A vendor sells effigies of Ravana on the roadside in Amritsar on the even of the Hindu festival of Dusshera. Held at the end of the nine-day Navratri festival, Dusshera symbolises the victory of good over evil. On the night of Dusshera, firecrackers stuffed effigies of Ravana are set alight in open grounds across the country.
IANS/Barara, Haryana
Demon-king Ravana, with an imposing 20-storey height, towers over a village in Haryana’s Ambala district and is aiming to get into the Guinness Book of Records.
The 210ft-tall Ravana, the tallest in the country and perhaps the world, erected in Barara village, 60km from Chandigarh, has become a major attraction.
Today Ravana will go up in flames as part of the Hindu festival of Dusshera, to mark the victory of good over evil but it will make history for being the tallest one anywhere.
The tallest Ravana effigy has been made by the Shri Ramleela Club, which is headed by local landowner Tejinder Chauhan.
“We erected the Ravana on October 16 itself this time. We had to use cranes to lift the Ravana. It was a tough process. Thousands of people are coming to the ground in the village to see the tallest Ravana,” Tejinder Chauhan said here.
This is not the first time that the Ravana in Barara village is creating a record. In 2007, the Ravana here was 151ft high followed by 171ft in 2008. In 2009, the Ravana here was 175ft tall. In subsequent years, the height was increased gradually and this time the committee took a shot at 210ft.
Behind the record breaking Ravana is the effort of artisans from Saharanpur district in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, all of them from the Muslim community, who are brought here by the committee to make the special Ravana.
Dusshera or ‘Vijay Dashmi’ symbolises the victory of good over evil - to mark the triumph of Rama over demon-king Ravana.
“The Ravana here will be set on fire with a remote control device instead of the traditional bow and arrow as the arrow is unlikely to reach the chest height of the structure,” one of the members of the Ramleela committee said.
The Ravana here has cost the committee nearly Rs600,000 and weighs nearly 3,500kg. The firecrackers alone in this super-structure have cost over Rs100,000.
For Chauhan, his love for the record-breaking Ravanas started in 1987 when he got a 20ft-high Ravana made. Even though the whole effort digs deep into his pocket and he has been forced to sell part of his land to keep up with his expensive devotion to this cause, Chauhan refuses to give up.
The ambitions for Chauhan and his Ramleela committee continue rise. And even though it finally goes up in smoke, they really don’t mind!