Baul- The Folk Music of Bengal - Page 6

Originally posted by: Barnali

Thanx Anol. I hav read many articles by sunil ganguly on bauls. he has infact written few stories too which gives some description to the life of bauls.

and yu r right. Paus Mela is not the real place to knw the bauls. Bolpur is the place true but not Shntiniketan. Many hav this wrong conception. infact now paus mela has completely urbanised. I went there last year. No way it is the same as it was 10 yrs back. somehow found them getting too modern and starying away frm the original bengali atmosphere for which the mela was so famous.

Anol can yu PM me the name 😉 would luv to knw the person.

 

No need to PM Barnalidi - he is the 'Biggest' - you know 😉

Later once I went to visit the 'Big Guy' - at his 'cool' house in Dhakuria - you will be amazed to see luxurious 'baul' atmosphere 😉😉

Originally posted by: soulsoup

No need to PM Barnalidi - he is the 'Biggest' - you know 😉

Later once I went to visit the 'Big Guy' - at his 'cool' house in Dhakuria - you will be amazed to see luxurious 'baul' atmosphere 😉😉

Anol yu serious?? 😲 I knw abt this last part as I had seen lot of video footage of his home. But doing recording and then... never knew that. Thats shocking really shocking Anol.

 

 

PALLAVI BHATTACHARYA

He has been a globetrotter for 67 years, Purna Das Baul was a special guest at Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger's home. The King of Bauls shares his travel stories

PURNA DAS NARRATES:

The bauls of Bengal have forever been wanderers. The tonic drone of their ektara is associated with mendicants seeking alms and carries overtones of sacrifice and homelessness- the spirit of the bairagi.

My father Nabini Das Baul would wander from place to place of worship singing baul songs. Though I was born in the Ekchakka village near Rampurhat in Birbhum I spent my childhood in a vagrant manner, as my father could never dwell for long in a single place. In those days villages of Bengal had monasteries of vaishnab monks where convocations would be held. I visited many of these convocations with my father, spent invaluable hours with many sadhus. Ever since I was a little boy I've been meeting interesting people through my travels. My father was invited to sing at fairs and pujas and I always accompanied him.

When I was just six years old the famine in Bengal threw our family into abject poverty forcing me to go out to the streets to sing Baul songs to save the family for starvation. This crisis in the family turned to be a boon in disguise, it made me embark on the roadway of eternal travel. When I was seven I started singing songs on platforms and trains, which made me travel even further. In this juncture of my life I met Sita Ram Omkarnath, a renowned saint who encouraged me to sing baul songs on soils alien to Bengal. At nine I found myself singing in Jaipur and winning the hearts of the audience to win a gold medal.

My first visit to Kolkata fascinated me. I was then in my early teens. I met many music artists and performed at Rang Mahal theatre and the Bongo Sanskriti Mela. We put up at Jorasanko Thakhur Bari. I soon started recording with my father in Kolkata and my cassettes became bestsellers.

It was in the late 1960s that I first went abroad. Albert Grossman- Bob Dylan's ex-manager invited me to the US to sing at a music festival in San Francisco. I toured the US singing at other music festivals and thereafter Grossman took me to Bearsville, Bob Dylan's hometown.

Bearsville was situated in the township of Woodstock. Known world wide as the quintessential New England Village, Woodstock is a pretty tiny town and the Western pilgrimage for music lovers and artists. It's a desolate town in the downtown area you'll find quaint shops and galleries with spiral staircases. It's a unique experience to explore its alleys and hidden side streets. Its countryside is full of surprises with cosy farms, mysterious inns and hospitable country stores.

Bearsville gets its name from the bears, which were on the prowl there to eat apples from its orchards and grapes from vineyards. Thankfully I never came face to face with a bear. I would love to see deer rolling on the grass bed carpeted with apples. Rabbits would scurry about and birds would chirp all day.

When I was working with Bob Dylan I lived in a wooden house with an adjoining swimming pool in the hilly woods in Bearsville. Dylan was a very friendly young man. On coming to know that we could only eat rice he had sent over sacks full of rice to our home and said that we weren't allowed to leave until we had consumed all of it. Dylan loved Indian dishes. In fact he would often come over and taste my wife's khichri. She would add apples instead of potatoes as the fruit grew in abundance there.

The recording studio of Bearsville looked like a castle in the woods. It was an ideal fairy tale setting. My guesthouse was situated very close to the music studio. I could work at the studio whenever I wanted to and if I was not in the mood of composing music I could come home.

I remember Dylan traversing the countryside on horseback and strumming his guitar seated on a barrel. I fondly recollect all the jamming sessions with him. Before long we recorded albums together. Dylan would call himself the 'baul of America'. He pointed out to me that he wore patchwork jeans very much like my pied guduri and we both sang songs celebrating humanity- so where did the difference lie?

