Abu Bakkar, a septuagenarian baul from Meherpur, has pursued the wandering life of a Lalon devotee for over 50 years now. Never has he faced any harassment, that is until early August, when he had to ...

Bauls, Fakirs, and Sadhus have been an essential element in artistic Bengali culture. Their music carrying the words of celestial love and the love of nature. But time and time again this marginalized ...

The Bauls of Bangladesh were following their spiritual tradition much before the advent of Islam,writes Sumit Paul. The Bauls subscribe to a philosophy that doesn't acknowledge caste, creed and other ...

At first glance, anyone encountering a Baul may assume they are merely wandering minstrels, ascetics devoted to song, detached from society even while living within it. Music appears to be their sole ...

A photo posted by Scroll.in (@scroll_in) on Nov 6, 2015 at 3:59am PST Laltoo Baul didn’t much like being asked to pose for a photograph. “I am working now”, he said, smiling lightly through his ...

Early this month, Mohammed Fakir and his guests were enjoying an annual conference when they were accosted by religious zealots, conceited enough to arrogate to themselves a moral ascendancy. The ...

In the first-ever initiative for the 'bauls' of rural Bengal, the folk baladeers now come under medical insurance. To honour and support the cause of 'bauls', whose stringed 'ektara' is unique ...

Unidentified criminals assaulted two bauls and set fire to their Akhra at a remote village in Chuadanga yesterday, less than two weeks after four bauls had been attacked and injured in the district.

Bob Dylan would often visit a studio at Woodstock, New York, where the Baul musicians Purna Das, his brother Luxman and their entourage would hang out in 1967-68. Purna Das, now 83, remembers the ...

Every Saturday, Moeinuk Sengupta updates you on what’s rocking the city. This week he talks about the Bangla baul band Kolkata. the black iron staircase leads up to the penthouse. the small terrace is ...

In search of music performed for Krishna, Lucy Duran and the musician Viram Jasani find themselves in a brothel in Kolkata, India. Plus music by the tantric philosophers of rural Bengal, the Bauls.