Far from Ayodhya in northern India, where elites are celebrating the inauguration of a controversial Hindu temple dedicated to Rama on Monday, much poorer devotees are celebrating the god in their own way, tattooing his name from head to toe let.
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Followers of the Ramnami religious movement have long been forbidden from entering Hindu holy sites due to their low caste. As a sign of defiance, they began tattooing the name of the god Rama in Hindi on their bodies.
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These tattooed devotees, including on their faces, gathered for a Hindu festival in Chhattisgarh state, in the center of the country, on Sunday.
India's prime minister on Monday inaugurated with great fanfare a temple dedicated to the god Rama, built in Ayodhya in northern India on the site of an ancient mosque demolished by Hindu fanatics in 1992.
But for the Ramnami, the devotion expressed through tattoos is stronger than any building.
“For us, Rama is everywhere, in every particle, every sound,” says Gularam Ramnami, a 52-year-old devotee.
For those who worship at the Ayodhya Temple, Rama is “represented by an idol.” But “we have made our bodies a temple.”
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Many Ramnami interviewed during their festival on Sunday said they viewed the inauguration of the temple dedicated to Rama, often depicted with blue skin and armed with a bow and arrow, positively.
But they also called for caution and recalled the violent history of the place where it was built.
“Rama never destroyed a mosque and Allah never destroyed a temple,” notes Gularam.
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“We have always said that we must not hurt anyone, neither through thoughts, nor through words, nor through deeds.”
When the ancestors of the Ramnami were denied entry to the temples more than a century ago, they fought back with a needle and ink made from the residue of kerosene lamps.
“I dedicated my body to his name,” says Setbai Ramnami, a devotee wearing a crown of peacock feathers and wrapped in a white shawl that also has the name Rama written on it.
“I have never been to a temple (…) I have not even offered flowers to an idol of Rama,” explains the septuagenarian from the Dalit caste, formerly known as “untouchables”.
In addition to their tattoos, devotees adopt the name of the religious group “Ramnami” as their surname as a sign of their complete devotion.
“An ideology”
It took Setbai a whole day to get her face tattooed, but she says she didn't feel any pain because it was done out of devotion. “There will come a day when we will all go,” she said. “It is good that I have immersed myself in devotion (…) this is how I want to die.”
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But times are changing for the Ramnami too.
Full-body tattoos are becoming increasingly rare as some young, job-seeking followers limit their sign-ups to areas of the body they can cover while saying they respect the group's other strict rules.
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The Ramnami are vegetarians, do not drink alcohol, do not smoke and grow almost everything they eat.
Unlike most Hindus who choose cremation, the Ramnami bury their dead because they do not want Rama's name to be burned.
While many Dalits and other marginalized groups in India still face violence and discrimination, the Ramnami say their tattoos show their desire for a God everyone can worship.
“It doesn’t matter if people think we belong to a lower caste, we belong to a country where caste and class don’t matter,” says Gularam.
“Ramnami is an ideology (…) that is not tied to any caste or religion,” he said