For fourteen years, the Ramleela in Dhalot, Samba, was performed from a script that its own actors and audiences found hard to follow: it leaned on complex Urdu and Persian words. This season, the Kargil Shaheedan Ramleela Club is staging the Ramayana in Dogri for the first time.
The club was founded by the community in memory of three young soldiers from Dhalot who were killed on the same day in the Kargil War. The new script is the work of Bishen Singh Dardi, an award-winning Dogri writer from Samba, who directed the club for 14 years using the older script by Jaswant Singh.
Three and a half years of translation
Dardi spent more than three and a half years translating and writing the new version. Last year he completed a 400-page Dogri adaptation in dialogue form, written for the stage. He has invited other Ramleela clubs in the area to adopt it. Senior members held a special screening to shortlist Dogri-speaking artists for the roles.
Krishen Singh, a senior club member, said the Dogri version, with traditional Dogra artistic elements, will help younger generations connect with their roots and give older residents a more meaningful cultural and spiritual experience.
A second Ram Leela in Jammu
In Jammu city, the Senior Citizens Support Services Club, Chowadi, is preparing a Ram Leela at Panch Mandir, Channi Himmat. Its founder and chairman, Kasturi Lal Gupta, is a former Principal of Government Medical College Jammu; the club has run inter-school competitions, poetry sessions and programmes to promote Dogri in homes, schools and public life.
The report does not give performance dates, so check with the clubs before planning a visit. For young Dogri speakers who answer in Hindi or English, a stage where the language carries the whole story is a rare chance to hear it at length. On that wider question, see Can Dogri Survive If Young Dogras Stop Speaking It?
Source: Daily Pioneer, October 12, 2026.
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