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Spirituality
Bouls
of Bengal
A Unique Tribe of Wandering
Minstrels
“I am He whom I love, and He whom I
love is, I,
We are two spirits indwelling one body,
When thou seest me, thou seest Him,
And when thou seest Him, then thou doest see us both.”
– Mansur Hallaj (The Great Sufi saint and martyr)
It is not unlikely that you, my esteemed
reader of the instant article, will be travelling someday in a train on
the relatively obscure Sahebgunj loop of Indian railways connecting
Bihar through the districts of Burdwan and Birbhum of West Bengal. As is
natural for your scholastic bend of mind and your never satiated urge
for more knowledge, you are keen for a quick visit to Santiniketan,
known world over as a place of learning with a marked difference, made
famous by Gurudev Rabindranath, the first Nobel laureate of Asia and his
illustrious father Rishi Debendranath Tagore. Also, with your never
ceasing curiosity and leaning to always take a feel of the rhythm and
pulse of life of the common people wherever you go, you have selectively
boarded a local train which stops at every station in its own leisurely
fashion and shows not much of any inclination to leave with haste. Or
may be your are heading further west for a visual acquaintance with the
famous Kali temple of Tarapith near Rampurhat, distinguished as one of
the greatest shrines of this country by the holy memories, in the
ancient time by Rishi Bashista and in the relatively recent time by the
great mystic and worshipper of the tantric cult, Bamdev, more widely
known as Sadhak Bamakhyapa. Or even may be on your journey for a still
further west shrine at Nalhati, one of the 51 Satipiths lying scattered
all over India and even beyond its present boundaries, for paying your
homage to Mother Kali, the creator and destroyer of the universe. All
these places alongside the Sahabgunj loopline of the Indian railways are
located within the district of Birbhum, about 200 Km west of Calcutta
(Kolkata).
The train has stopped at a small station, say Bataspur, Sainthia or
Swadhinpur and suddenly overlapping the clamors of your never silent
co-passengers or the cacophony let loose by the never subdued hawking
vendors, a lone but distinct voice of a singer, rustic in flavor but
singularly sweet and melodious in character, becomes audible to you as a
pleasant surprise. The physical features of your entertainer are yet to
be unveiled for you as he is still struggling his way forward through
the crowd of the travelers in your compartment. You can’t surely take
him amiss for a common beggar as, with your discerning ears for talent,
you have already awarded multiple credit points to him, acknowledging
his proficiency as a vocalist and a musician.
The sweet melody of his voice catering a
devotional type or a folk based song, mostly pensive in mood or though
seemingly joyful in its outer fabric, actually sad in its inner
ambience, is made sweeter and more melodious by the occasional sounds
from a stringed instrument. You are listening with rapt attention and
craning your eyes above the wall of the crowding passengers in a bid of
impatient waiting, to have a look at your itinerant vocalist who has
assured you already of a class of his own.
Yes, here he is now at last! Like the uniqueness of the quality and
character of his song, he is also an object of distinction in his
appearance, to be treasured up in your mind in the years to come or to
be photographed carefully from different angles. You are more lucky if
you are travelling with a handheld movie camera or a latest digital type
for, like his pleasant song he is decidedly pleasing also to look at,
dancing in a suave, gentle gesture to the rhythms of his own song, at
times swirling in a complete circular motion on the spot where he has
now reached, on one foot, the small metal bells (ghungur or ghunroo as
they call in the local language) tied around the ankles of his feet
emitting a supportive sound. This is surely not all. Look he has in his
right hand a one-stringed improvised instrument which they call ‘EKTARA’
literally meaning an instrument having only one string. He has also
another one-stringed instrument in his left hand known as ‘Gupijantra’
which, when played with the help of a polished piece of coconut shell,
scoops up an uncommon, never heard before sound, peculiar to hear
isolated but suitable when played as an accompaniment, mainly a filler
or interlude music for his song. No, he can not play the ‘Ektara’ and
his ‘Gupijantra’ simultaneously as the later instrument demands
employment of his both hands when played. But wonder of wonders! Look!
