Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 23. 4. 23
Bauls
of Bengal
Recently I had been to Santiniketan in Birbhum
district of West Bengal as a resource person for a refresher training programme
for senior officers of Public Relations and Culture Department.
Santiniketan, where Rabindranath Tagore established
and nurtured Viswabharti University is an idyllic place with an old world charm
oozing with art and music. Birbhum district incidentally is known for its Baul
songs and culture. If you travel from Howrah to Bolpur (Santiniketan), you’ll
be treated with choicest Baul songs en route by singers, most of them wearing
loose saffron dresses.
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| Photo: Mrinal Chatterjee at Sonajhuri Haat, Santiniketan. |
The word Baul, I read from an article, comes
from the Sanskrit “Batul,” which means mad, or “afflicted
by the wind disease.” The Bauls are India’s wandering minstrels
of Bengal, whose song and dance reflect the joy, love and longing for mystical
union with the Divine. Bauls are free thinkers who openly declare
themselves to be mad for the God who dwells within us all.
The origin of the Bauls is uncertain, but they
are believed to have emerged in the late medieval period in Bengal, around the
16th century. They were influenced by the Bhakti movement, a devotional
movement that emphasized direct personal experience of the divine and rejected
the formalities and ritualism of organized religion.
The Bauls of Bengal follow a syncretic
religious philosophy that is a blend of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sufism. They
believe in the universality of the divine and that the ultimate truth can only
be attained through personal experience. They reject traditional religious
structures and practices, and instead, seek spiritual fulfillment through
music, dance, and poetry. The Bauls believe in the concept of "moner
manush," which means the man of the heart. They believe that the heart is
the true abode of the divine and that one can achieve spiritual enlightenment
by exploring the depths of one's own heart. They use music and poetry as a
means of expressing their devotion and exploring the mysteries of the human
heart.
The Bauls of Bengal are known for their unique
musical style, which is a blend of classical Indian music, folk music, and Sufi
devotional music. They use a range of musical instruments, including the
ektara, dotara, tabla, and flute. Their music is characterized by its
simplicity and sincerity, and it is often accompanied by dance and chanting.
The Bauls of Bengal are also known for their
distinctive attire, which includes saffron-colored robes and dreadlocks.
The Bauls expressed their spiritual insights
through their music, which was a blend of folk and classical styles, and their
lyrics, which were often in the form of cryptic metaphors and symbols. Many
songs of Lalon Fakir (1772-1890) have been included in Baul oeuvre.
I’ll write about Lalon Fakir in this column next week.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Bauls
began to attract the attention of poets, scholars, and artists, who were
fascinated by their mysticism and musical traditions. This led to a revival of
interest in Baul culture and a growing recognition of its significance as a
unique expression of Bengali spirituality.
Geeta
Gobinda
Last week
I wrote about Jaydeva or Joydeb a century poet who composed Geeta Gobinda,
which has been an important part of Jagannath culture and ritual in the
Jagannath Temple.
The Gīta
Govinda kayva is a lyrical poem, dramatizing the love sports
of Krishna and Radha on the surface and conveying simultaneously the deep ethos
of devotion of the individual soul, its pining for God realization and finally
attaining the consummation in service of God. This Bhava is
similar in both god realization and eroticism and the cloak fits in well.
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Since
the Gīta Govinda was composed specifically for dance
performance during the night worship of Lord Jagannatha, the composition is so
deftly made as to be sung to the beats of a dancer’s foot movements. The author
himself at the end of the Kavya again states this fact, where he again
emphasizes that the poem was intended to the Kavya again states this fact,
where he again emphasizes that the poem intended to be a prop for meditation on
Vishnu and it is clothed in Srngara rasa by thekavi Jayadeva
pandita immersed in the contemplation of Krishna. The poem became so popular
that within a century or so, it spread to all corners of the country from east
to south, west and north and was adapted to dance, music, painting and temple
worship.
The Gīta
Govinda consists of twelve chapter, further divided into
twenty-four songs. Each song consists of eight couplets, it is called Ashtapadi. Chapter
one and chapter two, four five and twelve contain twoashtapadi each;
chapters three, six, eight, nine and ten contain only one ashtapadi each.
Thus there are twenty-four ashtapadis. These ashtapadis can
be set to music in different melodious ragas, which were appreciated and
followed by the poets later period.
The Little Kali.
I met her, a little girl of eight or nine years old at Bolpur
Santiniketan railway station, as I was waiting for my train back to Howrah. She
was dressed like Goddess Kali. Usually Goddess kali looks ferocious. But she
looked rather cute.
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| Photo by Mrinal Chatterjee at Bolpur Railway Station |
I asked her: can I take your photo? She smiled like an angel
and stood for the camera. As I took the photo, my train entered the platform.
And she said, ‘koi dao’ (give me). I
hurriedly fished out a ten rupee note and gave her. She again smiled and as I
boarded the train she waved at me.
The Little Kali.
++
A compilation of
this weekly column published in 2022 has been published as an e-book, titled
Window Seat 2022. Readers, interested to get a complimentary copy, please send
your email id to mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com
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