusana, Trisira

Day -5. Sita Chori

Day -6. Bali Badha

Day -7. Lanka Podi.

Day-8.Setubandh

Day-9.Nagaphasa bandhana

Day -10.Kumbhakarna Badha

Day -11.Taranisen Badha

Day -12.Indrajeet badha

Day -13.laxmana Shakti bheda

Day -14.Mahiravana Badha

Day -15.Narantaka badha

Day -16. Ravana badha

The uniqueness of the Ramaleela performance in Boudh is that the

whole space of the contemporary time is stretches away to the time
of the Ramayana. Baudh as prototype of Ayodhya, Marya Kuda as
Mithila. Mahanadi as river Ganga , people of Baudh as the subject
of Ayodhya, the royal family of Baudh as the Suryavamsi kings etc
creates the impression of freezing the time by imagining the past
in the space of present.

The most important part of the festival is that the whole city
irrespective of Hindu , Muslim and Christians use to celebrate and for
last three days of the festival , there is no killing of animals in the
city to maintain purity of the space.

Another important aspect is that in the peripheries of Baudh there

are some villages who perform Ramaleela. Ten Ravanas from the
ten sides of the city use to come to Baudh in the valediction day
and about tem Ravanas from ten villages take part in the
procession. More interesting is the burning of Ravana.
No mask is used in the whole leela except Jambuban. Rest of the
actors use to paint the costumes to fit in to their
characters.Indigenous colours are used for costumes and paintings.

Another important agricultural festival nominated to Rama is

Ramanavami.It is believed that Rama killed the demon Ravana in the
day of Rama Navami.So people make a straw image of Ravana and
after the festival is over they set fire on the image.Ramanavami is also
associated with the complex ritual process of Srimandira, Sri
Jagannath Temple of Puri.

Sahijata in Puri:xii
Sahi means a cluster of a city. In Puri there are more than 30 sahi.
But there are main seven sahi perform seven Kandas(chapters ) of
the Ramayana in performance. Most of the episodes of the Ramayana
are performed by the actors. This tradition is exclusive in Puri city
which is one of the four dhams of India .Puri as a sacred center has
synchronized many sects and religious groups. The Ramayana tradition
is also synchronized in the temple of Lord jaganath.
Jata is a derived from the word yatra (a religious procession). Sri
Rama is worshipped in Srimandira as the incarnation of God
Jagannath.This festival begins from the ninth day of bright moon of
Chaitra( April), the birth day of Sri Rama and ends till the
coronation of Rama on throne of Ayodhya. Only seven sahi around
the temple are use to take part in it. Only the strong young men
take part in the sahijata in which music dance, acrobatics, and physical
exercise are shown during the religious procession.

The Sahijata is a unique performance of the Ramayana. Seven

important episodes are performed by seven clusters.
These are
Day 1: Birth of Sri Rama: South gate of Sri Jagannath Temple (ninth
day)
Day-2. Risyasringa yatra and Saving of Jajna from the devils (Khara-
Dusana) from Harachandi Sahi
Day -3. Parasurama Harachandi Sahi
Day- 4.Ramas exile to the forest by Markendeswara Sahi.
Day -4. off day
Day-5.Illusion of golden deer by Kundheibenta Sahi
Day-6.Burning of Lanka by Hanuman by Dolamandapa Sahi (in full
moon day)

Besides the staging of Ramaleela another ritual-oral performance is

also takes place which is known as Parayana ( Listening Ramayana
for at least 7-15 days long through a ritual institution where villagers
used to contribute and listen the episodes of the Ramayana in socio-
religious congregation. This is run by the villagers fund. The villages
having temple management take care of the Ramayana recitation-
weeks. Even it is witnessed that when a maithili Ramayana
performance group arrive in Orissa they are invited by the villagers
and they retain them for one week to three weeks.

Some villages conduct this in every year, and some according to their
capacity.
The written text on the Ramayana is found abundantly in ancient Oriya
literature. Interestingly its social function was more that of religious
and moral which was influencing the society either by listening the epic
or by observing the epic in stage performance.

Temple forms the part of textual performance of the Ramayana in

local setting where the priests and senior people of the village used to
manage the prpogramme, and the Purana panda (reciter of the
Ramayana in the Parayana) or the Drama Director of Ramaleela use to
perform their Ramkatha or Ramaleela in the village.

