Goswami Tulasi Das’s Ramayan written in Sanskrit by Rishi Valmiki – to Hindi in his re-telling, created an epic that has been a best seller in the world for 200 years. Tulsi Das said, Ram had many myriad manifestations and Ramayan, a thousand distinct narrations. One such is Sita Banwas, originally written in 1928 by a Banaras born man playwright Agha Hashr Kashmiri. This was a story of Sita’s banishment from Ayodhya. King Ram first asked for an Agni-Pariksha to prove her chastity and later sent her to exile.
Sita lived at Rishi Valmiki’s ‘ashram. He named her Vandevi and it was at the ashram she delivered her twins Luv and Kush. The brothers grew up proficient in Brahmanical pursuits of art, literature, grammar, and Kshatriya war-fare. Rishi Valmiki documented Ramayan and taught them to emote the verses.
They were only twelve years old when they captured the sacred horse, Ashwamedhyagya and when the warriors came in search of the horse and challenged them, they accepted the challenge. It is when the children make Lord Hanuman a captive and proudly present him to mother Sita, that the secret is revealed.
In the meantime, what unfolds in Lord Ram’s Durbar is something that is never presented in theatre before. The retelling of the story is important in present times to project new insights and perspectives. Ank celebrates 50 years of the group in a large-scale production, written- directed by Atul Tiwari.