Journal of Bengali Studies Vol.4 No.1

ISSN 2277-9426
Journal of Bengali Studies

Vol. 4, No. 1
Bengali Music: Bengalis and Music
Buddhapurnima, 20 Boishakh 1422
Summer Issue, 4 May 2015
Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) Vol.4, No.1

Published on the occasion of Buddhapurnima, 20 Boishakh 1422, 4 May 2015
The theme of this issue is Bengali Music: Bengalis and Music
ISSN: 2277-9426
Journal of Bengali Studies

Vol. 4, No. 1
4 May 2015
Buddhapurnima, 20 Boishakh 1422
Summer Issue
Bengali Music: Bengalis and Music
Editor: Tamal Dasgupta
The commentary, article, review and workshop copyrightsindividual contributors, while the
Journal of Bengali Studies holds the publishing right for re-publishing the contents of the journal
in future in any format, as per our terms and conditions and submission guidelines.
EditorialTamal Dasgupta. Cover designTamal Dasgupta. Further, Journal of Bengali Studies
is an open access, free for all e-journal and we promise to go by an Open Access Policy for
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For details about our Editorial Team, general policies and publication details, please see our
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Contents
Editorial
Article
From Songs of Innocence to Songs of Experience: The Trajectory of Bengali Popular Music from
1980s to the Present
Tamal Dasgupta
10
Indic Philosophy in Bengali Religious Songs

Somnath Sarkar
42
Hindu Reformism and the Comic Songs of Dwijendralal Roy in Colonial Bengal
Ayon Halder
52
Searching for Moner Manush (Man of Heart): Bauls of Bengal and Fakir Lalon Shah
Anirban Mondal
58
Music, Devotion and Religion: A Case Study of Charyapad

Dhananjay Garai
66
Kirtan of Bengal: An Enriched Tradition

Sayantan Thakur
73
4 Journal of Bengali Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1
Sarala Debi Chaudhurani, the Singer and Composer: An Unexploited Potential

Shrubabati Chakrabarty
87
Review
Father and Son: The Bengali Dynasty in Bombay
Mousumi Biswas Dasgupta
100
Workshop
Our Lost Friend: A Story
Amit Shankar Saha
104
Commentary
Bishnupur Gharana: The Bengali School of Classical Music
Nachiketa Bandyopadhyay
110
Footfalls of Yesteryears: A Brief Overview of Modern Bengali Songs