Like a one-man orchestra, he is taking access to yet another instrument
when he is not using his ‘Gupijantra’. This is a small sized drum type
instrument, an indigenous version of a locally made percussion, the size
of your palm, held in his left hand and slung with a string from his
shoulder. Surely, he is playing this together with his ‘Ektara’
simultaneously, to provide occasional beats to one of his fast paced
songs.
May be you are keen to collect one or all of these accompanying
instruments, the ‘Ektara’, the ’Gupijantra’ and the miniature drum to
keep them as your memento or even with a distant ambition to learn and
sing like him in one of the coming days. Be advised and become wise to
spare yourself of the trouble of a fruitless hunting. You can not
purchase any of these in any musical shop of the world. Most probably,
the instruments are self-made or made at the exclusive guidance of the
singer himself, by a village artisan living next door, meant for the
exclusive use of his brother musician and gifted to him as a gesture of
love and appreciation. He is not a professional and most probably he
will decline to make another set for you even if all the money you have
is proposed to change hands.
But lose not your heart as there is still a chance for success and not a
very difficult one. Go and befriend the singer in a bid of genuine
affection and he will be a lifetime friend of yours as he has a heart
made of pure gold flowing with the milk of love and compassion for
mankind walking the face of the entire earth which is the real
inspiration of his angelic song. The instruments being now used by him
will be all yours after the song is over.
This way you will find yourself placed
beside your all time favorite, the great Bob Dylan, who has become an
ardent admirer and life long friend of Purnadas Baul of Golemale,
Golemale Pirit Korona or Amar Jemon Beni fame. If your present singer is
now singing one of these songs, do you feel drawn to lend an extra ear
to be not very remotely conscious of an affinity of the mood and mode
singing of his song with that of Dylan’s famous number Slow Train Coming
or How Many Roads Man Must Walk Down? Don’t blame yourself as being over
fanciful. There is substance in your fancy as the both sets of songs,
being ethnic in character, belong to the same category of folk/country
type songs having common roots, as the musicologists and researchers in
primitive arts and culture have now almost unanimously opined. They are
distant members of the same brethren.
Ask your singer his name and he will introduce himself as, may be,
Sudhir Das Baul, a no less talented singer of Boul songs. If you are
more inquisitive and insistent, ask him and be informed that he is
presently on his journey back from Kolkata where he had been to record
songs at Kolkata Television Center or the All India Radio, Kolkata and
the songs are being broadcast or aired right at present and he is not at
all bothered to hear himself singing. Give him a few coins and he will
accept them with salutation in a humble but dignified gesture. No, he is
not a beggar in the traditional sense but an adherent of a fast decaying
religion which has mandated him to earn his living only this way, as the
orthodox Vaishnavites do, following dictates of Madhukari which means
sanction for begging strictly as little as necessary for a day’s living
only. Yes, Boul, in the true sense of the term, is not a class of
singers or a class of songs as is commonly confused, but a non-Vedic
religion dating back to not less than eight hundred years which has
assimilated in itself ideas and beliefs from Buddhism and more
particularly the Vaishnab and Sufi cults of Hinduism and Islam in equal
prevalence.
The term ‘Boul’ appears to have taken its origin from the Sanskrit word
‘Byakul’ meaning ‘restive with emotion’, ‘forgetful of his material
surroundings’, ‘disarrayed in dress, habits and behavior’ etc. A synonym
of this word is ‘Aul’ which has the same meaning as ‘Boul’, but seems to
have originated from the word ‘Akul’ or may have taken its root from the
Arabic word ‘Wali’ which in Sufi literature is applied for a man who has
attained superior consciousness having known the Almighty. The Muslim
Bouls who underwent marked and decided influence of Sufism, are called
‘Aulias’ to distinguish them from the ‘Bouls’ of the other class, the
adherents of their ancestral Hindu religion by practice but essentially
believers in the same faith. In West Bengal and also in the erstwhile
East Bengal, now Bangladesh, they (the Muslim Bouls) are also known as
Nerar Fakir, Besra Fakir or Marfati Fakir and Bedati Fakirs. ‘Nera’
means a ‘shaven headed person’. Among the Buddhist monks, it was their
practice as part of their religion to shave off their heads as a symbol
of relinquishment of all fascinations for worldly attractions and
stringency of living as well.