Meeting Mick Jagger in Nice, France was an equally stimulating experience. It was the hippie age when I toured France. Nice is a city with great scenic beauty. Green pine forests fringe the deep blue shores of the Mediterranean and the landscape soon ascends into a rocky and hilly terrain. The museums of Nice and its intellectual ambience have attracted artists, painters, writers, sculptors and musicians.

Mick Jagger's manager had invited me to work at the Rolling Stones studio in Nice. Ironically I had no idea who Mick Jagger was at that time though his music company had invited me. The Rolling Stones building was on the seashore was of palatial grandeur. It resembled the Victoria Memorial and had a beautiful glass ceiling from which sunlight poured in. I would spend hours gazing at the crystal blue waters of the Mediterranean and the amazing aquatic life down below. The recording studio was underground completely cut off from any external sound.

When I first saw Mick Jagger he was on the seashore dancing to my music with the agility of a snake and then started strumming his guitar. I was slightly far off singing, but we could see one another. Not knowing who he really was I told his manager that his dance was distracting me. His manager simply politely requested me to turn away from him and sing.

To my surprise soon I got a dinner invitation from Mick Jagger. He was driving like crazy while taking us up the hill to his home. He had turned an old castle to his home set amidst grape vines. Rolls Royce and sports cars were parked in front of his house.

I was his special guest. Mick Jagger was then married to Bianca, a daughter was born to them, he specially requested me to bless and name his daughter, as I was a spiritual person from India. I named his daughter Krishna. Jagger treated us to a lavish banquet. Chubby, colourful pet cats roamed about in his house. Mick Jagger was a motorbike racer - had many bikes and a helicopter. He fast became friends with the youngest son who was a child at that time and showered him with gifts. I recorded the album Jai Bangla with him.

I had taken just one picture with Jagger and when I got it developed at a studio in London, the person at the counter asked me how I had got to know him. I said both of us were artists. Right then the television in the studio started beaming Mick Jagger coming out of his home and travelling to the airport. "This is Mick Jagger, one of the greatest musicians of the world."

I have toured many countries. All my air tickets will form a huge pile. Bauls are wanderers who can never stay at one place for a long time. Every country of the world is my home. Every country I have been to has been of special significance to me starting from Japan - the land of the rising sun to the far West. I can visit the same country many times and every time I'll be enchanted by something refreshingly new. I am also proud to be a cultural ambassador of India. It was a great honour to me to sing at the Tennessee Folk Festival. I have a Baul Academy in San Diego now and have to travel there often. It's nice when foreigners come forward to touch my feet at airports saying they have been overwhelmed by my music.

It has also been a pleasure travelling with my family; two of my sons are settled in Mumbai and Paris, so I visit those cities regularly. My wife has accompanied me on most of my travels, she is a musician too, and both of us have many memorable travel memories. Santiniketan is a favourite travel destination of mine because it is so close to Kolkata and I have formed a Baul Society there. It is true that urbanisation is gradually creeping into Santiniketan - there are more streets, Internet cafes and high rises. Yet, it still has peace, sanctity and cultural ambience.

hough I have a house at Dhakuria in Kolkata, I have no fixed address whatsoever. I am still a wanderer at 74 years of age. I'd like to share with you a few lines of my favourite baul song:

Gari cholche ajob kole

Ei Deho diye mati poripati

Aguun, jol aar hawar kole

Our body is like a vehicle always travelling fuelled by water and wind. From dust we have come and after our travels are over we will return to dust.

 

Originally posted by: Barnali

Bhaskar it;s very very difficult to translate them. the reason being the language is not the one we use generally. It is a mixture of dialects frm many districts of bangladesh and Bolpur.

But still got this article with few lines translated.

Here is a particularly well known Baul song. the baul is singing for his bostomi or his life mate :

AmAr prANer mAnuSh Achhe prANe
tAi heri tAye sakal-khAne
Achhe se nayan-tArAy, Alok dhArAy
tAre nA hArAye
ogo tAi heri tAye JethAye sethAye tAkA-i Ami Jedik pAne

The man after my heart lives inside me,
That is why I see him everywhere.
In the gaze of my eye, in the sparkle of light
Oh I can never lose him --
Here, there, everywhere,
Wherever I look, he is right there for me.

 

No wonder I didn't understand a single word. I just enjoyed the music. Can you guys upload few more songs.

Asking too much kya 😛

 

Originally posted by: Barnali

Thats a palli geeti bt based on Baul. Palli geeti is the folk songs of Bengal. So lot of Baul songs and music have been used in Palli geeti too in bengal.