Gautam Sengupta
119
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Journal of Bengali Studies is a double blind peer-reviewed online journal published since 2012.
For
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We have previously published six issues on the following themes, and all of them are available
online:
Ognijug (Vol.1, No.1)
Bengali Cinema: Bengalis and Cinema (Vol.1, No.2)
Bengali Theatre: Bengalis and Theatre (Vol.2, No.1)
Science and Technology in History: Modern Bengali Perspectives (Vol.2, No.2)
Literature and Movements: Bengali Crossroads (Vol.3, No.1)
Kolkata (Vol.3, No.2)
Editorial
Narrating a saga of Bengalis and music will not be limited to Bengal alone. Bengalis have dominated
Bollywood in more than one field, and music is one crucial area which bears a signature of Bengali
dominance. Classical Sanskrit aesthetics (Bharata's Natyashastra for example) corroborate the
existence of distinct eastern/Goudiya styles and schools of music and dance. In Caryapada (chorjapod),
there is a famous mention of a performance of Buddha play (Buddha nataka) with the
accompaniment of songs and dance. The following informations are provided by Nirharranjan Ray in
his Bangalir Itihash Adiporbo (637 -643).
The Chorjas were supposed to be sung as each of them was assigned a specific raag. We
find Goudiya and Bongaal raag among others in the the list of the raags.
Gitgobindo of Joydeb was sung with eleven different raags and five taals.
Lochon Pandit's Raagtarangini is an ancient treatise on music from Bengal. Lochon was a
contemporary of King Bollal Sen. Lochon mentions a still earlier (but lost) treatise on
Bengali music called Tumburu nataka from which he quotes at length; it seems that the
Shakto performative tradition which later flourished as Agomoni songs had its origin in
the specific form of song and dance called Tumburu.
Further, We find twenty eight raags and seven taals in Bodu Chondidas's
Shrikrishnokirton.
During the middle ages, the rise of Gouriyo Boishnob movement made exhaustive use of music in
order to propagate the message of Gour and Nitai. Choitonyo himself is reputed to have authored
Jagannatha Ashtakam, a beautiful song in Sanskrit in praise of Lord Jagannath.
Coming to this issue of JBS, we hope that we have been able to do justice to the breathtaking
scope of Bengali music. My article looks at contemporary scenario of Bengali songs from 1980s
onwards, and tries to map a trajectory of the evolution of our songs during this period. Somnath
Sarkar's article discusses about the role of various indigenous religious philosophies in Bengali songs,
and his observations on Ramprasad Sen's devotional songs display an excellent research, which he
explores while investigating many other types of religious music, from Caryapada to Tagore's Brahmo
songs. Ayon Halder in his article has offered a fresh approach to the comic songs of D L Roy. Anirban
Mondal's article delves deep into the esoteric, secret philosophy of Baul, derived from Vajrayana
Buddhism, and elaborates Lalon's project of religious synthesis in that context. Lalon's songs are
iconic, they have a rich philosophy, and they bear testimony to the rich tradition of Baul music of
Bengal. Dhananjay Garai explores the relation between musical and devotional features of Caryapada,
and Sayantan Thakur's article explores the nuances of Kirtan, Bengal's own form of music which is
now internationally acclaimed. Shrubabati Chakrabarty's article provides us with a musical biography
of Sarala Debi Chaudhurani.
Mousumi Biswas Dasgupta's review of two biographies of S.D. Burman and R.D. Burman adds
an interesting dimension to our issue, since Bengali domination of Bollywood is an important chapter
in the history of Bengali music, as we noted in the beginning.
A story of Amit Shankar Saha has adorned this issue. It speaks of an eccentric Bengali who
loved music in his own way. Indeed, when it comes to Bengalis and music, we all have our own stories
of such eccentric people who kept the flame burning, and who constitute a faceless, forgotten
multitude. No study of Bengali music can be complete without a reference to such obscure music
lovers. The editor remembers having seen in his student days an eccentric fellow who used to sing
Tagore songs at the Nandan-RabindraSadan complex. He was a peripatetic singer, and he did not show
any fatigue even after hours of full-throated singing. I did not know (very few perhaps knew) his full
name, his surname was probably Mukherjee. He was nothing short of an urban legend.
Nachiketa Bandyopadhyay has offered a commentary on Bishnupur Gharana of music, which is
Bengal's own traditional school of classical music. Goutam Sengupta's commentary brings up the
important question of a lack of established musicography in Bengal, which leaves us at the mercy of
memory, and Sengupta's commentary is a journey down the memory lane, where he speaks of Bangla
adhunik gaan from 1930s onwards.
Journal of Bengali Studies has remained committed to the project of developing an
interdisciplinary Bengali nationalist discourse in academia since we started publishing in 2012, and
this seventh issue of JBS, which we believe like our previous issues will be a collector's item, once
more renews that pledge.
The editorial board (and the contributors) can be reached at editjbs@gmail.com and
shoptodina@gmail.com. Readers of JBS can find updates and call for papers for the forthcoming
issues, and post comments and responses at http://bengalistudies.blogspot.in/. Also, JBS can be
accessed at at www.bengalistudies.com .
I would like to acknowledge my debt to Mousumi for helping in the editorial work. Thanks are
also due to Raina and Raibatak for having helped in editorial work. This issue on the theme of Bengalis
and Music could not be completed in time without the cooperation from my seven month old baby boy
Tonmatro, who always liked to watch me working on my laptop, typing on the keyboard. He allowed
me to work uninterruptedly as he watched on with a curious smile and also sometimes patted me
encouragingly.
From Songs of Innocence to Songs of Experience: The

