Baul
Arup Ratan Acharya (ENG
043 06219)
Baul is a group of music composers and singers in Bengal. They
compose songs and sing in a way which is totally different from other songs.
Beside Bangladesh, there are also bauls
in West Bengal. Mainly bauls have two
classes - bauls who are detached from
family life and bauls who lead family
life. Bauls who are detached from
their family are known as ascetic Baul.
Ascetic bauls are isolated from their
family and society. They have no fixed living place. They travel from one akhra
to another. Both man and woman wear a kind of long dress by which it becomes
easy to identify them. Female bauls
dedicate their whole life to asceticism and are known as Sevadashi.
There are some exceptional instruments used by bauls, like - ektara, dotara, duggi, dhol, khol, kortal, mondira,
mridanga etc. Baul music deals
with celestial terms.
One of the most famous bauls is Lalon, also known as Baul Fakir
Lalon Shah, an itinerant musical mystic who is a significant figure of Bangla
literature. Basically, he is popular for the baul songs with philosophical concepts about life and the existence
of God. Besides spreading the light of humanism he worked for breaking the
boundaries and discriminations created by religious issues, money, prestige,
power, gender, class, superstition, and so on throughout the nineteenth
century. Modern people still have conviction in these issues but, now-a-days,
lots of people follow the universal humanistic ideologies of him. His songs are
also known as dehototto. He traveled to lot of places and generated
ideas from many societies and peoples. The ideas about spirituality, life,
culture, philosophical ideologies, and criticism about social practices in
Bangladesh got a new dimension through him. He was buried in Cheuria, Kushtia.
His followers named this place Lalon’s Akhra. Fair is held twice a year
at Lalon’s Akhra. He was much influenced by Shiraj Shah, a prominent baul artist. He composed about 10,000
songs and also gave a new dimension in composition of song.
A lot of documentaries, dramas and films are made on this famous figure.
Moreover, the contributions of bauls,
basically Lalon gave a new dimension to Bangla literature and culture.
Answer the following questions.
1. What is the appropriate synonym for the word
‘spirituality’ used in this text?
(a) celestials
(b) supernaturalism
(c) theology
(d) humanity
2. What is the main activity of the bauls?
(a) composing music
(b) traveling to places
(c) spreading spiritual ideology
(d) entertaining people
3. Lalon worked for ………
(a) making his akhra & composing songs
(b) spreading humanistic ideologies against superstition
(c) making people more prestigious & powerful
(d) giving a dimension to Bangla literature & cultural
4. Baul music deals with ……… terms.
(a) earthly (c) humanistic
(b) spiritual (d) cultural
5. What do you understand by the word ‘dehototto’? Explain briefly.
6. Was Lalon able to save his society from superstition? Show
reasons to substantiate your answer.
7. Is there any interest of modern people in baul song?
8. How does Bangla literature & culture get a new
dimension by bauls & Lalon’s songs?
9. Match the words.
a) Lalon
i) asceticism
b) sevadasi ii) instrument
c) ektara iii) dehototto
d) philosophy
iv) spirituality
e) ideology v) baul
About the Author
Arup
Ratan Acharya is studying at Stamford University Bangladesh as a student of
English Literature. He passed his SSC from Austagram Pilot High School and HSC
from Dhaka Presidency College. He is from Austagram. Kishorganj. He has special
interest in writing poems, making reports,
and organizing programs. He likes acting, reciting, dancing, and playing
cricket. In future he wants to be a famous literary person. His favorite quote
is – “I believe that, I know nothing.”
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