Who is a Baul? One may see a vision of a wandering ascetic - minstrel, dressed in rags, wielding an ektārā, singing soulful songs in powerful voices; a rustic character who symbolizes the lush, verdant, fertile, rural, folk Bengal. Many know that Baul songs are listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Perhaps, one imagines the Baul as free-spirited mystics who don’t follow the conventions of society or religions, who are both Hindu and Muslim, and also neither. Bauls are also globally renowned folk music performers, their music featured in various shows and films.
Whatever the answer, chances are it is a result of the various stereotypes and perceptions of Bauls that were influenced by the times and the corresponding socio-cultural and political scenarios of the 19th and 20th centuries. The discourse on Bauls is mostly written by others and not by the Bauls themselves. A variety of stereotypes are associated with the Bauls such as subaltern, nationalist, spiritual idealist, esotericist, secularist, liberalist, globalist, etc. The Bauls thus have been given labels: some positive, such as ‘Swadeshi Bauls’( like in the writings of Rabindranath Tagore) and ‘Udashin Bauls’ (disinterested Bauls with an authentic heart); some neutral labels such as ‘Body-centric Bauls’ (who follow the doctrine of the body, practitioners of sādhanā); and some negative labels like ‘disgusting others’ and ‘sexual libertine Bauls’, regarding their sādhanā elements, due to the prevailing socio-cultural factors and attitudes of the recent century.
The West, fascinated by Baul music, perceived them through an exotic and romantic lens. As per several contemporary popular and scholarly accounts, the image of Baul is an ambivalent one, on one hand representing the simple humanism and folk spirit of Bengali culture; and on the other hand, slandered and reviled as socially objectionable and immoral.
Here, we look at the prevalent image, stereotypes, and perception of the Bauls that developed in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
19th Century: Colonial Period, Bengal
Scholars have largely viewed the Bauls as asocial, ahistorical, and insulated esoteric sects. Studies on the Bauls of colonial Bengal tended to focus on their esoteric philosophy and ritual practices from within a romantic/scriptural/ethnographic prism.
Some of the oldest descriptions of Bauls as a community were violently negative. As projected by mid-19th century scholars such as Akshay Kumar Dutta and Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya, Baul songs were articulations of a flesh-eating, shroud-wearing, godless, disreputable Chaitanyite sect of Bengal, marked by their fantastic dress, dirty habits, and the strange philosophy of their songs, and who indulged in ritual sexual practices.
Alongside such derogatory projections of the Bauls in the mid-19th century, Baul songs also came to be framed dismissively as either absurd songs of rustic philosophy and quaint allegories or as entertainment, to obtain alms. The Bauls were looked upon with scorn and disgust for their alleged practices of esoteric tāntrika rituals that were seen as immoral and objectionable. They were labeled as āpadharma or āpasampradāya.
Following the Bengali Renaissance, Bauls were quickly singled out as the most notorious and dangerous of the various heterodox sects of Bengal. In the eyes of the Westernized intelligentsia, Bauls were ridiculed as being not only naïve and backward but also as degenerate, dangerous, and perverse.
The partition of India was done based on religious identity, where the newly partitioned lands wanted to erase all factors unfavorable to their aspirations of nationhood, with religion as the foundation. With Bengal being deeply affected pre- and post-partition, the Bauls in these lands came under immediate attack, both physically and rhetorically. These Bauls were denounced in fatwas, allegedly for their continued affiliation with Hindu beliefs.
Therefore, it can be said that the first popular concept of the ‘Baul’ was developed in the 19th century, and unfortunately, this was a predominantly negative one.
However, among all the vitriolic and scathing attacks, one refreshing and relieving voice supporting Bauls was of Śrī Ramakrishna Paramhansa (1836 – 1886).
In the Kathamrita, Vol 4, Sec 18, Śrī Ramakrishna extensively mentions the Bauls and the sublime messages encoded in their songs; moreover, he sings them when overcome by ecstasy. Songs like the following :
How can I tell you, O friend, what is in my heart?
I am forbidden to speak.
I cannot live without a kindred soul.
Such a one can be recognized from the look of his eyes.
Rare indeed is such a soul who swims in bliss on a tide of intense love.
