Making Ravanwww.flickr.com user durga_akv
The Navaratri festival gets underway today, with the main feature of celebrations in Delhi being the Ramlila plays that are enacted in the evenings all over the city. They tell the life story of Lord Rama, culminating with his defeat of the demon Ravan on the tenth day, Dussehra.
According to Hindu mythology in the Ramayana, at the beginning of Navaratri, Rama prayed to Goddess Durga to be granted the divine power to kill Ravan. He received this power on the eight day, and finally Ravan was vanquished on Dussehra.
These five popular Delhi Ramlila shows are all excellent places to enjoy the action. You'll find many of them located in the vicinity of the Red Fort. According to this news report, organizers have turned to technology more than even this year, to come up with innovative ways of telling the same story and keeping the crowd interested. Do you have a favorite Ramlila show? Share it with us here.
On Dussehra, huge effigies of the demon king Ravan are burned, to mark his defeat. Head to Titarpur, in Tagore Garden, during Navaratri to see them being made for the occasion.