Kashi's Shri Chitrakoot Ramlila opened its 2026 season on Monday with a puja for the crowns rather than a scene on a stage. At Ayodhya Bhawan in Bada Ganesh, the Shri Chitrakoot Ramlila Samiti performed the mukut pujan to Vedic chanting, and the young performers who play Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna took their places on the throne for the first time this year.
The samiti describes its lila as about 500 years old and world-famous. Local tradition credits its founding to Megha Bhagat, a Rama devotee remembered as a disciple of Goswami Tulsidas, although historians have never fixed an exact starting year. What is not in doubt is the lila's standing in the old city, where it is counted among the oldest Ramlilas still staged.
Monday's rites followed a set order. The samiti first worshipped Ganesh, then Varun, the deity of water invoked at the start of many Hindu rituals. This was followed by the kirit and mukut puja for the crowns the performers wear, and finally the Ramayan puja, offered to the text the lila is built on.
After the puja came the moment the opening is known for. The five swaroops, as the performers are called once they take on their roles, made a formal sankalp to stage the lila for the welfare of the public. They then put on their crowns and sat on the throne. In Kashi's Ramlila tradition, devotees treat the swaroops with reverence through the season, which is why the crowning carries more weight than an ordinary opening ceremony.
Bhajan groups sang the mangalacharan, the invocation that opens a recitation, and then gave a musical reading of the Bal Kand of the Ramcharitmanas. The Bal Kand is the first book of Tulsidas's epic and covers Rama's birth and childhood, the natural place for a new cycle to begin. The recitation filled Ayodhya Bhawan with devotional music.
The gathering drew hundreds of devotees, who came for darshan of the swaroops and received tulsi leaves as prasad. The first day ended with a maha aarti performed by the lila manager, Pt Mukund Upadhyay. Subodh Agrawal and Mohan Krishna Agrawal were among those present, along with many others.
The Chitrakoot Ramlila is a different form from the month-long Ramnagar Ramlila across the river. Ramnagar spreads its episodes over fixed sites around the town, and on Monday it was on its eleventh evening, with Bharata setting out for Chitrakoot to bring Rama home. The Chitrakoot lila of the old city follows a tableau style, in which the swaroops largely act out the verses while the Ramayanis recite the Manas.
Its best-known evening comes after Vijayadashami, which falls on 20 October this year. That is the Bharat Milap at Nati Imli, the reunion of Rama and Lakshmana with Bharata and Shatrughna, which by custom draws one of the biggest crowds of the city's festival season and is traditionally attended by the Kashi royal family. The Nati Imli neighbourhood keeps a busy religious calendar of its own, from the Kanha Chhathi sohar songs at its Hanuman temple in September to the Bharat Milap in October. Dalimss News has not seen the samiti's day-wise programme for 2026, and the exact Bharat Milap date will be reported once the samiti announces it.
Monday's opening was one of several across Varanasi as the Ramlila season gathers pace. At the weekend Pandeypur's Khajuri Ramlila also began with a mukut puja followed by the Ram Janm episode, a reminder that the crown ceremony is shared by many of the city's neighbourhood committees.
The wider festival calendar is close behind. Sharadiya Navratri begins on Sunday, 11 October, and the nine nights of Durga worship will run alongside the middle chapters of the city's Ramlilas before Vijayadashami on 20 October.
With the maha aarti at Ayodhya Bhawan on Monday, the crowned swaroops completed the first day of their season. From here the story moves out of the hall and into the lanes of the old city, and it will not be complete until the brothers meet at Nati Imli.
