2,000-year-old Baul poetry set to come alive today in Bengaluru

The 2000-year-old poetry form is a part of a Buddhist tradition.
Arpita Gaidhane
Arpita Gaidhane

BENGALURU : With an aim to bridge the gap between performer and audience and their material and spiritual living, Arpita Gaidhane will be performing Baul poetry which is 2,000 years old. The tradition of Bauls was started by Buddhist monks who would roam around the villages with their musical instruments. Later, it evolved with members consisting of Vaishnavas and Sufi Muslims, say Gaidhane.

The Bauls are now mainly concentrated in West Bengal, Assam and Bangladesh. They sing on trains about their journey and have also integrated some English words into the otherwise Bengali songs. But earlier, the songs were in Pali, said Gaidhane. The 30-year-old practitioner believes Baul still holds relevance in our lives and that’s the conversation she would like to have at her event, ‘Journey with Baul’ this weekend.

“It’s not a spiritual practice of sitting under a tree, it can be applied to our everyday city life. Baul is about life and has a tinge of humour in it. There is a song which makes fun of pilgrimage saying how people run to temples when a problem arises in their lives,” she explained.

She recalls some of the most celebrated Baul saints in history. Lalon Fakir sang why there are religious and other barriers when everyone is just a human being. “Born in a Hindu family, he got separated and was raised by a Muslim person. Later, his family refused to accept him back due to religious differences,” she narrated, adding that she finds many similarities between Baul and other traditional poetry across the country. Giving an example, she said Chamu, a cobbler used to sing Baul songs on oppression and how he has accepted his life the way it is and overcome hatred and judgements by society. “It is similar to Yellamma tradition followed mostly by Lingayats in Karnataka,” she said.

Gaidhane, born to Marathi and Kannada parents, learned about Baul from one of her friends and was fascinated by the simplicity of the tradition. She decided to learn it and took classes from Parvathy Baul, a Baul folk singer, musician and storyteller from Bengal, for three years. She learned to speak, read and write Bengali and also travels frequently to Bengal. The major challenge is to change the perception of people. “I wear only saris now and I get responses from people like ‘she’s a fundamentalist or a religious practitioner’. I am working with spirituality to open the barriers among people but it seems to be closing them,” she mentioned.   

She aims to bring the context of Baul to the present times. The songs will be based on several concepts, such as humanity and balance, which she translates for the audience to understand how the lines can be interpreted in different ways and applied in our daily lives.

‘Journey with Baul’ will be held at The Courtyard, Shanti Nagar, on April 6, 7pm. Tickets available at eventshigh.com.

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