Baul Dance

Understand

Where Baul Dance comes from

The Bauls are a syncretic order of mystic minstrels from Bengal whose songs and dances draw from both Vaishnava-Sahajiya and Sufi streams of devotion. They have been documented in the region since at least the seventeenth century, and the tradition was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008. The Baul music tradition of Bengal was further recognised by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005.

How it's practiced

Baul performance is an act of personal devotion (sadhana) rather than staged entertainment. The lead performer — usually a Baul sadhu or singer — sings long, meditative compositions (often in the form of the philosophical 'Kobi gaan') accompanied by his own ektara (a single-stringed drone instrument), dotara (a four-stringed lute), khamak (a small percussion drum worn at the waist) and sometimes a duggi drum. The accompanying dance is unscripted — circular, swaying, sometimes ecstatic — and is performed in villages, at akharas (gathering spaces), at melas such as Kenduli Mela, or in the courtyards of patrons' homes.