In the middle of the 8th century A.D, the first Gopaldev by a republican
choice was elected to the throne of Bengal and he founded the Pal
dynasty. At that time Tantric Buddhism was at its peak of influence in
Bengal, having two opposing doctrines of preaching, viz., Bajrajan and
Sahajjan. A large class of poor and underprivileged people at that time
first adopted Sahajia Buddhism and subsequently got converted to Islam.
Though Muslim by their religion they continued to carry some of their
old religious practices and ideas. They would shave off their heads as
in their past and kept on practicing and believing in many of the basic
creeds of Sahajia Buddhism. They came to be known as ‘Fakirs’ or ‘Nerar
Fakirs’. They were also strongly influenced by Sufism and
simultaneously, to some extent of the Vaishnavism of Goud, propounded by
Sri Chaitanyadev.
Another down-trodden, poor class people which did not convert to Islam
despite neglect and oppression meted out to them by the upper strata
members of the contemporary society and had to stay aloof as outcastes,
chose to espouse the new ideas of Vaishnavism but kept on adhering to
some of the essential practices of the tantric Buddhism. To indicate
their converted status from Buddhism to Vaishnavism, they would be known
as ‘Nera-Neri’. It is said that Biravadra, the son of Sri Nityananda,
brought them under the fold of Vishnavism. The Bouls believe that Sri
Chaitanya, the great proponent and preacher of the Vaishnav cult of
Goud, was the father of their religion and the book named
‘Chaitanyacharitamrita’ by Sri Krishnadas Kaviraj is believed by them to
contain hidden references of the basic concept of their religion. The
communion of the eternal Masculine and the eternal Feminine, symbolized
through the love and union of Radha and Krishna known to them as the
Radha-Krishna creed is also synonymous to them as Sri Chaitanya creed.
The Bouls believe that Sri Chaitanya was the symbol of the ultimate
union of the eternal Masculine and the eternal Feminine, viz., Radha and
Krishna. This concept of the Radha-Krishna creed or the Sri Chaitanya
creed also exerted strong influence upon the Muslim Bouls. They accepted
Sri Chaitanya as a great prophet and since many of the ideas of
Vaishnavism of Goud preached by him echo the same beliefs and religious
emotions nurtured by them, many of their songs are found to have been
composed on these ideas.
The Muslim Bouls were also greatly influenced by Sufism which believes
that ‘Noor’ or the sublime glory of the Almighty Allah gets reflected in
the ‘Nabi’ as the symbol of His all embracing love for the mankind and
he exists in all men of the universe which He created. ‘Nabi’ according
to their belief is the fullest manifestation of the power and glory of
the Almighty. He is ‘Insan-ul- Kamil’, the complete Man.” The expression
Al Insan-ul-Kamil, literally meaning “The Perfect Man occurs for the
first time in the writings of Ibn’ul’Arabi (Fasus-ul-Hikam) and it
denotes the highest type of humanity. In other words it represents a
Sufi who has realized his essential oneness with God. Ibn’ul ‘Arabi
bases his theory of the ‘Perfect Man’ on a pantheistic monism which
regards: “the Haqq” or the Creator and the Khalq or the Creatures as
complementary aspects of the Absolute Being”.
