116. performance
twelve hours, culminating at dawn. Of course it is presumptuous to say “theaudi-
ence experience” in this essay’s title. There is no single experience, and the only
thing we can be sure about is that this essay reflects myexperience. But let me state
my intentions in attending, researching, and writing, as I have done here.
First, I wanted to be fully immersed in the physical circumstances of the vast per-
formance. Like other cultural performances, the Ramlila unfolds spatially and tem-
porally in ways that are complex, delightful, moving, amazing, bewildering, exhaust-
ing. You can’t understand what that means by reading this essay. But you can get a
hint, and you can appreciate the importance of putting your body into your research.
Second, while I was trained as a textual scholar and was studying the Ramcharitmanas
of Tulsidas throughout the period of fieldwork, I wanted above all to know how the
text came to life in people ’s minds and bodies. I wanted to see the process by which
the text rose up and became performance—spatial-temporal-physical-emotional-in-
tellectual-personal-social experience. Third, I was especially interested in religious
meanings. These are the meanings highlighted by people who are devoted to the
Ramlila. I tried to spend my time in the center of the action (though it will soon be-
come apparent that the center easily disappears in an event of this magnitude). I tried
to focus on the experiences, actions, and statements of people who identified vividly
with the Ramlila’s story and the devotional meanings attached to it.
If I had focused on “margins,” I would have written differently. One gets a dif-
ferent sense of the audience experience if one spends time in the refreshment shops
adjoining the Lila ground, or with men who picnic during the acting and come back
at the end for arati,or with women who do not follow the peripatetic performance
but find a safe spot and wait for it to come to them, meanwhile chatting and looking
after their children. This essay tries to give a sense of full immersion for a full
month, highlighting what dedicated participants highlight. It explores certain core
concepts in the culture ofbhaktiand in Tulsidas’s Ramayanaas they are brought to
life in the Ramlila.
RAMNAGAR’S DISTINCTIVENESS
Here are some of the reasons that participants give for the special power of the
Ramnagar Ramlila.
- “God dwells here for a month.” Many people believe that Lord Ram, to-
gether with his three divine brothers and his goddess-wife Sita, has made a
promise to reside in person in Ramnagar for a full month every year. In all