The man of the heart trades in love.
Where can one find a man of the heart,
Who carries under his arm only a tattered rag?
He says not a word, but travels on the high road.
A man of the heart only walks along the higher path.
He further mentions lines from another Baul song :
Wait, O wandering monk, with your water-pot!
Stand and let me behold your beauty.
He describes the perfected soul thus:
According to Shaktas, a perfected soul is called a kaul. In the Vedanta, he is called a paramahamsa. The Vaishnava Bauls call him a sai. There is none greater than a sai.
A sai calls the Ultimate Reality ‘alekh.’ In the Vedas it is called Brahman; the sais call Him alekh, the incomprehensible. They say of the individual soul that alekh comes and alekh departs. That is to say, the individual soul comes from the unmanifest and then merges back into it.
Thus we see how Śrī Ramakrishna not only had a deep reverence for the spirituality of the Baul tradition but also held it in equal regard as he did the great yoga paramparās, despite his reservations regarding certain elements of the Baul practices.
There was a belief that Śrī Ramakrishna would return as a Baul. There are several anecdotes of Holy Mother Śrī Sarada Devi talking about this with some of the disciples.
On page 358 of The Compassionate Mother, the oldest biography of Śrī Sarada Devi, Brahmachari Akshaychaitanya writes:
The Holy Mother said to Nikunja Devi (Sri M.'s wife):
“One day the Master said:
‘I know who you are and Lakshmi, but I shall not tell you.
To repay my debt to you, I shall be born as a baul and make you my companion.’”
Once an attendant of the Holy Mother said to her: I heard that you and the Master would come back as Bauls. The Mother replied: "Well, you will not escape either. Those who have come this time, they will have to come the next. Have you seen the moon in the sky? Does the moon rise alone? It rises along with the stars.”
Glimpses of Śrī Ramakrishna’s reflection on Bauls and their philosophy give an inkling of the widely prevalent acceptance of Bauls as spiritual practitioners. We also understand that in society at large, the average devotee as well as the communities had deep respect for the Baul tradition, despite the attacks on the same by elements that staunchly wanted religious purity, or those who indulged in understanding Bauls using a colonized lens.
Śrī Ramakrishna’s perspective on the Bauls was like an oasis in the otherwise barren desert that was emerging, creating difficult circumstances for the existing Baul traditions during the 19th century.
20th Century : Transformation of the Baul Image
While the 19th century saw the Bauls being vilified with overwhelmingly negative accounts, their image went through a drastic, positive transformation in the 20th century, owing to the influence of the great Bengali poet, Nobel laureate, and national hero, Rabindranath Tagore.
Tagore discovered the Baul songs in 1883 at the age of 21, when he published his review of a collection of Baul songs. This was the beginning of his lifelong love for the Baul tradition. When he shifted his vision towards humanism and universalism, he envisioned an idyllic past of rural Bengal, in its simple and self-sufficient, content peasant life. For Tagore, the Bauls were the quintessential image of Bengali popular culture, with their simplicity, rusticness, inwardness, and spirituality. He found in them his own humanistic ideals. He extensively used Baul language and Baul metaphors in his poetry. He proclaimed, “The Baul song is the very basis of our cultural heritage”.
Tagore adapted and rehabilitated the Baul image as the ‘cultural emblem’ of Bengal. The Baul image became useful for especially upper-class, educated Bengalis to construct a private national identity which preserved their unique Indian values of culture and spirituality; while still allowing them to be secluded and protected from the colonially dominated public sphere.
Tagore’s rehabilitation of Bauls was further enhanced by Ksitimohan Sen, whose ‘Banglar Baul’ (1949) was the first detailed study of Bauls.
He too was concerned with the revival of Bengali language, culture, and national identity; and above all Hindu – Muslim unity towards creating a new Indian national identity. He saw in the anti-sectarianism of Bauls a reflection of his own political and religious unity. Together, Tagore and Sen were the first ones to publicize the image of the Bauls as a symbol of Bengali culture.
