Folklore, Religion and the Songs of a Bengali Madman
Subtitle: A Journey Between Performance and the Politics of Cultural Representation
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 352
ISBN-13: 9789004324718
Subjects: India, religion; India, social life and customs
Description: This book explores historical and cultural aspects of modern and contemporary Bengal through the performance-centred study of a particular repertoire: the songs of the saint-composer Bhaba Pagla (1902-1984), who is particularly revered among Baul and Fakir singers. The author shows how songs, if examined as 'sacred scriptures', represent multi-dimensional texts for the study of South Asian religions. Revealing how previous studies about Bauls mirror the history of folkloristics in Bengal, this book presents sacred songs as a precious symbolic capital for a marginalized community of dislocated and unorthodox Hindus, who consider the practice of singing in itself an integral part of the path towards self-realization.