According to John Brockington, a professor of Sanskrit specializing on Indian epics, Ramlila is likely an ancient tradition of India because it is generally accepted by scholars that written manuscripts emerged later in Indian religions, and ancient texts were largely a product of oral tradition [REF].
James Prinsep wrote an eyewitness description of Varanasi Ramlila festivities in 1825, while H. Niehus wrote another from Ghazipur in 1905 [REF].