Lalan Fakir

Part one

Baul is widely known and appreciated as a folk music of

Bengal but it is a religious sect that espouses a specific
philosophy through their songs. Members of the sect are
called bauls, and what they sing is popularly called baul-
gaan (baul songs). This wandering musicians has a special
place in the history of Bengali folk tradition and spiritual
ideology. Bauls live in a community, but do not adhere to
any particular religion. Their religion is music based on the
themes of dehatatva (body as a site of worship),
brotherhood and peace. Bauls have embraced elements
from Hinduism, Tantric Buddhism, and Sufi Islam and have
developed their own unique belief system from this eclectic
basket of ideologies. They sing about the state of
disconnect between the earthly soul and the spiritual world
and often philosophize love and bonds of heart, subtly
revealing mysteries of life, laws of nature, decrees of
destiny and the ultimate union of the human with the
divine.

Bauls are nonconformists, who reject traditional social

norms to form a distinct sect that uphold music as their
religion. It is easy to identify a baul singer from his uncut,
often knotted in a bun, saffron robe (alkhalla),
necklace tulsi beads, and their instrument ektara (single
string instrument). Music is their only source of sustenance.
They live on whatever they are offered by villagers in
return, and travel from place to place on a vehicle of
ecstasy. They never write down their songs as a practice. It
is said of Lalon Fakir (1774 -1890), the greatest of all bauls
that he continued to compose and sing songs for decades
without ever stopping to put them on paper, or revise them.
It was only after his death that people thought of collecting
and compiling his rich repertoire.

Baul songs are an amalgamation of song, dance and

narrative and the performer plays his own instruments
ektara (single string instrument) and dugie (percussion
instrument). Lyrics celebrate the boundless love of Radha
for Krishna; in a language that is non-conventional and
esoteric known as Sandhya Bhasa where signs are stripped
of their natural meaning and concealed with mystic
meanings. Bauls present a story regarding different
philosophy related to psychology and physiology. In this
context Mimulu Sen comments that

If the songs can define territory, in the manner of migratory

birds, then the map that describes the journey of the Baul
singers today goes well beyond the borders of present day
West Bengal and Bangladesh. It follows vertical directions
into mystic spheres and travels horizontally around the
globe, via the new networks of world music.[i]

There is an essential obscurity so far as bauls are concerned

because of the erotic content of their songs speaks about
the human body as the microcosm and soul as an intangible
bird.

The word ‘Baul’ is not a neologism and can be traced back

to the Bengali poetic works of fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, Shri Krishna-Vijaya by Maldhar Basu
and Chaitanya Charitamirita by Krishnadas Kaviraj.
Different scholars have interpreted the etymology of baul,
many believe that it has a root in batul meaning mad or out
of rhythm, or from vayu meaning air or the inner flow of
energy. Baul, also cognates from aul and can also be
associated with the Arabic word awliya (plural of ‘wali’, a
word originally meaning friend or devotee which refers to a
group of perfect mystics.) The word ‘baul’ with its Hindi
variant ‘baur’ may have been derived from the Sanskrit
word ‘vatula’ (affected by wind-disease, crazy) or
from ‘vyakula’ (impatiently eager). Both these derivations
are consistent with the apparent life style of bauls which
denote a group of inspired mystics with an ecstatic
eagerness for a spiritual life beyond the shackles of
scriptures and religious institutions. According to R.M
Sarkar,

The very meaning of this particular word is indifference to

worldly interest. This attitude of indifference may be
outcome of profound grief as well as extreme joy. The man
becomes indifferent of this nature due to his total
submission at the feet of the God or the supreme controller
of the world. Therfore, the term ‘Baul’ might have been
originated from the word ‘Baura’. The people, who become
Baura or have developed indifference to the worldly affairs,
ultimately have come to known as the Bauls”.

Edward C Dimock Jr. explained the meaning of the word

baul in his essay ‘Rabindranath Tagore: the Greatest of the
Bauls of Bengal” in the following manner

The word itself means ‘mad’. When Bengalis use the term,
they usually mean to indicate a type of mendicant religious
singer who, dressed in tattered clothes deliberately made up
of the garments of both Hindus and Muslims, wanders from
village to village-celebrating God in ecstatic songs,
existing on whatever his listeners choose to give him.
Although today he is possibly a householder… traditionally
he has ‘only the wind as his home’. His hair is long and
beard matted, and as he sings, he accompanies himself on a
one stringed instrument.