Trajectory of Bengali Popular Music from 1980s to the Present
Tamal Dasgupta
Abstract: This article maps the journey of Bengali music from the 1980s, and divides our songs from this period
into three main categories, and they are named (somewhat playfully) songs of innocence, songs of transition, and
songs of experience. The first phase is identified with 1980s, the second with 1990s and the third phase is
identified with 2000s and 2010s.
Keywords: Bengali Modern Songs, Bengali Film Music, Music Industry, Evolution of Bengali Music,
Moheener Ghoraguli, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey, Pulak Bandyopadhyay, Bappi Lahiri, R D Burman, Amit
Kumar, Kumar Sanu, Suman Chattopadhyay, Kabir Suman, Nachiketa Chakraborty, Jibonmukhi Bangla Gaan,
Anjan Dutt, Shilajit, Chandrabindoo, Fossils, Chandril Bhattacharya, Anindya Chattopadhyay, Upal Sengupta,
Rupam Islam, Anupam Roy.
Written language cannot ever do sufficient justice to a performative art like music, a fact that
ominously hovers over this academic exercise in the very beginning. Diptiprakash Majumdar in the
preface to his Hajar Bochhorer Bangla Gaan, an eclectic collection of Bengali songs with notations
from chorjapod to Bankim's Vande Mataram, observes that the (330 pages long) book is a product of
32 years of live performances by a number of musicians, singers, researchers. That overwhelms us with
the mammoth scope of music, and makes us aware of the painful insufficiency of our available format
of academic analysis to live up to this art form, which thrives on performance, and not theory.
However, that insufficiency notwithstanding, we need to undertake this musicological journey in order
to produce a brief outline of Bengali songs from the 1980s to the present.
The main proposition of this article is this: we can categorise Bengali popular music from 1980s
till date into three broad parts. First category would be what we (playfully) call the songs of innocence.
They are not products of an 'innocent' music industry, in fact the truth is far from that. But their lyrics
have a pretence of innocence. They are mostly the romantic songs, penned by the likes of Pulak
Bandyopadhyay, and melodiously sung by singers like Kishore Kumar (Manna Dey, who falls within
this category, was relatively inactive during 1980s, and only re-emerged during 1990s, in a re-forged
partnership with Pulak Bandyopadhyay). Film and non-film songs of Kumar Sanu and Amit Kumar
would also feature in this segment. R D Burman and Bappi Lahiri were two great music composers of
this phase, both were based in Bombay. Further, these songs had a format of collaboration, and the
lyricist, composer, singer (three separate figures) came together under the aegis of the film producer in
this process. They were mainly film songs, and even when a singer did an album of non-film songs, the
combination and ambience (including the lyric and composition) that produced film music got
replicated. One last point about them is that they bore testimony to a domination of Bollywood over
Bengali music industry. These singers we have just named, though they were Bengali, were all based in
the Hindi film industry. Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, who was based in Kolkata (albeit his stint in
Bollywood as Hemant Kumar during 1950s and 1960s) was largely a spent force throughout the 1980s,
before he breathed his last in 1989.
Then, the songs of transition. They still attempt to carry that romantic project (not so much in its
innocence as in its rebellion), are now infused with an angst, and a modernist (somewhat frustrated)
hope for transformation, betraying often a political zeal. They came in the immediate aftermath of the
fall of socialism in eastern Europe and fall of the Soviet, when the left-leaning bhadralok was
desperately searching for anchorage. Such songs also become increasingly self-conscious as music, as
they emerge in a period when film music suffered a terminal decline in Bengal. They nonetheless try to
form a community with other art forms, a fact that distinguishes them from that sense of superspecialisation and commercial reification of music which characterised the songs of the previous phase.
Songs of Suman, Nachiketa, Anjan Dutt fall into this category of transition. Anjan, however, was least
politically zealous among this trio, he could be said to be the first to welcome the rise of Bangla Bands.
Both Suman and Nachiketa have been close to different political formations at different points
of time, but Anjan's separation from them is a significant factor, and he can be said to have formed a
metatransitional phase within the songs of transition. He is in fact least convinced of political projects
of change, and that betrays a postmodern non-commitment. Another important feature of these songs is
