.

LORD HANUMAN, originally uploaded by manumint-(BUSY).

One of main attraction of annual Dussehra festival here in my home town are these actors who play role of Hindu God-HANUMAN from the most famous Indian epic of Ramayana.

Actors dress up like this and wear heavily decorated mask which they have to support while dancing their way through streets and roads. Also their body is painted with saffron color(which is fav color of Lord Hanuman). For playing role of Hanuman these actors follow tough religious rules and regulations such as -fasting, sleeping on the rough ground,to remain barefoot, praying 3 times a day, eating food which mostly consist of fruits and milk only). These actors start following these rules and regulations a month before start of Dussehra.

Years ago there used to be only 3 or 4 actors who were playing role of Hanuman in Dussehra here but with change in time many more actors started playing this role and this year we had 150 actors playing role of Hanuman in the Dussehra festival.

Those who are familiar with Hinduism and epic Ramayana know Hanuman very well. He is considered to be the greatest devotee ever born on earth as per Ramayana. He is one of the main characters of the epic Ramayana, who played a crucial role in the liberation of Sita(wife of Lord Rama),by leading an army of monkeys to fight the demon king Ravana.