The ‘Nabi’, being the Insan-ul-Kamil, is the symbol of great spiritual
inspiration for these Sufi Bouls like Sri Chaitanya who also exerted
unmistakable influence on them, being a votary of the religion of man,
the doctrine of realization of God through love and submission. The idea
of spiritual egotism and oneness with God preached by the Sufi mystics
find resonance in the Hindu concept of Atman:
“The spirit within me is smaller than a
mustard seed,
The spirit within me is greater than this earth
And the sky and the heaven and all these are united.
It is Brahman.”
So in the songs of these Muslim Bouls one
discovers a unique secular approach in defining the mystery of the
Creation, the bondage of divine love between Man and the Almighty, a
generous acceptance of the both faiths of Vaisavism of the Hindus and
Sufism of the Muslims.
The Bouls of the Hindu class usually dress like the Vaishnabs wearing a
string of beads around their necks and adorning their foreheads with
tilaks. They wear on their persons a loosely fitted overall like
clothing either yellow or red. Many of them keep long hairs arranged as
a topknot known as dhammil in their community but not all of them keep
their hair in the same style. At the time of going on rounds for
collecting their alms they take along a walking stick, a coconut shell
cut in halves and a makeshift bag shaped out of a single piece of cloth
called by them as ‘Jhola’ or ‘Jhuli’. They keep long beards and
moustaches. But some even take regular shaves. The Muslim Bouls,
however, wear white overalls or a two piece dress, a white lungi and a
white vest on the upper portion of the body.
Though some of the Bouls may have continued to remain a begging class,
most of the others either cultivate or indulge in carpentry or livestock
breeding for living. Some even have started business or have taken up
job and they have completely relinquished the practice of begging which
was once a part of their rituals and worshipping.
From towards the end of the 19th century the proper nuances of the term
’Boul’ started getting diluted. The ‘Bouls’ began symbolizing a
particular class of folk type songs sung by a particular class of
itinerant singers, either for a living or for an identity as
entertainers of a distinct and different category. This is decidedly a
departure from the true understanding of the word ‘Bouls’ and a
misconceived approach to looking upon a unique class of adherents of a
distinct religious faith having their own socio-religious customs and
quest for the ultimate truth, i.e., realization of the Divine and the
supreme manifestation of the powers and spirit of the Almighty reflected
through the soul of all men on earth.
‘Bouls’ are, truly speaking, a religious sect and not a mere community
of wandering minstrels like the French troubadours who roamed about in
different parts of France and Italy in the 11th- 13th century singing
love songs and heroic deeds of the knights. The ‘Bouls’, though now a
decadent and a fast reducing community, have their own faith and
philosophy, rituals of living and worship, vast experiences of religious
journeys gained and transmitted down by the highest attainers of their
faith and above all a definite attitude to life and the universe.
As the ‘Bouls’ in the past were strongly influenced by the ways of the
Buddhist Sahajiya class of worshippers, the word ‘Sahaj’, meaning in
literal sense, the simple, finds repeated mentions and reference in the
songs and customs of the ‘Bouls’. The mention of the word is found to
first occur in the Buddhist Sahajia texts. Then in the middle age we see
use of the term in the compositions of the adherents and believers of
the Bhakti as well as the yogic cults in the North-Western part of India
like Saint Kabir and the Vaishnab sahajia worshippers.
The ‘Bouls’ strive for attaining the ultimate realization or the
Nirvana, the highest form enlightenment, by reaching the ‘Sahaj’ state
of mind like the Buddhist sahajias. This state of mind according to them
is the ultimate goal of their worship, synonymous with ’Nirvana’,
‘Mahasukh(meaning the purest form of joy)’, ‘Sukhraj(meaning the
princely state of pleasure)’ etc. When this state of joy is attained by
the worshipper, he loses all consciousness or sensitivity about the
teller and the told, the learner and the learned, the consumer and the
consumable.