that they are close to colloquial speech, unlike the songs of innocence, which very often used a flowery
language. Indeed, the language of the songs of Shilajit, which comes into this category of transition
have been close to colloquial speech with a vengeance. His Ghum Peyeche Bari Ja was a number that
expressed anger at the diminishing prospect of a red morning (which means revolution), and asked the
communist rulers (without directly taking their name) to go home as they are sleepy (Ghum Peyeche
Bari Ja). This was a vulgar and robust colloquialism, and this song became immensely popular.
Suman has collaborated with Anjan and Nachiketa at different points of his career. Left: an album made of live recording of
Suman and Nachiketa together. Centre: an album of Suman (now Kabir) and Anjan together. Right: Suman and Anjan
together in a live performance
Finally, what we (playfully again) call the songs of experience: they come with a postmodern
(non)sensibility, with a project of decentring. Though they sometimes show a romantic nostalgia, and
though they very often display an angst that emanates from a trapped existence, they do not hope for a
redemption, or a possibility of turnaround and recovery. Songs of experience are sung by Bangla Bands
like Fossils and Chandrabindoo. Singer-lyricist-composer Anupam Roy's works also come within this
category. In fact, just the way Romantics were followed by Decadents in continental Europe in
nineteenth century, in Bengali music, the long held dominion of a romantic sensibility (largely Tagore's
creation, it did not exist in Kobigaan for example) finally gave way to a fractured, blas
(non)subjectivity depicted in these songs of experience.
Numerous other figures, singing sensations, popular musical formations and Bangla Bands have
existed during this period, but this article will not deal with all of them, mostly because either their
main characteristics are covered in our discussion, or because they often do not appear at the precise
Left: first album of Moheener Ghoraguli, 1977. Right: Comeback of Moheener Ghoraguli in 1995
junctions in the route of the trajectory we are mapping. Take for example the Bangla band Moheener
Ghoraguli. Speaking of their time, they came much before the rise of Bangla Bands, much before even
the emergence of Suman, and physically belonged to the late 1970s, only to re-emerge in mid-1990s.
But a close investigation of Moheener Ghoraguli's lyrics will show that they belonged more to the
category of songs of transition, their lyrics brimmed with some hopes for transformation or
remembered those times too well when such transformations were possible, and unlike Chandrabindoo
and Fossils did not have any project of decentring the subject of their songs. Another such time wrap
would be Bhoomi. This Bangla band often betrays traits which are romantic, and their oeuvres can be
categorised into songs of innocence. The resurgent film industry of Bengal in the new millennium has
produced lyrics which are either superficially (or substantially) aligned with what we call the songs of
experience, or are throwbacks of the previous phases.
Lastly, there is an obvious temptation to note that there is a broad decade-wise partition which
corresponds with these three categories of Bengali music, as one phase is followed by the next: the first
phase belonged to the 1980s, the second phase to the 1990s and the third phase to the 2000s and 2010s.
This is just a broad correspondence. Songs of innocence continued to be produced throughout 1990s
and 2000s (Manna Dey, Kumar Sanu, Amit Kumar continued to sing, for example) though the prime
time was over by all means before the 1990s dawned in. Bangla Bands started emerging in the late
1990s, but they really happened big time after 2000. Suman-Nachiketa-Anjan continued to make songs
well into 2000s, but their prime time was already over by 2000.
The unfortunate absence of any discussion on women (who have made it to popular Bengali
music) in this article is apologised, and is attributable to the general male bias of the music industry.
How many women composers or lyricists have been there, if we ask, we shall realise the lopsidedness
of the situation, which in turn accounts for the lopsidedness of this article.
Manna Dey and Pulak Bandyopadhyay
Throughout the 1980s, until his demise in 1987, Kishore Kumar continued to deliver a number
of popular songs, and was the strongest pillar of support to the Bengali music industry, film and nonfilm alike. Pulak Bandyopadhyay recollects many episodes from this period in his memoir, where
Kishore recorded numerous hit film songs (159-168). Pulak Bandyopadhyay speaks of these songs, the
tunes for most of which were composed by Ajay Das:
Pulak Bandyopadhyay with Kishore Kumar
Kishore Kumar in a live performance with Amit Kumar (left image) and Bappi Lahiri (image on right)
1. Hoyto Aamaake Karo Mone Nei

