120. performance
ing araticeremony. Every day he and his wife and son made the garlands,
at a cost in the 1970s of fifteen rupees and four hours’ work. At the end of
the performance the old man could be seen mounting the stage and hand-
ing the garlands to the vyas(director/priest). He had become part of the
Ramlila. One sadhudressed in a long orange outfit used to lead the kirtan,
dancing in the midst of his chanting brethren. Everyone expected to see
him doing his job: another actor who had created his own role.
A legendary figure in the years that I attended was the “150-year-old
sadhu,” known as Mauni Baba (Silent Baba), who was as familiar a pres-
ence as Ram or the Maharaja. Participants testified that according to their
grandfathers he had always been there, looking just the same. He did not
speak but communicated in a lively way through sign language and action.
He was playful, pious, and mysterious. He gave away money and gifts,
though he seemed to possess nothing except the dry banana leaf that was
his only clothing. People told many stories about him. He scampered
through the crowds, kicking up water in mud puddles, sometimes sitting
next to the Maharaja, sometimes waving the flames in the araticeremony.^4
“I have also become an actor,” I wrote in my notebook one day. “I am
the foreign lady who speaks Hindi, who came to the Ramlila every day last
year, who writes and writes, who has a Ramayanain both Hindi and En-
glish. Children and grown-ups crowd around to watch my green pen fly
during the breaks. They tell stories about me in my presence.”
- The nemi-premis.Most people attend the Lila on and off, but an important
core group comes every day. These are the nemis,or regulars (from niyam,
“rule”). They are also called premis,lovers of the Ramlila. For them the
month is a special time set apart from the rest of the year. Many stop or
curtail their regular work. They leave for Ramnagar by midafternoon and
usually do not return until after ten o’clock. They have their own cos-
tumes, makeup, rituals, and fellowship. They bathe in the river or in a spe-
cial pond and put on clean clothes—sort of a nemiuniform, typically in-
cluding white dhoti,white shirt, and colored sash tied diagonally across the
chest. They carefully apply the red and yellow tilakto their foreheads,
using mirrors they have brought with them. Some carry bamboo staffs
adorned with brass. Some take bhang,a form of cannabis pounded and
consumed in a delicious drink that is prepared with ritual regularity in the
afternoon. The pious explanation is that this helps them to forget their or-
dinary lives and look at God with greater concentration.