This state denotes the existence of the
barrier of Vikalpajal meaning veil of Maya as opposed to nirvikalpa
state of mind. By piercing through this Vikalpajal one attains the
Nirvikalpa, the most sublime form of joy which is not dissolution of the
ultimate but attainment of enlightenment in its purest and the final
form through sahajia path of worship and meditation. In this state one
crosses past in his quest all menace of doom and degeneration. ‘Jahi Mon
Pavan Na Sanchrai,/ Ravi, Sasi Nahe Pabesh (Where the mind and all
manifestations of material living become stilled and where or in which
stage even the Sun or the Moon is refused admission).
After the advent of Sri Chaitanya a strong musical environment in Bengal
established itself as a way of worshipping in the form of nam sankrittan
(chanting of the names Hari & Krishna), Viashnab padavali krittan ( a
semi or near classical form of Indian music sung by expert singers
setting music to selected parts of Vaishnab Padabalis composed by famous
composer like Chandidas, Gyandas, Govindadas, Joydev etc. The talas,
meaning the beats applied, often tend to be of very difficult matrixes.
These are extremely lyrical in character and mostly composed on the
theme of love and separation between Sri Radha and Sri Krishna). For
this reason, it got almost spontaneously and unanimously acknowledged
that if any idea or emotion relating to God and Religion had to be
expressed, it ought to be through song and music. Since the Bouls
derived inspiration substantially from Vaishnabism, they also chose, in
a way of natural selection, their songs to be the medium of expression
for their faith and ideas.
The Fakirs of Sufi faith also used to assemble in solitude to exchange
and express their religious ideas and experiences through songs and
dances known as ‘Sama’. The Bouls of the Hindu community and the Muslim
Fakirs of Sufi faith met together separately in their respective joints
(akhras or asthanas) away from the locality and would discuss details of
their mystic faith and realizations, through songs. Songs were their
mode of self expression and an inseparable part of their existence.
It was around 1650 A.D which we may call the time of first evolution of
Boul songs which flourished through the 18th century unto the end of the
19th century. Understanding the metaphysical through the physical or
searching for the Reality behind the Appearance, constitutes the basic
concept of the religious quest of the Bouls. This they call as the
‘Rup-Swarup Tatta’. The mystic journey of the soul centering round the
physical body for liberation from the bondage of physical and worldly
attractions leading to the realization of the ultimate truth and joy of
the highest kind, is the root of the essential spirituality of the
Bouls. Holistically and simplistically speaking, this is the essential
idea of the Tantric mode of worshiping developed in India in the long
past and subsequently passed on to the Buddhists, both of the Bajrajan
and the Sahajjan sect, the Vaishnab Sahajias and the Bouls of the later
time.
The Bouls believe that the entire truth for the seeker of the ultimate
realization can be traced in the body itself and not beyond. This exists
in the form of a divine pleasure born out of the communion of the
eternal Masculine and the eternal Feminine, Shiva and Shakti or in the
other words, Pursha and the Prakriti. Union in love of the Pursha and
Prakriti and pure joy created out of that is what the Bouls call the
‘Sahaja’ state of Nature and all existence. By rigorous and successful
yogic practices under the expert guidance of a Guru (Preceptor, the
religious guide) one can reach this stage. So the physical body is of
the utmost importance for the quest of truth for the Bouls. It is the
‘Bhanda (the receptacle) containing all and everything of the ‘Brahmanda
(the Universe)’ in the miniscule form. This body centric approach of
worshipping has been echoed time and again in the Boul, Murshidi,
Marfati songs down the ages and can be traced back to the 800-1200 AD in
the compositions known as ‘Charyapad’ which reflects the essential
philosophy of Buddhism. In the following composition of Siddhacharya Lui
Pa of that time this idea has been emphasized very briefly but very
prominently:
“ Ka A Tarubara Panchabi Dala,
Chanchal Chitta Paitha Kala,
Dirh Kariya Mahasukha Pariman,
Lui Bhanai Guru Puchhiya Jana”
Here the body has been imagined as a tree
of which the branches have been equated with the six senses of the body.
