THE TRAVELLING BAUL OF WEST BENGAL

**India's vastness and variety have resulted in a wide range of genres and traditions in Indian music. One of the famous forms of a song is Baul of Bengal. The Bauls are West Bengal's travelling minstrels, whose song and dance express joy, love, and longing for mystical union with the Divine.**

People singing Baul with joy. source: indianfolkart.org

Travelling in local trains, particularly to Santiniketan, and attending rural fairs are both excellent opportunities to meet Bauls. Their devotional chants were first recorded in Bengali literature in the fourteenth century.

The word Baul came from "Batul," which means "madness." These peoples are free thinkers who openly express their love and devotion to the God who lives within each of us. These people used to travel from village to village, singing and dancing joyfully for their gods. However, somewhere today, these smiling faces are gradually fading.

It’s not like Baul was famous in Bengal only but part of northern Tripura or the eastern part of Bangladesh, a few parts of Bihar, and both western and southern parts of Odisha is famous for their Bauls. Few districts of Bangladesh such as Chittagong, Tangyl, Sylhet, etc are famous for their Bauls.

The Kenduli Mela and the Pous Mela, West Bengal's two most prominent fairs for Baul music, attract Bauls from all over the country. Their way of performing the Baul is just mesmerizing.

Bauls follow an unorthodox spiritual tradition that is influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism, Vaisnavism, and Sufi Islam while remaining unique from it. Bauls have no affiliations with organized religion, the caste system, unique deities, temples, or sacred sites.

They all believe the same ideology: that God is concealed within man's heart, and that no priest, prophet, or religious rite can help one find Him there.

We are all divine gifts to them, and the body is a temple, with music functioning as a channel for connecting to that power.

There are large gatherings of Bauls at festivals known as melas or Mahotsavs, where hundreds of Bauls assemble to sing and tell stories. Large tents and awnings, incense, flames, and flowers are all present. Birbhum, Jayadeva-Kenduli, Gopalnagar, Dubrajpur, and Bilvamangala have some of the largest gatherings.

Baul singers often play a variety of instruments to enhance their songs and the most common instrument used to perform Baul is the ektara. It’s an instrument made of gourd and split bamboo. They can also play the dotara, a long-necked two-stringed lute, as well as drums, small cymbals, and the harmonium.

Bauls wear orange or saffron to express their religious affiliation. They wear the alkhalla, which is a rudraksha-bearing gown with little bells at the ankles, long hair, and beards. Saris in white or saffron with no jewelry are permitted.

Duggi, earthen drum, as well as dhol and khol; small cymbals like Kartal and manjira, and the bamboo flute are also used. Anklets with bells that chime when the wearer dances are known as ghungur and nupur.

Baul music is a genre of folk music that incorporates Hindu bhakti movements as well as shuphi, a style of Islamic Sufi song popularised by Kabir's lyrics. Bauls express their emotions through song, but they never bother to write them down. It's virtually an oral tradition for them. They have not attempted to document their activities, lifestyles, or beliefs because they are afraid of leaving a legacy

As a result, there is little concrete proof regarding the group's origins. However, we know that the West Bengal area of Birbhum was formerly the epicenter of Baul activity.

Other instruments include a long-necked fretless lute made of jackfruit or neem tree wood; and the khamak, a one-headed drum with a plucked string. The only difference between this and ektara is that the string is held in one hand while being plucked with the other. And there is no use of bamboo.