skip to main |
skip to sidebar
"As will become clear, authorities on Bāuls agree on very little, and several contradictory images persist. While the passage cited accurately reflects the perceptions of some Bengalis, virtually all Dimock’s assertions would be contradicted by one or other specialist in this topic. Indeed one of the arguments of the present volume is that this lone male minstrel with ‘only the wind as his home’ is a relative newcomer in the history of ‘Bāuls.’ "
artist: Purnendu Patri
"Who then are the Bauls? The word itself means ‘mad’. When Bengalis use the term, they usually mean to indicate a type of mendicant religious singer who, dressed in tattered clothes deliberately made up of the garments of both Hindus and Muslims, wanders from village to village celebrating God in ecstatic songs, existing on whatever his listeners choose to give him. Although today he is possibly a householder… traditionally he has‘only the wind as his home’. His hair is long and beard matted, and as he sings he accompanies himself on a one stringed instrument…"
Edward C. Dimock Jr/ ‘Rabindranath Tagore – “the Greatest of the Bauls of Bengal” ’’, Journal of the Asiatic Society, 29:1, Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1959, p. 33. artist:Dinkar Kaushik
