Culture Collage: Assam’s Traditional Art Forms Take Centre-Stage In Majuli Raas Festival
Team TNE
Raas Lila is an annual festival of Majuli in Assam performed fromPurnima (full moon day) in the months of October-November. It is a four-day festival depicting the life of Lord Krishna in a variety of dazzling performing arts involving music, dance, masks and painting. The first festival was performed at DakhinpatSattra (monastery) in 1840 AD which was later made into a stage performance by Pitambardeva Goswami of GaramurSattra in 1934. In 1950, he permitted women in the Sattra to perform roles in the festival. Every year, lakhs of visitors throng the river island during the festival who are often accommodated by families in the villages.
All photo credit to ‘special arrangement’