For the veil of Maya and absence of the true knowledge the fragile mind
becomes restless and attracts as consequence several sufferings for the
soul and the body. So one has to control the allurements of the material
pleasures which, when achieved under the able guidance of the Guru, can
bring joy of the highest kind.
Long before the Muslims came to India, anarchism, licentious leanings
and practices in religion, oppression for the poor and the common mass
of people were let loose by Brahmanic Hinduism (Brahmanyabad) in the
contemporary Bengal. The oppressed class reached the peak of their
tolerance and their frustration. Consequentially, against this backdrop
and as a weapon of protest, the religion of Lord Buddha laid its base
and flourished in this part of the country exerting decided influence on
the masses for quite sometime. Later in the 13th Century, invaders from
Turkey took political control of the of the land and many devotees of
the Sufi cult, Pirs and Darbeshes came in their trail and they, mainly
the Sufis, preached as the basic doctrines of their faith declaring the
soul of man to be the source of all powers. They assured all seekers,
without discrimination, attainability of the joy of unification with the
soul of the Creator through prayers and refinement. What they preached
had affinity in its essence what the worshippers of the Buddhist Sahajia
faith had said. The stock of the common people which descended from the
Buddhist Sahajia clan but did not return to the Hindu fold by adopting
as their faith , the Vaishnabism of Goud which was also conceived and
propounded by Sri Chaitanya as a protest and religious option against
the oppressive Brahmanism at the time, got converted into Sufism of
Islam. Thus the community which had once established its own identity as
adherents of a new and different kind of religious faith subsequently
got divided into two separate branches of the same brethren. The Hindu
followers became known as ‘Bouls’ and the Muslims as ‘Ayuls’, Marfati
Bouls, Murshidi Fakirs, Bedati Fakirs etc. This is how their faith
deviated from the preaching of Vedic Hinduism which puts emphasis upon
ceremonies and rituals and worship of multiple godheads. Contrarily, the
religion of the Bouls is man-centric and truly secular in belief and
approach, imagining Man to be the ultimate reality as part of the
supreme Creator, above all barriers of caste, creed and inhibitions.
The laterite zone of the western part of the erstwhile undivided Bengal
in the districts of Birbhum, Bankura, Burdwan is known as the home of
some famous Bouls like Padmalochan, Jadubindu and in the recent time,
Nabanidas Boul, the illustrated father of Purnadas Boul of global fame.
Panja Shah of the middle Bengal is a famous Sufi Boul of all times who
in his early youth kept close company with the Vaishnabs and his
compositions echo positive influence of their cult. But Lalan Shah or
Lalan Fakir is universally acknowledged as the most famous among the
Bouls of the both categories of all times. He is accepted as a ‘Siddha
Purush (meaning one who has attained enlightenment of the highest
order). He had substantial knowledge of the Vaishnabite faith and
religion and simultaneously of Sufi cult and literature. His
compositions still very popular among the singers and listeners and
widely sung in the entire region of the present West Bengal and the
erstwhile East Bengal, now Bangladesh, have greatly enriched the folk
literature and the domain of poetry of the entire Bengal in both the
spheres. He himself was and still remains a living example of
unification of two faiths, Islam and Hinduism, a unique personification
of equal love and respect for two apparently opposing religious
concepts.
The life story of Lalan Fakir has always
remained an interesting saga of fate and sudden turn of events any
mortal may fall prey to. It has been a chosen, all time favorite subject
for play, movie, novel and Jatras (rural form of drama acted on a open
air stage with spectators sitting on all three sides keeping only one
side closed for entry and exit of the actors) over the ages and popular
T.V serials in the present.
