States » EastPosted at: Oct 18 2026 8:51PM


Bihar’s vanishing Ramleela tradition: Village stages silent as Dussehra celebrations change

Aurangabad (Bihar), Oct 18 (UNI) Once upon a time, as Dussehra approached, villages across Bihar would begin preparing for one of their most cherished cultural traditions Ramleela.
Months before the festival, local committees would become active, performers would begin rehearsals and villages (chowraha) squares would gradually turn into open-air theatres where episodes from the Ramayana came alive before enthusiastic audiences.
For nearly ten days, these performances brought villagers together in a celebration that blended religious devotion with theatre, music, community participation and shared cultural memory. Audiences travelled from neighbouring villages, distant parts of the country and even Nepal to witness the performances.
Today, that familiar spectacle is fading from Bihar’s rural landscape. The village stages that once echoed with the stories of Lord Rama are increasingly falling silent, raising concerns among artistes, educationists and cultural enthusiasts about the survival of a tradition that has long been woven into the social and cultural fabric of rural Dussehra celebrations.
The decline of Ramleela is being attributed to a combination of changing entertainment preferences, the growing influence of television, mobile phones and social media, inadequate encouragement for traditional performers, and the gradual transformation of rural social life. In many places, traditional theatrical performances have given way to commercial entertainment programmes, including Bhojpuri shows featuring suggestive songs and double-entendre humour.
The change is not merely about the disappearance of a stage performance. For those who grew up watching and participating in Ramleela, it also represents the weakening of a community tradition through which religious narratives, moral values and cultural knowledge were passed from one generation to the next.
A tradition that brought villages together
In the heyday of rural Ramleela, preparations began well before the festival. Local committees organised performances, participants rehearsed their roles for weeks, and villagers contributed their time and resources to make the events possible.
Shivnarayan Singh, a theatre artiste and educationist who has himself participated in Ramleela, recalls that performers would rehearse for nearly two months before taking the stage during Dussehra. Those preparations, he said, served a purpose beyond theatrical excellence. They strengthened bonds of affection and friendship among participants, while the episodes performed on stage encouraged audiences to reflect on moral conduct and social responsibilities.
Ramleela was thus both a performance and a collective village endeavour. Its appeal lay not only in the religious stories being enacted but also in the sense of belonging created by the preparations, rehearsals and shared experience of watching the play.
Singh believes that the tradition also helped reinforce a culture of peaceful coexistence and collective celebration. He recalls a time when villagers would come together during Dussehra, sharing their happiness and participating in festivities that brought different sections of the community into a common space.
Bihar’s village Ramleela tradition was once connected to a wider network of performers and theatrical companies. Village committees regularly invited renowned Ramleela troupes from Varanasi, Mathura, Vrindavan, Ayodhya, Kolkata and Delhi to stage performances during the festival.
These visiting troupes brought professional experience, distinctive styles of presentation and a sense of occasion to rural celebrations. Their arrival was often an important part of the festive calendar.
That practice has now almost disappeared, according to people familiar with the tradition. With fewer villages organising Ramleela and fewer audiences attending the performances, opportunities for established troupes and local artistes have also diminished.
The consequences extend beyond the festival season. Artistes who once found regular opportunities to perform during Dussehra and other religious festivals are increasingly turning to alternative occupations to sustain themselves.
As a result, the pool of performers and the institutional support required to keep the art alive are shrinking together. With fewer performances, younger people have fewer opportunities to learn the craft, creating the risk that the tradition may lose both its audience and its next generation of practitioners.
Educationist Ajay Kumar Pandey points to another dimension of the problem: the changing expectations of rural audiences and the pressures faced by traditional performers.
According to Pandey, Ramleela artistes were once respected for their contribution to village life. However, as rural entertainment increasingly reflects urban and commercial trends, some performers are being pressured to incorporate crude or inappropriate elements to attract audiences.
Such demands, he argues, undermine the dignity of artistes and weaken the cultural purpose of Ramleela itself.
Veteran performers also speak of a decline in public appreciation for traditional theatre. They recall accounts of British spectators attending Ramleela performances during the colonial period and rewarding artistes in recognition of their skills. Today, they lament, traditional performers often struggle to secure the same recognition and financial support, while more sensational forms of entertainment can attract greater attention and rewards.
The contrast highlights a broader challenge facing traditional performing arts: artistic merit and cultural significance do not always translate into adequate audience support or sustainable livelihoods.
Ajit Kumar Singh, a social worker and senior artiste familiar with Ramleela, says village Dussehra celebrations are increasingly featuring Bhojpuri entertainment programmes based on suggestive songs, double-entendre lyrics and dances. He believes such programmes cannot replace the artistic, educational and cultural value of a traditional Ramleela performance.
For generations, the enactment of episodes from the Ramayana provided rural audiences with an accessible way to engage with religious narratives and their associated ethical themes. The performances combined storytelling with dramatic expression, making cultural knowledge available to audiences regardless of their formal education.
The loss of these performances, therefore, also means fewer opportunities for younger villagers to encounter the tradition through direct participation and community experience.
In some villages, the decline has reached the point where members of the younger generation are unfamiliar with Ramleela as a theatrical form, according to those concerned about its survival.
Modernisation without cultural continuity
Television, smartphones and social media have transformed how people consume entertainment. They offer instant access to a vast range of content, reducing dependence on locally organised performances that require time, collective effort and physical attendance.
Yet technology alone does not explain the decline. The accounts of artistes and educationists also point to inadequate encouragement, dwindling performance opportunities, changing audience preferences and the absence of sustained institutional support. The challenge, therefore, is not simply to resist modernisation but to find ways to preserve traditional art forms within a changing social environment.
For Ramleela, this would mean restoring opportunities for village-level performances, recognising the contribution of local artistes, encouraging younger participants and making traditional theatre relevant to contemporary audiences without compromising its artistic character.
The concerns raised by artistes also place responsibility on cultural organisations, local communities and government institutions to consider how traditional performance forms can be sustained beyond occasional ceremonial recognition.
The disappearance of Ramleela from Bihar’s villages would represent more than the loss of a festive attraction. It would mark the erosion of a community-based art form that once brought people together, created opportunities for collective participation and transmitted cultural narratives across generations.
The declining number of village committees, shrinking opportunities for performers and growing unfamiliarity among young people suggest that preserving the tradition will require more than nostalgia for its past popularity.
Artistes and cultural enthusiasts believe that timely efforts by socially conscious citizens, local organisers and the government’s Art and Culture Department could help revive interest in Ramleela and provide meaningful support to those who continue to practise it.
For now, however, a tradition that once gave rural Dussehra its distinctive theatrical character is struggling to retain its place amid changing tastes and social transformations.
UNI XC RS SS
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