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The entire scene is only a few short minutes long. But in those moments, Hindus believe God in the form of Vishnu steps onto the mortal plain. Hence it corresponds to Holy Communion in the Catholic mass. You can tell these kids are in the moment.

The Ramlila culminates in a final scene in which Rama and Sita are at last reunited. Many thousands of devout Hindus come to witness this event, which they wait many hours to see.

To celebrate Rama's victory, giant effigies of Ravana, his brother and son, are burnt.

They are now regarded as a third gender by the Indian Government after many years of struggle to achieve such recognition.

The hijras have their own communities and have an annual festival of their own at Koovalam in South India.

When Rama leaves Ayodhya for his exile, a crowd of his subjects follow him into the forest because of their devotion to him. Soon Rama notices this, and gathers them to tell them not to mourn, and that all the "men and women" of his kingdom should return to their places in Ayodhya. Rama then leaves and has adventures for 14 years. When he returns to Ayodhya, he finds that the hijras, being neither men nor women, have not moved from the place where he gave his speech. Impressed with their devotion, Rama grants hijras the boon to confer blessings on people during auspicious inaugural occasions like childbirth and weddings.

One of the scenes I witnessed took place in a small temple courtyard and was performed by a hijra dance troupe.

When I visited in 1981, I crossed the darkened river at nightfall in a small boat. As we pulled out into the river, a haunting refrain began to ring out from a thousand throats, Sita Ramji, Sita Ram. Sita Ramji Sita Ram.

The journey of the Ramlila is conceived of on three levels: the physical, which corresponds with the challenges of adhering to the demanding schedule of different locations; the metaphorical,which refers to the narrative, characters and events; and the spiritual, which involves a separation of the extraordinary effects of the sacred from the profane sensibility of everyday life.

The Ramlila is as much about the behind-the-scenes action as it is about the narrative of the characters. Accidental moments are part of the experience, which may seem to operate as a diversion from the plot of Rama but which also convey the spontaneity of the performance.

Each year different children take the roles.

The parts of Rama and Sita are performed by children to symbolize purity.

"It is India's oldest form of promenade theatre," she wrote. She describes how the actors all come from the same village. The role of Ravana is passed down from father to son. She told me that when she visited the actors' village, she found that the actor playing Ravana stayed in character all year round!

A longtime friend of mine, Dr Anuradha Kapur, wrote a book called "Actors, Pilgrims, Kings and Gods: The Ramlila of Ramnagar.".

The only ones to view the action from a height are Raja Anant Narayan Singh, his family and officials, who sit on elephants, thus carrying forward the tradition of the king attending every performance on all days, except tragic scenes (because a king should not watch the downfall of another king).

At the new venue, the actors take their place on platforms or a clearing, and the audience squats on temple steps, rubble heaps, around wells and on open ground.

As the action shifts from one venue to another in an evening, a crowd of 10,000 moves with the gods, monkeys and demons. Participation, therefore, can be seen as an experience of pilgrimage.

Different episodes are held at different venues, often spread a kilometre or more apart. These venues are permanent addresses in town.

The most extraordinary aspect of the experience is that the town itself becomes a stage, and literally a stairway to the spiritual realm.

Where elsewhere the festival takes place over the same nine nights as Navratri and Durga Puja, the Ramlila in Ramnagar is extended over 30 days and nights. Where many iterations have, like Durga Puja, become heavily influenced by secular culture, in Ramnagar no changes are allowed. It is the same now as when first performed, almost 200 years ago.

By far the most famous of the various Lilas takes place at Ramnagar, a fortress town on the shores of the Ganges. The holy city of Benares is slightly downstream on the opposite bank.

There are numerous versions of the Ramlila, and multiple productions are staged in many cities in Northern India.