page_title: Lalon
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Lalon / Biography
caption_attribution_description: বাংলা: ভোলা শাহের হাতে লেখা লালনের নাম। English: Lalon Shah's name as written, in a late 19th century manuscript, by his disciple and scribe Bholai Shah, in unconventional Bengali orthography.
context_page_description: Lalon also known as Fakir Lalon Shah, Lalon Shah, Lalon Fakir or Mahatma Lalon was a prominent Bengali philosopher, author, Baul saint, mystic, songwriter, social reformer and thinker in British India. Regarded as an icon of Bengali culture, he inspired and influenced many poets, social and religious thinkers including Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, and Allen Ginsberg although he "rejected all distinctions of caste and creed".
  Widely celebrated as an epitome of religious tolerance, he was also accused of heresy during his lifetime and after his death. In his songs, Lalon envisioned a society where all religions and beliefs would stay in harmony.
  Lalon founded the institute known as Lalon Akhrah in Cheuriya, about 2 kilometres from Kushtia railway station. His disciples dwell mostly in Bangladesh and West Bengal. Every year on the occasion of his death anniversary, thousands of his disciples and followers assemble at Lalon Akhrah, and pay homage to him through celebration and discussion of his songs and philosophy for three days.
  In 2004, Lalon was ranked number 12 in BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengali of all time.
context_section_description: There are few reliable sources for the details of Lalon's early life as he was reticent in revealing his past. It is not known whether he was born in a Hindu or a Muslim family. Lalon had no formal education.
  One account relates that Lalon, during a pilgrimage to the temple of Jagannath with others of his native village, he contracted smallpox and was abandoned by his companions on the banks of the Kaliganga River, from where Malam Shah and his wife Matijan, members of the weaver community in a Muslim-populated village, Cheuriya, took him to their home to convalesce. They gave Lalon land to live where he founded a musical group and remained to compose and perform his songs, inspired by Shiraj Sain, a musician of that village. Lalon lost the sight of his one eye in smallpox. Researchers note that Lalon was a close friend of Kangal Harinath, one of the contemporary social reformers and was a disciple of Lalon.
  Lalon lived within the zamindari of the Tagores in Kushtia and had visited the Tagore family. It is said that zamindar Jyotirindranath Tagore sketched the only portrait of Lalon in 1889 in his houseboat on the river Padma. Lalon died at Chheuriya on 17 October 1890 at the age of 118. The news of his death was first published in the newspaper Gram Barta Prokashika, run by Kangal Harinath. Lalon was buried at the middle of his dwelling place known as his Akhra.
caption: Lalon's name as written, in a late 19th-century manuscript, by his disciple and scribe Bholai Shah, in unconventional Bengali orthography.
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