Intoxicated by love: the tradition of playing ritual drama Modon Kam among the Rajbansi of North Bengal

Abstract

The article presents materials of the ritual drama Modon Kam among the Rajbansi of North Bengal. The action performed during the feast of Chaitra Sankranti (mid-April) includes the performance of the narrator, musicians and young men, dressed as “dancers” of the history of the god Kama (his incineration by Shiva and subsequent revival in the form invisible to people), and then a kind of presentation on the harvested rice a field with a demonstration of elements of military art, acrobatics, everyday sketches; there is always a jester involved. Both parts of the ritual involve the achievement of ecstatic states.