The rich social and cultural history of the bauls and fakirs has always interested me. The bauls, once socially marginalised and disdained as outcastes, are now one of the most sought after cultural icons in the Festival of India circuit. There is an amazing turnaround in their fortune. However, the most radical changes came in the last fifty years or so. Bauls, till then, kept themselves confined within closed communities (many of them still do) where they comunicated with each other and to the world outside through coded and enigmatic songs. But their private world now lies brutally exposed before us. In recent times a lot of field work has been done on bauls, both formal/academic and informal. Their enigmatic codes have been analysed, deciphered, talked about, their cultural, social and sexual practices ethnographically and anthropologically theorised, their elusive self deconstructed. In other words, the globalisation of the baul is almost complete. However, there's no point lamenting this or feeling nostalgic about the fast disappearing mystic and exotic world of the bauls. This had to happen. To preserve one's cultural and social identity and to survive within closed communities is not easy in a globalised world. Globalisation will bulldoze through these doors of secrecy and privacy. It doesn't therefore surprise us that today we find many of our most well known bauls not in Murshidabad or Birhum, but in Paris and New York.
Rabindranath was the first to give bauls social respectability in the early twentieth century. Following him Kshitimohon Sen too wrote about them. Bauls, for both Rabindranath and Kshitimohon, were wandering minstrels who sang beautifully enigmatic and deeply romantic songs. Rabindranath writes in 'Patraput', "Kotodin dekheychhiley oder sadhak-ke/ Aekla probhaat-er roudrey Padmanadir dharey.../dekheychhi aketara haate cholechhey gaan-er dhara beye/Moner manush-ke sondhan korbaar/gobhir nirjon pathey." The image of the itinerant, unattached ('udashin') singer with aektara in hand on the lonely village path fascinated both Rabindranath and Kshitimohon. The baul, to both, was unworldly, his search was for the Man of the Heart ('moner manush'), for the Unknown Bird ('achin pathki') which entered and departed from the cage of the human body. Both Rabindranath and Kshtimohon, however, chose to ignore or intially perhaps were not even aware of the strong communal roots that the bauls had or the sub-texts of their coded language and their very unromantic secret practices. Contrast their perception with that of Jogendranath Bhattacharya in his account of the bauls in 'Hindu Castes and Sects' (1896), "A class of beggars who pretend to be mad on account of religious fervour, and try to uphold their pretension by their fantastic dress, dirty habits, and the queer philosophy of their songs." He further says, "Aristrocratic Brahmanism can punish them by keeping them excluded from the pale of humanity...But they seem to be considered as too low or incorrigible by even the proselytising religions. If the Chaitanyanite Gossains, Christian Missionaries or Mohomedan Mullas could reclaim them they would be entitled to everlasting gratitude of mankind." The baul's sexual indulgence and alleged drinking of solutions made from human excretions are given as the principal reasons for their exclusion from the pale of humanity. Some years later in the third decade of the twentieth century was published the notorious 'Baul Dhansha Photoa'. Even today there are strong anti-baul movements in some parts of Nadia and Murshidabad districts in West Bengal. Bauls have always been seen as threats to organised religion, by both Hindus and Muslims. Their syncretic faith, a fusion of both Hindu and Islamic practices, challenges orthodoxy. Not surprisingly in the imperial accounts too the bauls were seen as 'seperated from the main body of Vaishnavas', comprising a number of 'disreputable mendicant orders' who 'never' shaved or cut their hair, and to whom 'filthiness of person ranks as virtue'.
There are several contested accounts of the origin of the bauls. The general consensus, however, traces their roots back to the times of Sri Chaitanya (b. 1486) and his bhakti movement or even earlier. Some even claim that Boru Chandidas (author of 'Srikrishna Kirtana') was the original baul. The 'manush' in his 'Shobar oporey manus sottyo/Tahar oporey nai" is not the man of humanism, but man in flesh and blood - the site for Baul's spiritual quest and salvation. Others claim that bauls are of Buddhist origin or that they have evolved within the sufi tradtion in Islam.
Chaityana's bhakti movement in Nabadwip posed a direct and radical challenge to Brahminical orthodoxy. Chaitanya defied the caste system and scriptural authorities and welcomed in his fold even the outcastes who till then were denied access to mainstream religious practices. It opened a flood gate and thousands of people soon converted to this new faith, a faith that didn't discriminate and offered unmediated access to God through pure love. Soon after, Chaitanya left Nabadwip and went to Puri (Nilachal) where he lived till his death. The bhakti movement initiated by Chaitanya began to degenerate, Brahminical authorities took this chance to bring it back to the mainstream. The centre of Vaishnava studies was shifted from Nabadwip to Vrindavan. Vaishnava teachings were codified, gradually rituals returned. The outcastes who comprised a significant section of Chaitanya's followers were made to feel unwelcome and they began to drift and finally returned to the margin from where they came. Gradually they formed themselves into small sects, each one with its own religious faith and practice. However, despite their division into many sects they continued sharing many common beliefs and practices. Once outside the mainstream religion their syncretism drew them towards other minor religious sects like tantric Buddhists, Islamic sufis and marphati fakirs (those who have transcended Sariyat precepts). Some of the new religious sects that grew out of this movement away from mainstream Vaishnavism were baul, naera, darbesh, radhashyami, ruidashi, kartabhoja, sahebdahni, balarami and so on. It is not easy to define these sects, their faith and practice often overlap. But they all remain outside mainstream religion and are rooted in their own communities away from the society of the 'bhadralok'.
The esoteric practices of the bauls have excited both their critics and followers. To the bauls the human body is the microcosm of the natural world and is as mysterious. Many of their songs celebrate the mysteries of the human body drawing parallels with the natural world. The female body, for them, is the site for spiritual quest and salvation. They thus need a female partner ('sadhan shongini'). Through breathing exercises ('domer kaaj' which only a guru can teach) they learn to control their libido and withhold ejaculation at the climactic moment. They believe that the semen resides in the brain and travels downwards during the sexual act, and through controlled breathing they are able to send it back to the reservoir in the brain. This leads to a spiritual bliss which, they claim, is more powerful than a million orgasms. The four moon practice ('char chandra bhed') of the bauls have always repelled and disgusted the 'bhadralok'. Despite attempts by some to spritualise them, by 'four moons' they generally mean: urin, faeces, menstrual fluids and semen. The most commonly used code terms for these four are 'ras', 'mati', 'rup' and 'rati'. The four moons are all substances which are secreted or excreted from the body, and the practices of the moon involve reassimilating these substances. We, however, need to keep in mind that even among bauls there is no homogenity of practice and faith. Not all bauls seek salvation through the female body, and not all bauls practise the four moons.
Bauls are 'bartaman panthis', ( those who depend on the 'existent' or 'here and now') a category that is defined in opposition to another, 'anuman' (hearsay or conjecture) which connotes, among things, 'orthodoxy', in the sense of ideas and practices legitimised by reference to authorised scriptures.
The cultural tradition of the bauls was primarily oral, handed down to generations. Only towards the end of the nineteenth century attempts were made to write down these songs. However, the search for an authentic baul song or a baul melody is mostly futile. As in any oral tradition, there's no way of knowing which is authentic and which is not.
Bauls consciously use an 'intentional' language ('sandhyabhasha') to hide their thoughts from the uninitiated. The symbols they use are often arbitrary and private. As in Metaphysical poetry baul songs are often argumentative, polysemantic, ambiguous and presented in riddle forms. Bauls' agrumentativeness, syllogistic thinking, faith in life here and now, and their celebration of the human body are reminiscent of the English Metaphysicals.
Two interesting documentaries on bauls.
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