By Kulbhushan Kain
Nearly everyone has heard of or been to Badrinath. It houses an ancient temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu and is one of the ‘Char Dhams’ which Hindus yearn to visit at least once in their lifetime. The Pandavas are supposed to have passed through Badrinath on their way to Swarga. There is also a cave in Mana (near Badrinath ) where the great sage, Ved Vyasa wrote the Mahabharata, compiled the mantras of the Vedas into four Vedas, and authored the eighteen Puranas and the Brahma Sutras.
To visit Badrinath, one has to pass Joshimath. Joshimath recently shot into worldwide news because it was ‘sinking’. Not far from Joshimath is the scenic and much preferred skiing destination of Auli!
But how many of us have heard of the twin villages of Saloor–Dungra, which are hardly half an hour away from Auli? And why should have one heard of Saloor-Dungra? Simply because, after the Baisakhi Festival, the village comes alive with one of the most colourful and musical festivals of Uttarakhand – called Ramman.
What is the Ramman Festival?
As the name Ramman suggests, the festival is related to the Hindu epic, Ramayana. The stories of the epic are re-enacted with singing and masked dances by the villagers.
The guardian Deity of Saloor Dungra is ‘Bhumiyal Devta’. On the day of Baisakhi, the village priest announces the date for the Ramman Festival which falls on the ninth or the eleventh day after Baisakhi. The Bhumiyal Devta comes out in a procession to the temple on the day of Baisakhi. On the second day, people offer “hariyali” (sprouted barley plants) to the Deity who, in turn, promises prosperity to all, including agricultural yield and forest produce. Every day of the festival, the Devta takes a round of the village. The festival lasts for ten days during which time the local epic of Rama is sung and masked dances depicting different aspects of life take place in the courtyard of the Bhumiyal Devta’s temple.
The Ramman begins with an invocation to Lord Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, followed by the dance of Ganesh and Parvathi. This is followed by the dance of the Sun God, an enactment of the creation of the birth of Brahma and Ganesha. The other dances include the dance of the Bur Deva along with Gopi Chand (Krishna) and Radhika, the ‘Mwar-Mwarin’ dance that showcases the travails of the buffalo herders and the ‘Baniya-Baniyain Nritya’ (dance of the trader-couple) that shows the hardships faced by the common people.
After these initial performances, the focus shifts to the enactment of the local ‘Ram Katha’. The stories of the epic are re-enacted with singing and masked dances by the villagers. The unique feature of the festival is that all inhabitants reunite and perform their given roles without distinction of caste, creed, and status. Episodes from Rama’s life, beginning with his visit to Janakpur and culminating with his coronation following his return from exile, are sung to a total of 324 beats and steps. The performance has 18 participants, playing 18 characters wearing 18 masks and dancing to 18 beats to celebrate the 18 Puranas.
Another important aspect of these performances is the singing of ‘Jagar’, a musical rendition of local legends. There are also other dances and episodes that follow the Ram Katha. In the ‘Maal Nritya’, a historical battle between the Gurkhas of Nepal and the local Garhwalis is comically enacted by a troupe of four dancers dressed in red and white.
In the ‘Koorjogi’ ceremony, weeds (koor) from the village fields are pulled out by a Koorjogi, a character who carries a sack full of these weeds. There is much merriment as people throw these weeds at each other in a spirit of a communal sport.
After the festivities, the Deity stays at the home of one of the village families, which is decided by the village Panchayat. It stays there till the next season of the Ramman.
India is an incredible country. I have travelled extensively in the west, and I find their culture monotonous. Ours, on the other hand, is diverse and diversity requires more skill and strength to manage. Martin Luther King Jr had said that, when he travelled to other countries, he travelled to them as a tourist, but when he travelled to India, he travelled as a pilgrim! He was stating something that is so obvious!
Every village in India is a place worthy of a pilgrimage – Saloor-Dungra being a must!
(Kulbhushan kain is an award winning educationist with more than 4 decades of working in schools in India and abroad. He is a prolific writer who loves
cricket, travelling and cooking. He can be reached at kulbhushan.kain@gmail.com)
