After a gap of two years, the Government of Uttar Pradesh has invited a Russian troupe from Moscow to perform in this year’s Ramleela celebrations in Ayodhya. The performance of Ramleela by the Russian actors will take place during October 22-28, when the Deepotsav festival will be celebrated in Ayodhya. The visit of the Ramleela troupe is special as it will take place after the pandemic as well as in the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis, which is redefining the India-Russia relationship both at the levels of the governments and people-to-people ties.
Lavkush Dwivedi, Director, Ayodhya Research Institute, which comes under the U.P. Government’s Department of Culture, has written to ‘Disha: India-Russia Friendship Society of Moscow’, inviting the actors to perform in Ayodhya.
The Ramleela of Moscow goes back to the 1960s, when Gennady Mikhailovich Pechnikov performed the role of Lord Ram. “Our all-Russian team of performers began Ramleela presentation in 2018 in memory of ‘Russian Ram’, Pechnikov, who was a guru for many of us who were interested in Indian culture and history,” Rameshwar Singh, Disha’s director, said.
