Seeking Bauls of Bengal

The author charts the rise of Bauls to their present iconic status as minstrels and mystics.

Jeanne Openshaw (Author)

9780521811255, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 July 2002

304 pages, 9 b/w illus.
23.6 x 15.9 x 2.6 cm, 0.62 kg

'This book is a tour de force, certainly the best book in English on the subject. It looks at Bauls with fresh eyes, is both thoughtful and thought-provoking, and provides many new insights into the subject. The book reflects Openshaw's dedication to her subject. … It will no doubt transform the way in which scholars view Bauls. It may even change popular perceptions.' Journal of the American Oriental Society

'Bauls' have achieved fame as wandering minstrels and mystics in India and Bangladesh. They are recruited from both Hindu and Muslim communities and are renowned for their beautiful and often enigmatic songs. Despite their iconic status as representatives of the spiritual East, and although they have been the subject of a number of studies, systematic research with Bauls themselves has been neglected. Jeanne Openshaw's book is fresh, not only in analysing the rise of the Bauls to their present revered status, but in the depth of its ethnographic research and its reference to the lives of composers and singers as a context for their songs. The author uses her fieldwork, and oral and manuscript materials, to lead the reader from the conventional historical and textual approaches towards a world defined by people called 'Baul', where the human body and love are primary and where women may be extolled above men.

Part I. Background: Literature on 'Bauls' and 'Baul-songs': 1. 'What's in a name?' The advent of 'the Baul'
2. The making of 'the Bauls': histories, themes, 'Baul-songs
Part II. In Search of 'Bauls': 3. Fieldwork in Rarh
4. Fieldwork in Bagri
Part III. Received Classifications: 5. Two shores, two refuges: householder and renouncer
6. Evading the two shores: the guru
Part IV. Reworking the Classifications: 7. Affect: love and women
8. Theory: images the 'I' and bartaman
Part V. Practice and Talking about Practice: 9. Practice (sadhana)
10. Four moons practice and talking about practice (hari-katha)
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Religion: general [HRA], Regional studies [GTB], Sacred & religious music [AVGD]