When the ancient epic character and their life events are
replicated through staging drama, the space and time becomes
important in terms of connecting the past with the present. The
memory of past validates the present space and time. The Boudh city
during Dasahara and Rama Navamee, becomes the replica of Ayudhya
and the near by village becomes Mitihla. Local river becomes river
Ganga and thus the whole landscape turns in to an illusion of the
performance of Ramayana. The actors play different roles of the
Ramayana with their mythic dress and costumes. This creates a scene
where people from present time are associated with the mythic
characters, thereby refresh their memory of the oral narratives that
they had listened or learnt from their family or from the Ramayana
singers.
 The Ramayana has many episodes that is written and performed
for the people. The folk terminology of these episodes is divided into
four words. These are ( janama( birth)harana (abduction) Sarana(
shelter) marana ( death). It contains the episodes like the Sravana
Kumar, Ramajanma, Siva dhanu Bhanga and Sita Bibaha, Rama
Banavas, Sita Chori, Meghanadh Badha, Bibhisana Sarana, Rabana
badha, Sita banavasa, etc. These episodes are drawn from the main
Ramayana and moulded according to the local imagination without
distorting the theme of the Ramayana.

Besides, Ravana Chhaya (shadow puppet show) of Orissa has its

unique style of performance which has been studied by Mr. Jeeban
Pani.

Thus Ramakatha appear in new texts and in new performance

context ,maintaining its classicity and also its locality, there by
identifying the part of greater Indian cultural tradition.

References:
i
Ramanujan, AK, Three Hundred Ramayanas in The Collected Essays of AK Ramanunjan, Oxford University Press, New Delhi,
1999, pp.133
ii
Barber Karin, Text and Performance in Africa, Oral Tradition ,20/2( 2005) 264-277, Ed Foley John Miles, University of Missouri
iii
Balabantray, Suresh,Ramaleela Guru:Laxmidhar Dash of Dasapalla Repertory: A Conversation in ANGARAG- a six monthly
journal published by MrDinanathPathy,Bhubaneswae 2006
iv
Ray Pratibha, Adi Bhumi ( The Primal Land- A novel on the Bonda tribe of Orissa )) by Akhyayika , Cuttack, 1989,pp. 34
v
Naik, TB The Tribes of Central India, in Tribal People of India, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ,Govt. of India New
Delhi ( Publication Division)1973, pp.138-141
vi
Mishra, MK ,Influence of the Ramayana Tradition in the folklore of Central India 1993, Ramakatha in Tribal and Folk Version,
Anthropological Survey of India, Calcutta.16
vii
Mishra,MK Oral Epics of Kalahandi, 2007, National Folklore Support Center, Chennai ,pp.184
viii
Ibid pp.165
x.Mishra Prasanna Kumar, Folk Myth in Eastern India( Oriya)1983, Orissa, Cuttack, 135
ix
Personal Interview with Dr.Basudeb Patra, Reader in Oriya Literature, Panchyat College Boud in September 2008.

x
Mishra Prasanna Kumar, Folk Myth in Eastern India( Oriya)1983, Orissa, Cuttack
xi
Personal Interview with Dr.Basudeb Patra, Reader in Oriya Literature, Panchyat College Boud in September 2008.
xii
Mishra , Bansidhar,Sahiyata in Srikshetra (Puri) , in Folk Drama Tradition in Orissa(Oriya )Ed. Rath,Dr.Kartika Chandra
Rath,Sahitya Prathisthan, Cuttack, 2001 pp.314

Note :
I conducted a field visit in the month of September 13-14 , 2008 to Baudh Ramaleela Committee and
had interaction with the committee .I had a three hours of discussion relating to the documentation of
Ramaleela. The team has a film director along with the writer, drama director, music director and stage
managers. They have a strong net work of Ramaleela in ten- fifteen villages. They have maintained the
organization as the propagator of Indian culture without any interruption since last 1913 and now moving
towards concretizing the organisation.

Bio data of Dr Mahendra Kumar Mishra

Dr Mahendra Kumar Mishra is a resident from Kalahandi. Since last 25 years he has
worked on folklore and tribal culture of Orissa.His major publication are Visioning
Folklore (2002 Folklore of western Orissa ) Saura Folklore ( 2005, Sahitya Academy)and
Oral Epics of Kalahandi2008 ( national Folklore support Center, Chennai) .Dr Mishra
has been awarded by Orissa Sahitya Academy for his work Folklore of Kalahandi. Since
last two decades, He has translated Kalevala, the national Finnish Epic in to Oriya, also,
AKRamanujans Folktales from India.
At present Dr Mishra is working on Multilingual Education Programme in Orissa
adopting ten tribal languages and his current areas of interest is application of folklore in
school curriculum to create culturally responsive schools.
E mail:mkmfolk@gmail.com