Lalan was born, the story goes, in an orthodox Hindu family. When he was
still young, he went out to visit some far off places of religious
interest with some of his friends and associates from his village. They
had completed their pilgrimage and were on their way back. Lalan, when
still to cover some more miles from home, contracted small pox, then an
almost incurable lethal disease. Lalan went into unconsciousness under
severe spell of the malady and his fellow pilgrims taking Lalan to be
dead, left him on the way, outside a village. An elderly kindhearted,
childless woman belonging to the Muslim community found him in that
condition when she was approaching a nearby canal to fetch water. Lalan,
though almost dead by now, had not really died which the lady could have
felt by her experience and motherly affection. One pirbaba (an
enlightened hermit of Sufi faith) living in the village and believed by
the villagers including the woman who was an ardent follower of the
god-man, to have supramental powers brought Lalan to senses and
ultimately cured him at the request of the woman. Since the woman and
the villagers could not be sure of the religious identity of Lalan who
had absolutely forgotten his past, though now completely recovered, was
adopted as son by the childless woman and was initiated into Islam by
the Pirbaba. Long after, when Lalan had by then acquired sound knowledge
of Islam and particularly of the mystic faith of Sufism under the
tutelage of the Pirbaba and had got back his memory of the past, he went
back to his original village where his parents and wife lived. Under
wrong information conveyed to them by Lalan’s fellow pilgrims of the
past, his kindred had by now taken him to be dead and had performed his
last rites. Lalan’s parents refused to accept him back into their family
fearing social boycott and his wife also declined to accompany him and
live with him in his new found home. Lalan got back to his surrogate
mother who was almost dead now with grief, missing his godsend child,
was only overjoyed, hardly believing her luck for the second time. Lalan
continued to live in the village and the prodigious possibilities lying
latent in him as a poet and a religious visionary flourished into a full
blown genius in time under love, affection and guidance of his parents
and his Guru. For the rest of his life he kept alive in his heart his
love for the religion he had acquired by birth which he successfully
combined with his respect for the religion he adopted later. Thus he
became a staunch believer and exponent of a new, secular faith that
yearns to reach for the love of the Almighty by loving all men on earth
irrespective of their caste, creed, race and religion. This magnanimity
of his faith and understanding has been very aptly reflected in the
following lines of his song, perhaps the most well known and the most
popular among his compositions:
Sab Loke Koy Lalan Ki Jaat E Sansare
( All are anxious to know what religion of the world
Lalan actually belongs to)
Lalan Bole Jaater Ki Rup Dekhlam Na Ei Najore
( Lalan submits his ignorance and says,
“ I have failed to visualize how one’s religion looks like”)
Jagat Jure Jaater Katha, Galpo Kore Jatha Tatha
(They, from all corners of the globe,
Keep on talking about religion
And indulge in idle chatting on the subject)
Jawa Kimba Asar Belai Jaater Chinha Roy Kare?
(But, who bears any mark of religion
When he is born or sets out for his last journey?)
My dear reader you have by now almost
reached your destination and have known a bit about the descent, culture
and religion of your new-found friend. He is also set to leave and you
might be keen to know about and acquaint yourself with many more of his
class. You are welcome and if you can make it next time, please note
down in your travel book names of at least two places, viz., Kenduli on
Ajoy river in Birbhum itself which is famous and known as the birth
place of Kavi Joydev of Geet Govindam fame. An open air, nightlong Boul
Mela ( a fair where many Bouls meet and dance) every year is organized
here where many Bouls of the Hindu and Muslim community meet together on
the last day of the winter month of Poush of the Bengali calendar, to
sing in honor of poet Joydev, known to be a great devotee of Lord
Krishna. Another famous spot and a place of annual assembly of Bouls of
another sect known as ‘Kartabhajas’ is Ghoshpara near the modern
sub-divisional town of Kalyani in the Nadia district, located about 60
KM north of Kolkata. Here also many Bouls meet every year on occasion of
a fair known as Sati Mar Mela (the fair in honor of Sati Ma). Sati Ma is
worshipped by the members of the Kartabhaja community, a sect of the
Bouls of Vaishnavite faith as a god-woman and the founder lady of their
order. A nightlong fair is organized by them each year on the previous
night of Holi (Doljatra) before the temple of Sati Ma, like the one in
Kendubilwa (Kenduli), when many devotees of various faiths besides the
members of the Kartabhaja community assemble and pay homage to her. The
Kartabhajas (literally meaning worshippers of the Head of the Community
or Sect) have an interesting story of their origin, evolution and faith.
