Folk Unlimited
WHAT IS BAUL ?
Baul music is one of the most influencial folk styles of Bengal. The Bauls of Bengal belong to a heterodox bhakti tradition which was influenced by all three major religions of the Indian subcontinent i.e. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, and yet is distinctly different from each of them since they reject commonly accepted beliefs and practices such as the caste system and worship in mosques or temples. Baul music generally talks about the philosophy of life, death, soul, God etc. The word Baul means ‘someone who is mad or crazy’ mainly because their lifestyle was unusual to the common people. Moreover, their appearance often differs from that of the general population; Hindu Baul men in particular dress distinctively, with their long hair twisted into a topknot, long loose white or saffron-colored upper garments, and patchwork Coats made of rags. To the Bauls, however, "mad" does not have a pejorative connotation; rather it has the positive sense of "mad with love for God." In fact, pagol and khepa are two Bengali words for ‘mad’ that Bauls often proudly affix to their names.
The Bauls travel from place to place and door to door, singing their mystic folk songs to the accompaniment of an ektara, a one-stringed drone instrument held in one hand, and a dugi, a small drum hung on the shoulder and played with the other hand. Percussion instruments like dhol, khol, kartal, manjira and woodwinds like bamboo flutes are also used. It is mainly through these songs that they give literary expression to their beliefs and practices; only rarely do they compose any treatises. Metaphysical topics are dwelt upon in a humble fashion and in simple words
The ROOTS :
Scholars have placed the origin of the Baul sect anywhere from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. Baul songs provide no clues as to how far back the tradition goes. They are primarily transmitted orally from guru to disciple and from singer to singer, although they may also occasionally be written down in notebooks. As they are passed down, the language tends to be modernized, thus giving no indication of the date of composition. As a matter of fact, one of the oldest songs that can be dated are those of Lalon ‘phokir’. Lalon(1774-1890) was a Bengali saint, mystic, songwriter, social reformer and thinker. He has become an icon of religious tolerance in Bengali culture. His songs inspired and influenced many poets and social and religious thinkers including Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam as he rejected all distinctions of caste and creed. His own religion is a mystery. He is even regarded as the founder of Baul Music by some scholars. Rabindranath Tagore was one of the first who studied Lalon, collected some of his songs and published in a booklet and followed his melody styles in his own lyrics. Then people came to know Lalon more. To further understand the philosophy of Baul, we shall look at some lines of Lalon.
The Lyrics / Composition :
We shall look at the composition called ‘Dhonno dhonno o boli taare’ by Lalon Phokir from 1890.
Dhonno dhonno o boli tāre
translation by the late Dr. Carol Salomon:
I’ve got to hand it to the fellow
who built a house like this,
with its foundation up in the sky!
The house has just two pillars, no more,
and their bases aren’t attached to the floor.
How will this house stay in one piece,
when it’s battered by a raging storm?
It has a basement (muladhara) and nine rooms,
even an attic at the very top.
There a madman sits,
in solitude, the sole Lord.
Upstairs and downstairs,
one after the other,
are nine and a half doors.
Lalan asks, So which one
do I open to get in?
The lyrics as we see are very simple but the meaning is very complex and it takes time for the reader/listener to grasp, understand and digest it. It talks about ‘Deha tatva’ where the poet describes the human body. It says that the human body is like a house with 9 rooms. Unlike other spiritual songs where the God’s name is taken with ‘respect’ here we have the word ‘Paglabaeta’(madman) for God. This friendliness and casualness towards god and his creation is something very unique to baul poetry and philosophy. It is a very liberal interpretation of life and this human body. The use of exclamatory words like ‘oh’, ‘haigo’, ‘maago’ etc is very common and distinctive of baul poetry since it maintains the informal and symplistic nature of the genre as well as the philosophy.
Now we shall analyze this song from the following clip:
YouTube Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFDXg2F2BQo
The melody is straight and simple just like the poetry. But this simple melody is sung very expressively with beautiful phrasing and accents on words like ‘dhonno’ and ‘oh’. This use of the word ‘oh’ that too with an emphasis in the very first line gives a casual and easygoing feel to the music and making it sound as if someone is singing it to a friend. Almost every line is repeated so that the lyrics are clear to the audience. But they are not merely just repeated, instead they are repeated with variations of some notes or putting upbeats which keeps the music interesting. The same technique is also used in Ghazals but it is more harkats based. Theres a lot of unison singing where you sit in a circle and sing together. There are instrumental interludes between different paragraphs provided by dotara and flute. The way of singing is very expressive, they would dance, jump and go mad with the music while playing the ektara in one handing and singing.
Like hindustani classical classical, there are generally no modulations of key within the composition. But unlike Hindustani classical, there are not much harkats and murkis in baul music but instead you have long free notes full of vibrato. So the difficulty doesn’t lie in singing tans and all but instead in projecting these simple notes beautifully and meaningfully with your own expression to the audience in order to preach the bhakti philosophy. The most common metre used is 6/8 even though 4/4 and others are also used.
The Performance:
Since there are no microphones used while singing Baul, therefore the voice also needs to have good resonance and projection in order for the voice to travel through. Interestingly, this rendition and voice projection of music in this case of Baul singer is the result of the Baul’s incessant attention to all the processes in his mind and body. At all times, the Baul is ready to utter his thoughts and feelings in poetical expressions with simple melodies. Therefore she/he always carries with him an ektata or dotara. In addition, a small kettle drum(dugi) may be tied to his waist. Sometimes the baul performs his songs in the presence of a larger audience, which she/he may find mainly at annual fairs.
A baul singer opens her/his heart and sings these compositions. Not only the singer, but the instrumentalists like the dotara player or gubgubi player and others would also dance and enjoy the music making. If the singer wants to dance to his song, a boy or another baul is there to accompany her/him. When several bauls meet at a fair or somewhere else, they may form a group, consisting od singer-soloist, ektara player, dotara player, and a few percussion instruments. This ensemble gets its distinctive tone colour by a rattle of small bells which indicates the musical metre, and by the plucked drum called Gubgubi or Anandlahari, whose peculiar sound emerges clearly when the singer pauses especially in the interlude sections between the paragraphs.
Baul Today:
In today’s day, Satyananda Das Baul, Praban Das Baul and Parvathy baul are some renounced Baul singers. Being a Brahmin girl, Parvathy was rejected by family and school for taking up Baul. Since 1995 she has performed in her home state Bengal and all over India. She was also invited to participate in several international festivals including Festival de l'imaginaire (Paris), Festival international du Conte et du Monodrame (Beirut, Libanon), and Ethnomad (Geneva, Switzerland). Shapla salique a British bangladeshi is another artist who is propagating Baul Sangeet in today’s world by fusing it with other western styles. The way she blends the genres is extremely interesting. Baul Music is a magical genre and even though Bauls comprise only a small fraction of the Bengali population, their influence on the culture of Bengal is considerable. In 2005, the Baul tradition was included in the list of “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” by UNESCO. In present times Bauls are found in the Indian state of West Bengal and the eastern parts of Bihar and Jharkhand and the country of Bangladesh. The Baul movement was at its peak in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but even today one comes across the occasional Baul with his Ektara (one-stringed musical instrument) and begging bowl, singing across the farflung villages of rural Bengal. Travelling in local trains and attending village fairs are good ways to encounter Bauls.
Saurav Manna
KM Music Conservatory