PAURI RAMLELA "GOLDEN 100 YEARS"

The Pauri Ramlila is one of the oldest plays in the Uttarakhand region. It portrays the life of Lord Rama as described in Ramayana. The play was begun by two social activists, Tara Dutt Gairola and Bhola Dutt Kala, in 1883-1884.

At that time, Pauri was the administrative capital of East India Company in the Garhwal Region. Gairola and Kala organized the Ramlila and played it with the help of locals for six days at the sloppy fields of village Kandai. During the period, some other literary persons joined the play and modified it into "Persian Theater". They made the script with the help of Tulsi Das's Ramcharitmanas and some of their own interpretations. In 1906, the play was expanded from six days to ten days.

The play has been performed until 1993, but was interrupted during the Uttarakhand movement from 1994 until 1996. In 1997, it was restarted following an initiative by Prithvi Pal Singh Chauhan, the M.L.C. of U.P.