Folk Song….Baul Gaan

বাউল গান..যারা শুদ্ধ সঙ্গীত ভালবাসে

at Khoai Hat in Sonajhuri Forests near Shantiniketan in West Bengal India.

if you love Nature….If you love Mankind….

If you believe in His Grace….it’s the right place to land and spend few afternoons & I will call it an Indulgence with Nature.

Baul is there to enchant you to enrich your Soul to bring you closure to your own Being.

It was in end of April 2018 and I recollect these shots from a visit to a very historical Khoai Hat in Sonajhuri Forests near Shantiniketan in WB India.

Baul or Bauls (বাউল গান)

These Bauls are a group of Mystic Minstrels from West Bengal and a part of Bangladesh as well.

Bouls constitute both as a religious sect and a musical tradition and they are a very heterogeneous group, with many sects, but their membership mainly consists of “Vaishnab Hindus” and “Sufi Muslims”.

They can often be identified by their distinctive clothes and musical instruments.

“Lalon” is regarded as the most important poet-practitioner of the Baul tradition.Baul music had a great influence on “Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry” and on his music “Rabindra Sangeet”.

লালন “বাউল ঐতিহ্যের সর্বাপেক্ষা গুরুত্বপূর্ণ কবি-কারিগর হিসেবে বিবেচিত হয়।” রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুরের কবিতার “উপর বাউল সঙ্গীতের প্রভাব ছিল ব্যাপক এবং তাঁর সঙ্গীত” রবীন্দ্র সঙ্গীতের “উপর।

Although 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”.

History of Bauls

The origin of “Bauls” is not known exactly, but the word “Baul” has appeared in Bengali texts as old as the 15th century. The word is found in the “Chaitanya Bhagavata”of “Vrindavana Dadha Thakura” as well as in the “Chaitanya Chatitramita” of “Krishnadasa Kabiraja”.

This form of folk singing became a popular mode of perpetuating the Bhakti movement initiated by Chaitanyadev as a revolt against Brahminic dominance with its thrust on casteism and many other dogmatic rituals including idol worship. It had a natural appeal among all stratas of people and it gathered momentum through these folk music depicting the basic tenets and spirit of the new cult.

To be precise

if you love Nature….

If you love Mankind….

If you believe in His Grace….

Baul is there to enchant you to enrich your Soul to bring you closure to your own Being.

Compiled with my words & my shots for the enchanting people around me who love pure music from a trip to Shantiniketan in WB India.

#PhotoBySiba