Carriers of Popular Indian Culture
The Bauls of Bengal
Manuscript History v This is a revised version o f the paper presented
at the Seventeenth Annual Meeting o f the Far West Popular Culture
and American Culture Associations (FWPCA & FWACA) in Las
Vegas, Nevada.
Among the many diverse carriers of popular Indian culture over the
centuries, the Bauls of Bengal occupy a unique position as devotees, mystics,
naturalists, tantrics, and wanderers of India. Some of them are married and have
children, but many are single and loners who travel from place to place singing
songs of deep devotion and dancing in ecstasy. These simple and unassuming
people from the lower rungs of Hinduism and Islam accept no social divisions,
have no faith in sectarian religion, follow no orthodox religious practices, and
accept no social barriers. Their lifestyle is simple and natural and they live
joyflilly in search of the moner manush or the “Man of My Heart'’ situated
within the human heart.
The Bauls remained unknown to the outside world for a long time and
were mentioned for the first time in Bharat Barsiya Upasak Sampradaya (Indian
Devotional Tradition) in 1870. Subsequently the Nobel laureate Rabindranath
Tagore published twenty Baul songs of Lalan Fakir in his journal Prabasi in
1915-1916 and then commented on their religion in 1931 in his book The
Religion o f Man.1 K.M. Sen, an associate of Rabindranath Tagore at
Shantiniketan, did some fieldwork on the Bauls and published an article about
their life and beliefs in Visvabharati Quarterly, which was later included as an
appendix in Tagore’s The Religion o f Man.2 The efforts of Tagore and Sen
brought the Bauls into the limelight and made them a cultural symbol of India.
However, the Bauls even now remain more or less unrecognized and
unappreciated in India and Bangladesh and available literature on them remains
scanty. This paper highlights the life, philosophy, beliefs, and practices of the
Bauls in light of their long-standing tradition, which over the centuries absorbed
many influences of other religious traditions, yet remained unique. The paper
also discusses the changes that are occurring in the Baul tradition under the
influence of some urban and western change factors.
The Bauls
The word "Baul” is similar to bcnvala in Hindi and batula in Bengali. It
is derived from vayu in Sanskrit, meaning one who is driven and affected by the
wind and thus the common understanding that the Bauls are "free people" (free
from the bindings and restrictions of organized society) and "madcaps” (madly
devoted to the moner mamish or the “Man of My Heart"). The following song