But please don’t tempt me to go in for that this time. Viswa Bharati
also organizes a Boul Mela at Santiniketan each year as poet
Rabindranath was an admirer of Boul songs and the philosophy and ideas
underlying their traditional compositions are essentially in agreement
with the spirit and ideals of Brahma Samaj which he belonged to and of
which his father was a great proponent.
Dear reader, let me finish with a word of caution about the
traditionality and the recent trend in Boul songs as very understandably
you may be interested to collect some of them now as an admirer, for
your listening in solitude when you go back to your place and also may
be inclined to collect some as memento for your like minded friends back
home who have not been fortunate like you to be personally present in
the land of the Bouls. Yes, Boul songs are available on cassettes, CDs
and gramophone records. But most of them are from the amateur or
professional modern composers and barring only a few, they are not
traditional Boul songs from the old and enlightened Bouls who had vision
and true inspiration, having progressed and reached milestones in their
religious quest for the love of God. This trend for amateurish
composition of Boul songs outside the true Boul community started
towards the end of the 19th century at the hands of Sri Harinath
Majumder who composed in the pseudonym of Kangal Harinath or Kangal
Fikirchand and Sri Golok Chandra Bandyopadhyay who wrote using the
nickname Deen Baul. These amateurs belonging to other vocations and
never initiated as Bouls in the true sense added a new dimension to the
stock of traditional Boul songs writing profusely on a variety of
subjects, social, political, revolutionary ideals of the patriots
towards the end of the British rule in India etc. Unlike them, the
traditional Bouls restricted their compositions on the extremely limited
themes of the philosophy of their religion, mystic journey of the soul
imagining the physical body as the total embodiment of all mysteries of
existence, the rigorous practices and preparations under the able
guidance of the Guru for realization of the final truth and the like
themes only. The modern Boul songs try to replicate the mystic trend in
expression used by the traditional Bouls known as Sandhya Bhasa ( a
double meaning language having an idea deep inside, resembling the
appearance of a twilight, with its mixture of light and shade creating a
sort of illusion. Sandhya means twilight and Bhasa means language). But
what is there to do? Under the impact of rapid industrialization and
other socio-economic factors the Boul community is on their path to fast
extinction. The modern Bouls have kept alive atleast some semblance of a
rich heritage and we may have no objection to the compositions of the
amateur composers. Afterall, Gurudev Rabindranath also loved to imagine
himself to be a Boul and composed quite a few songs in typical Boul
fashion as in the following lines:
“Amar Praner Manush Ache Prane
(He who is my soul-mate lives in my soul itself)
Tai Heri Taye Sakal Khane
(Thus I see him everywhere)
Achhe Se Nayan Taraye, Alok Dharaye
(He exists within my eyes, he exists in the stream of light)
Tai Na Haraye
( So he is never lost)
Ogo Tai Heri Taye Jethaye Sethaye Takai Ami Jedik Pane
(So he is visible for me here there and at all places wherever I cast
my eyes)
– Gautam Sengupta
June 22, 2003
Acknowledgement:
1. Banglar Baul-Dr. Upendra Nath Bhattacharya.
2. Lok Sangeet O Samaj Jeevan-an article by Sri Kankan Bhattacharya
published in Sangeet Mulyan Baktritamala, Paschim Banga Rajya Sangeet
Academy, Government of West Bengal
and edited by Dr. Utpala Goswami.
3. Religious Experiences of Mankind-Smt. Sobharani Basu, published by
Calcutta University.
4. The Great Religions By Which Men Live-Floyd H.Ross and Tynette Hills.
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