The Bhasar Andolon (Language Movement) occurred in East Pakistan between 1948 and 1952 as a revolt against the oppression of indigenous languages and culture, in the aftermath of the partition on religious lines. The attitude towards Bauls went through a dramatic reversal during this time. Lalan Shah was now regarded as the greatest representative of the Baul tradition.
Thus, the Bauls and their songs became the central objects of political discussion and debate.
Many scholars began claiming that Bauls are offshoots of the Persian Sufis. Most of the early scholarship had long assumed that the word Baul has its origin in the saṃskṛta vyākula or vātula. However, scholars began to suggest that the term has Arabian or Persian origin. Even the origins and the history of Lalan was distorted to align with the preferred theological views of these religious scholars. Lalan then came to be known by the Persian title Shah instead of his earlier title Sain.
Eventually, the Baul became the symbol of independence and intellectual freedom. The term Baul thus took on a new and politically charged meaning.
Later down the line, academicians and political ideologues interested in subaltern, counterculture, and marginalization, took a deep interest in Bauls and studied them by deploying tools that were formulated by popular Marxist thinkers and Marxist theories. These academicians project the Bauls as alternative spiritual practitioners and outcasts of society. They have co-opted the lifestyle and songs of the Bauls to strengthen their own political ideologies.
Since then, these academicians lament that there has been an increase in scholarly attention towards the ritualistic practices and epistemologies of the Bauls, and project that enough attention is not given to the socio-economic and political marginalization of the Bauls. These scholars consciously leverage the rich diversity that exists among the Bauls and misinterpret the freedom and the universalist messages of Baul songs to further their own political and ideological agendas.
Baul Music and its Changing Identity: Sadhok Baul and Silpi Baul
People perceive Baul songs differently. To some, the beautiful Baul songs signify transcendental humanism; while to others they are musical expressions of the Baul sect’s collective mindset based on their secret esoteric rituals; yet others see the heart-melting songs as a method to earn alms for the rural Bauls, or simply as a form of entertaining folk songs that are part of the culture of Bengal.
To study the Baul songs, one must depend on the collections and published materials of others, i.e., scholars, researchers, and writers, which may have high chances of being intermixed with those others’ own subjective opinions, interpretations, and understandings. Therefore, it is necessary to have comprehensive knowledge of Baul discourses, to tease out the aspects properly, of being and becoming of Bauls (and their songs).
Traditionally, the Bauls sustained themselves via their small practice spaces, called akhāḍās, by performing madhukori, or sacred alms gathering.
Bengal was torn apart by the partition and the Bengal Famine in the middle of the 20th century. Due to the sustained impact of the socio-cultural-political factors, Baul practitioners found themselves in dire economic circumstances. It was then that the Baul stepped out from their private spheres of practice into the mainstream.
As soon as they did this, ethno-musicographers from the West started studying the Bauls from their Western lens and with an ethno-musicography studies perspective. Immediately, Baul culture became popular in the West. This resulted in the emergence of śilpi(artist/performer) Bauls.
This led to nomenclature which is not authentic, but is commonly accepted: the two distinct categories of the sādhaka(ascetic) Bauls and the śilpi Bauls.
There are stern differences between the sādhaka ascetic Bauls and the śilpi artist Bauls. The ascetic Bauls are practitioners of Baul sādhanā and usually stick to their community. Śilpi Bauls are not sādhakas and thus are not obligated by the commitments that the traditional spiritual path demands. They are mostly limited to the performative aspect of Baul tradition and lack the element of traditional practice. The element of traditional practice enables the traditional Baul to have access to deep spiritual insights, which then takes the form of spontaneous poetry - the true Baul spirit.
The origins of śilpi-Bauls can be found in the socio-cultural history of 19th century Bengal. The reputation of the sādhaka Bauls as ‘disgusting others’ from the early colonial era had faded away, and there was an emergence of a new breed of amateur Bauls, called shokher Bauls (Bauls by hobby). It was Kangal Harinath Majumdar with his group who made the concept of shokher Baul popular in the last quarter of the 19th century. Such performers would merely imitate the visual aspects, the costume of the Bauls, without the inner practices.
