In a jubilant musical expression of their eclectic religious practice, the Bauls of Bengal performed in the Memorial Chapel on Saturday evening, playing a type of North Indian folk or street music. Five musicians – four Bauls and one substitute from the Wesleyan community – energetically played various string, percussive and wind instruments unique to the Bauls.
Among the unique instrumentation are the Ektara, a single stringed drone instrument made from a calabash, and the Khamak, a small drum with a string attached to the head, which controls the pitch made from plucking the string. The Dotara is a four-stringed lute. The Duggi is a small left-handed drum slung around the back. Also used was Juri – finger cymbals – and metal balls tied to the ankles called Ghunghur.
The Bauls have also integrated instruments into their music which are not of Baul tradition. These include the Harmonium, a small organ introduced by Christian missionaries, as well as several types of drums borrowed from other North Indian musical traditions.
Morgan Linsday, a visiting pre-frosh and a student of South Indian music, addressed the overall dissimilarity of the Bauls’ music with other Indian Music.
“It is so very different from anything I’ve heard before,” Lindsay said. “It’s very universal so one can identify with it…it’s street music as opposed to somber music, so it’s very daring.”
Traditionally the Bauls travel from village to village, performing their joyful and spiritual songs in exchange for alms. This is reflected in their manner of dress and stage presence, both of which are entertaining and whimsical. Wearing long pink robes covered in a rainbow of bright patches, one or two musicians would stand at attention, swaying their hips, grinning and interacting with the audience. With the influential Baul Purna Das leading the group, pieces took on a quality of storytelling as he addressed the audience with expressive gestures to invoke the tone and message of the song.
With the lively, rhythmic accompaniment of strings and drums, the singer’s expressive, high, keening voice sang songs of love and lust and especially of the mysticism of the human body. Purna Das spun and shuffled around the stage, swinging his hips, stomping his feet and reaching his hand to the audience and the ceiling while his son, Dibyendu Das, stood and danced, playing the Dotara and attempting to translate for his father.
Uncertain that his message was getting conveyed, Purna Das turned to the English-speaking harmonium player, who, in his struggle to keep up with Purna Das’ explanation of a piece, asked for one of the many Bengalis in the audience to come up and help. Confident then in his able translator, Purna Das explained the nature of several songs which spoke about the mysticism of the body. The body is the ultimate receptacle, he said, so we must look to it as a source of spiritualism. Everything starts with the body, so man has a supreme power.
With Purna Das as its core, the Bauls of Bengal began touring the United States almost forty years ago. Purna Das recounted through the translator that he became friendly with the hip crew of Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan, accompanying the latter on tour and appearing on the cover of his album, “John Wesley Harding.”
The Bauls are a traditional sect in Indian culture.
“The Bauls get to the core of both [Hinduism and Islam] seeking humanity, integrating the mind, body and soul,” said University of Connecticut Professor Ushakumari, who did her thesis at Wesleyan in cultural anthropology. “You don’t have to be in temples, so there is a lot of bridging that can happen because they throw out the institutions.”
Noted for their music and poetry, their members come from the lowest strata of society. Rejecting the formality of the mosques and temples, they feel man’s quest for the Divine should exist outside of these religious institutions. They follow no doctrine, seeking to reach into the deepest parts of the soul in order to unify mind and body, as they believe this to be the manifestation of God.
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