Lalit Gupta
Ram Lila is a dramatic folk re-enactment of the life of Lord Rama. Most Ram Lilas in North India are based on the 16th century Avadhi of Ramayana, Ramacharitmanas written by Goswami Tulsidas entirely in verse, thus used as dialogues in most traditional versions, where open-air productions are staged by local Ram Lila committees, clubs and ‘Samitis’, and funded entirely by the local population, the audience.
Jammu region also boasts of centuries old Rama Lila tradition. Ram Lila remains an important event in the religious as well as social calendar of not only in small town and villages but also main cities of Duggar. In Jammu region the most preferred and popular script in Hindustani language is the one which written in Hindustani verse by Narayan Prasad ‘Betab’. Borrowing heavily from Parsi theatre style, the dramatic treatment in local Ram Lilas remains melodramatic to achieve maximum impact amidst an audience that knows the story by heart, but watches the enactment nevertheless for religious fervour and also for its spectacle value.
Though there have been earlier attempts to write Ram Lila in Dogri but barring few trials performances the Dogri versions seems to have not found favour with local Ram Lila groups.
Written by Hira Lal Verma, ‘Dogri Ram Lila’ is the latest attempt venture to write the dramatic version of the ‘lila’ of Lord Ram in Dogri language.
Hira Lal Verma, the veteran theatre personality of Jammu, who since past few decades has been the moving force behind Saraswati Dramatic Club, Panjthirthi Jammu, had always wanted to perform Ram Lila in Dogri. Inclusion of Dogri in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution inspired him to write two scenes of Ram Lila in Dogri in 2004. Inspired by the response of public after these scenes were enacted on stage of Saraswati Dramatic Club, he started writing more scenes every year and completed the entire script in 2010.
Verma’s Dogri Ram Lila is based upon Shri Ramacharitmanas, Hindi translation of Valmiki Ramayana and articles published in ‘Kalyan’. The sequences of the scenes begins with Narad Moh and follows the main events of Ramayana story line with Vishnu Lok, Sarban, Dashrath da Mehal, Kailash Parbat, Vedvati Ravan, Vishwamitar da Yag, Darbar Dashrath, Taraka Vadh, Phulwari, Darbar Janak, Kop Bhavan, Dashrath Mout, Bharat Kekeyi, Bharat Milap, Jangal Surpanakha, Ravan Mareech, Jangal Panchvati, Jangal da Ratsa, Shabri, Ram di Sugreev kanne Malati, Bali Sugreev Yudha, Ashoka Vatika, Hanuman te Ravan Dwar, Ravan Angad Darbar and Ram Ravan Yudha.
Being the director of Ram Lila for so many years, Verma’s Dogri version sans battle scenes as he believes that enacting them is very difficult. He has also not totally abandoned the Parsi style of narration keeping in consideration the fact that the local audience is so used to watch Ram Lila in this particular dramatic style.
The use of simple form of Dogri in the script has been used by him in special consideration to the fact that children who watch Ram Lila with great enthusiasm should understand it easily and thus come close to their mother tongue.
The octogenarian author in the preface of the book has acknowledged the help he has received from J C Bharti, another veteran drama artiste of Jammu, in conceptualizing and writing the various scenes of Dogri Ram Lila. Verma also gives credit to his Anoop Verma and daughter- in-law Rajni in getting the published the book which is a befitting token by a stalwart actor\director to popularize the saga of Lord Rama amongst the masses in their mother tongue.
The steady addition in modern Dogri literature and language is owes mainly to dedicated band of poets and writers who committed to the enrichment of mother tongue through their creative works and expressions are also experimenting with well known literary forms great merit and antiquity that have been favorite with generations of poets in the Indian subcontinent.
Alongside successful forays of Dogri poets like Ved Pal Deep, R N Shashtri, N D Jamwal, Darshan Darshi, Ram Lal Sharma and many others into the literary form of Urdu ‘gazal’, that led to a completely new genre of Dogri Gazal, Dogri poets like Krishan Smailpuri, Suteekshan Kumar Anandam, Arsh Sehbai, Nirmal Vinod, have earned their special place for experimenting in their poetry with Hindi poetic forms like ‘Doha’ and ‘Kundali’.
While many other poets who started experimenting with the rather difficult form of Kundali, left the same for easier options, Puran Chand Badgotra is a coveted name who has earned laurels for his unique commitment to serpent-meter called ‘kundaliyan’.
Born in 1937 in the family of Pandit Amar Nath, Puran Chand Bagotra retired in 1995 from government service as Functional Manager, Dept of Industries and Commerce, J&K govt. He took to writing poetry in Dogri some fifteen years with onset of post-retirement phase—the second innings of his life. He has so far published six books of Dogri poems, geet and kundali collections. These include ‘Tapash Loi Di’, ‘Sochein Da Sarlaa’, ‘Kul Devta Diyaan Aartiyan Te Bhajan Sangreh’, ‘Sukka Soun’, ‘Gaas Hoaa Badlokha’, and his latest ‘Shabad Shabad Smarth’.
A poetic form of great antiquity, Kundaliyan, in recent times is associated with 18th century Brij Bhasha poet Giridhar Kavirai. This famous late medieval Hindi poet who wrote kundaliyan that contained common wisdom. Full of wit and panache, this kind of variegated subject matter is often designated by the catch-all genre title Niti, ‘prudent counsel’. Such a designation denotes in part a contradistinction from Bhakti and Riti–complementary genres in which devotional and mannerist predominate respectively.
In contras to many of his predecessors’ works wherein the fascination with the world competes with an alleged desire to transcend it, Puran Chand Badgotra’s many verses read like observations and comments upon the worldly circumstances that the poet had himself experienced. Instead of rather than a clear cut range of topics, Badgotra’s gaze is quite wide-ranging.
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