Dussehra
Jatayu, a bird devotee of Lord Rama is mauled by RavanaA Raja Ravi Varma Original
Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery Collection, Mysore
Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery Collection, Mysore
Today the festival of Dussehra is being celebrated all over India. Dussehra and Diwali are based on the epic Ramayan and the mythological characters of the epic. It talks about the King of Ayodhya who sends his son Prince Rama into a 14 years exile under pressure from his other wife so that her son could ascend the throne. Rama's younger brother Laxman and Rama's wife Sita join him in exile. The son of the other wife Bharata refuses to take his brothers place and instead puts his exiled brother footwear on the throne as a sign of respect.
Rama goes through many hardships during the exile. Ravana the King of Lanka (present Sri Lanka) conspires to kidnap Rama's wife Sita. He tricks Rama and Laxman to leave Sita alone at their home in the forest and then kidnaps her and takes her to Lanka. While looking for Sita Rama meets Hanuman (half monkey and half man) his devout follower.
Later Hanuman goes to Lanka and sets in on fire and also tells Sita that Rama is coming to her rescue. In order to cross from India to Lanka Rama along with his army of half monkey half men makes a bridge across the ocean. (This bridge has been the cause of controversy regarding the Sethusamudram Project).
Finally Rama invades Lanka, defeats and kills Ravana, rescues Sita and returns home to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile. The defeat and killing of Ravan is celebrated as Dussehra and the coming back of Rama to Ayodhya as Diwlai.
Once back in Ayodhya Rama starts to doubt Sita's chastity while being in Lanka and Sita proves her innocence by walking on fire after which she leaves him. There is another part to the epic where she gives birth to two sons in the forest in an Ashram.
Many other countries like Thailand and Indonesia have their own version of Ramayan which are different in some respects to the one mentioned here. The day of Dussehra is celebrated in India to mark the victory of truth over evil and the symbolic representation is the burning of huge effigies of Ravan and his brother by actors playing Rama.
I have never seen the process of burning of the effigies which happens on Dussehra but earlier this year I saw a very interesting performance of the epic in Bali called the Kecak dance. The dance is set to the rhythm of voice modulation by a group of men percussively chanting 'cak' and swaying in a trance like state. The video is from that performance but has been set to some other music as I didn't know how to edit a group of songs keeping the original soundtrack!!!
Rama goes through many hardships during the exile. Ravana the King of Lanka (present Sri Lanka) conspires to kidnap Rama's wife Sita. He tricks Rama and Laxman to leave Sita alone at their home in the forest and then kidnaps her and takes her to Lanka. While looking for Sita Rama meets Hanuman (half monkey and half man) his devout follower.
Later Hanuman goes to Lanka and sets in on fire and also tells Sita that Rama is coming to her rescue. In order to cross from India to Lanka Rama along with his army of half monkey half men makes a bridge across the ocean. (This bridge has been the cause of controversy regarding the Sethusamudram Project).
Finally Rama invades Lanka, defeats and kills Ravana, rescues Sita and returns home to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile. The defeat and killing of Ravan is celebrated as Dussehra and the coming back of Rama to Ayodhya as Diwlai.
Once back in Ayodhya Rama starts to doubt Sita's chastity while being in Lanka and Sita proves her innocence by walking on fire after which she leaves him. There is another part to the epic where she gives birth to two sons in the forest in an Ashram.
Many other countries like Thailand and Indonesia have their own version of Ramayan which are different in some respects to the one mentioned here. The day of Dussehra is celebrated in India to mark the victory of truth over evil and the symbolic representation is the burning of huge effigies of Ravan and his brother by actors playing Rama.
I have never seen the process of burning of the effigies which happens on Dussehra but earlier this year I saw a very interesting performance of the epic in Bali called the Kecak dance. The dance is set to the rhythm of voice modulation by a group of men percussively chanting 'cak' and swaying in a trance like state. The video is from that performance but has been set to some other music as I didn't know how to edit a group of songs keeping the original soundtrack!!!
4 comments:
Happy Dussehra! RRV is all about the details and the life-likeness.I quite like his work.
Thanks!! I don't know much of his work but the little that I have seen is really nice.
I saw the Kecak dance once. I was young and had never seen anything like before. I remember after a long time of the same chant and rhytmn the dancers suddenly jumped up and around and then back to the plain-chant again.
Yes Mike it is a rather interesting dance performance. I saw some other Balinese dances too but this by far the most interesting.
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