This opened up the possibility for anyone to become a singing star of Baul songs without having any link with the Baul culture and practices. It became fashionable to perform Baul songs, which led to the educated urban poets and lyricists to start writing Baul songs. The tune and melody of Baul songs, i.e., Baul Sur got so popular that it was superimposed randomly upon any genre of songs, i.e., kirton songs or prarthona (prayer) songs, and then presented as Baul songs. Baul songs could thus be wantonly appropriated by anyone who wanted to do so.
The community-based, ancient heritage of the Baul song which was primarily transmitted orally from guru to disciple and singer to singer, underwent changes in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Many trained musicians other than Bauls, and the music industry itself, started to pick up Baul songs, branding them with popular urban languages to attract the younger generation to mass consume them. They used a number of unconventional instruments and attire to gloss up their performances, making fusion Baul music. In the process, the rustic, simple aesthetic of the ascetic Baul singers was eventually lost. In recent years, there has been a disproportionately higher interest in śilpi-Bauls compared to sādhaka Bauls.
The Beat Generation American poet, Allen Ginsberg, was enamored of Kolkata’s cultural life and visited the ailing and impoverished Baul Nabani Das in Suri, West Bengal, in the early 1960s. Nabani Das Baul was a notable influence on Rabindranath Tagore. He was accompanied by the poets Peter Orlovsky and Shakti Chattopadhyay. Upon being introduced, the old man said of Allen and Peter, “They are born Bauls, they will spread the Baul message, and true peace, friendship, and dharma will arrive.” It was indeed Ginsberg who would go on to spread the good word about the Bauls of Bengal in the West, which then played a pivotal role in enabling a collaboration between some of the musical, cultural icons of the West and eminent Bauls of the East.
There are some favorable factors emerging on the horizon for strengthening the positive perception of Bauls and their spiritual and yogic aspects; however, the odds are still heavily stacked against the true practitioners - the sādhaka Bauls.
Conclusion
Thus, we observe the trajectory of development of the Baul image in India, specifically in pre and post partition eras in Bengal - how it was subjected to adverse circumstances, and eventually towards a more favorable revival as a cultural icon, owing to the nationalistic and linguistic movements that defined the early to the mid-20th century.
One thing in common with both negative and positive image creation towards Bauls was that there was no attempt to understand the true yoga of Bauls; rather, there was an attempt to divorce the Baul identity from its spiritual and sādhanā component, the core of the tradition
Furthermore, the appropriation, distortion, and commercialization of the Baul aesthetics, music, and overall Baul identity have caused significant damage to the spiritual roots of the rich Baul tradition and community, and its perception both within and outside India. The sādhaka Bauls in the rural areas now struggle to survive; which direly alters the nature and practice of madhukori altogether, for they are compelled to sing in improper environments such as unfamiliar public places and gatherings, just to survive.
Therefore, despite the positive revival of their image, the Bauls in the current times remain vulnerable to heavy politicization and also reduced to just folk tradition, struggling to survive and preserve their rich spiritual heritage.
References:
- The politics of madness the construction and manipulation of the ‘Baul’ image in modern Bengal, Hugh Urban, The Ohio State University published in South Asia Journal of South Asian Studies · June 1999
- Global Bauls, local Bauls: community, violence and everyday life, Arnav Debnath , Dumkal College (India)
- Songs of Dissent and Consciousness: Pronouncements of the Bauls of Rural Bengal, Uttaran Dutta , Panchali Banerjee Soham Ghosh , Priyam Ghosal Samya Srimany and Sahana Mukherjee, Religions 2021, 12, 1018.
- Ek rajye hale dujona raja, kar hukume gata hoy praja: metaphors of everyday peasant resistance in B¯aul songs of colonial Bengal Manjita Mukharji, Department of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA South Asian History and Culture Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2012, 47–69
- The Bengali Baul Band That Enthralled Psychedelic Audiences Of ‘60s US
- Bob Dylan and the Bauls
- Kathamrita – Volume 4 Section 18
- Swami Chetanananda “If Ramakrishna Were Alive Today”, published in “Vedanta” magazine, UK, Nov – Dec 2006
- The Compassionate Mother, Brahmachari Akshaychaitanya, published by Advaita Ashrama.
- Cover Art - Woodcut by Parvathy Baul and Ravi Gopalan Nair.