 

So is it that Baul songs are palli geeti too. They can be called the same.

 

 

I think the some palligeeti's are inspired from baul.

 

Originally posted by: Bhaskar.T

So is it that Baul songs are palli geeti too. They can be called the same.

 

 

Originally posted by: Bhaskar.T

So is it that Baul songs are palli geeti too. They can be called the same.

No all Baul songs are not Palli Geeti bt yes some palli geeti r inspired from baul songs.

 

Originally posted by: ad_0112

Barnalidi..shadher lau is a baul song right??

ok Adi tomaar shadher lao peyechhi 😆😆

 

 

 

Thanku Barnalidi..😃... Kintu ebar "lau-chingri" payi kothai ?😉😆

Originally posted by: Barnali

ok Adi tomaar shadher lao peyechhi 😆😆

 

 

 

Enchanting with Baul music

In modern times, we need to find and understand ourselves. And Baul is all about this inner search, says Parvathy Baul in a chat with Renu Ramnath

Parvathy Baul "Baul music is relevant, more than ever, in today's world," says Parvathy Baul, an exponent of this West Bengal tradition. "In modern times, we really need to find ourselves, [and] we need to understand [ourselves]. And Baul is all about this inner search." Ms. Parvathy, one of the few women practitioners of Baul music, says the art has been with her since childhood. In Kochi on Friday with a group of Baul singers from West Bengal for a performance at the Ernakulam Town Hall, she spoke of her journey in this tradition. Born in North Lakshminpur in Assam, as the fourth child of Birendranath Parial and Sandhya Chakraborty, Ms. Parvathy grew up in Coochbehar in West Bengal. Her name was Mousumi Parial; Parvathy Baul is the name she accepted after her initiation as a Baul. Like all girls belonging to the Bengali middle-class, she too had undergone training in classical music and dance at home, with her siblings. But it was not classical music that drew the free-spirited Parvathy. From childhood, she had nurtured a deep interest in folk culture, especially songs of Bhavaiya and Goalparia Geet, traditional folk music found along the Assam-Bengal border. "At the age of 15, I met a blind Baul in a train," recalls Parvathy. "I was on my way to Shantiniketan, for pursuing art studies." Baul singers were familiar to her from childhood in Coochbehar, when men and women artistes would visit her home, singing to the accompaniment of instruments, which they played, and receiving rice and lentils in return. But meeting that blind Baul, who sang of vision and light, transformed her, changing the direction of her life, forever. At Shantiniketan, her affinity with the Bauls grew. She began practising the music in earnest, becoming a disciple of Phulmala Dashi, a famed artiste of Amodpur in Birbhum district of West Bengal. A search into the Baul way of life made her abandon the formal structure of university education. "Phulmala Dashi once told me that Baul meant rootless," Ms. Parvathy remembers. In 1995, she left the university and later received initiation into the Baul tradition from Sanatan Das Baul, one of the greatest living masters of the music. She practises with Shashanko Goshai, aged almost 100, Banamala Dashi of Murshidabad, Salavat Mahato of Purulia and Pratima Barua of Assam. He studies on Indian spiritual traditions took Ms. Parvathy to Kerala in 1997, when she met Ravi Gopalan Nair, performer-trainer, puppeteer and mask-maker, and married him. From 2000, she has been travelling widely, performing in music festivals in India and abroad, such as those in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and Lebanon. While singing, she uses music instruments such as Ektara, a single-stringed one made of bamboo, leather and wood or shell of lau (bottle-gourd), and Duggi, a small, round percussion instrument made of clay and leather, usually tied to the hip of the performer. Dancing and singing with Ektara and Duggi is one of the oldest styles of Baul. Ms. Parvathy has developed a unique performance of 'Chithrakatha Geetham,' in which she employs her skills as performer, singer and painter. It is closely related to the ancient traditions of storytelling of India, in which the storyteller uses painted scrolls as illustrations for the stories narrated through songs. Ms. Parvathy recently released a book titled Song of the Great Soul: An Introduction to the Baul Path, which gives an introduction to the Baul tradition. The work has English translations of some Baul songs and is illustrated with paintings and drawings by Ms. Parvathy as well as with woodcuts by her and Mr. Ravi Gopalan Nair.

Though there are men and woman practitioners of the Baul tradition, very few women become performers, she says. Most of them remain busy in the Akhra, ashram of Baul practitioners, and they call themselves 'Sevadashis.' Ms. Parvathy is, at present, based in Nedumangad, near Thiruvananthapuram, where she and her husband live and run a training centre called the Ekatara Baul Sangeetha Kalari.