2. Aaj Milon Tithir Purnima Chaand
3. Ei To Eshechi Aami, Tomar Dadamoni
4. Onek Jomaano Byatha Bedona, Ki Kore Gaan Holo Jani Na
5. Aami Je Ke Tomar
6. Opaare Thaakbo Aami, Tumi Roibe Epaare
7. Aamaar E Kontho Bhore, Baaje Go Je Shur Baahaar
8. Mukhete Bolle Tumi Je Kotha
9. Chirodini Tumi Je Aamaar
10. Dujonaate Lekha Gaan, Bhenge Gaelo Bhul Shure
11. Bhalobasha Chara Aar Aache Ki
12. Notobor Nagor Tumi
13. Aamay Phuler Baagaan Diye Niye Jeo Na
14. Aamaroto Shaadh Chilo, Aasha Chhilo Mone
15. Bohu Dur Theke E Kotha
16. Tomaar Baarir Shaamne Diye Aamaar Moronjatra Jedin Jaabe
Pulak Bandyopadhyay speaks of each of these songs as an embedded memory, as an event, its
recording and subsequent popular reception, but without mentioning their year of release, and without
ordering them according to their time of release. Some of these songs belong to late 1970s, but most of
them hail from the 1980s.
Arguably the most popular Bengali singer India ever witnessed till now is Kishore Kumar. We
can agree that his voice and his style had a spontaneity (that's the main proposition of Derek Bose's
study); Kishore's genius (for the absence of any other term) was unrestrained by grammar and training.
Cinema finds it easier to subject its music to the expediency of script, commerce and, star system when
it can have an impressive arsenal like Kishore. Just like capitalist modernity wants its human subjects
to be autonomous, self-fashioning individuals who are uprooted from tradition and able to cope up with
the challenges of the modern times, cinema has wanted the same from its music.
But for the same reason, music in modern age largely ceases to exist as a separate sphere
independent of the socio-economic circumstances, subject to the iron rules of gharana, tradition and
classical norms alone, which related to an aristocratic world order, and which thrived on patronage. As
classical music gave way to popular music, as music commerce thrived, as new entertainment
innovations like gramophone and talkies arrived, Bengalis increasingly started dominating the scenario
in Bollywood as well as in Kolkata.
Classical music has always been submissive to the elites. Interestingly, the modern period is no
different. Ajoy Chakraborty's book Shrutinandan (he runs an eponymous music school) is a testimony
to his closeness to Jyoti Basu (whose letter of praise, following his visit to Chakraborty's music school
is proudly reproduced in the book), and to Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Basu's main lieutenant and later
Bengal's Chief Minister (whose numerous gestures of patronage are gratefully acknowledged).
Chakraborty, after the regime change is heard to have formed closeness with the new party in power, a
proof of which is that the artist has been generously awarded by Mamata Banerjee in recent years. This
is by no means a commentary on any supposed expediency on the part of the said artist, or for that
matter the ubiquitously politicised ambiance in which Bengalis have to breathe, but should be viewed
as the genetic inability of classical music to exist without patronage. Not meant for popular
consumption, classical music has to rely on elites. Derek Bose's study of Kishore Kumar on the other
hand mentions an episode where Kishore flatly refused Sanjay Gandhi's request to sing at a function
organised by the latter. This is where capitalism wins over feudalism, and popular music gains an upper
score over classical music.
Ravishankar spoke very highly of two Bengali composers who dominated early film music in
India during 1930s (we need to remember that film music did not arrive until the talkies), Raichad
Boral and Pankaj Mullick, in his autobiography Raag Onuraag (172, 175-6). One major reason why
they succeeded, as the present writer would suggest, was that they had an unorthodox (as opposed to
classicist) approach to music, a strong tendency to experiment, and an attitude of openness to the
varieties of music from different parts of India and the world, and these are precisely what this new art
form of cinema required. Tagore's compositions in this respect probably acted as a precedent, which
allowed Bengali composers of film music to be malleable and multi-faceted, versatile and variegated,
experimental and engaging. Bengalis dominated popular music industry from Kolkata to Mumbai, and
the reason lies in Bengal's musical adaptability. Perhaps, one can go back beyond Tagore and trace in
the genre of Kobigaan these particular traits which have allowed Bengalis to be successful in the field
of film music.
However, the new art form of film music did not just require openness, it required rigour and
demanded discipline too. Pulak Bandyopadhyay informs us about the the rpm (revolutions per minute)
economy which commanded the physical shape of popular music. Bandyopadhyay in the very
beginning of his memoir Kothay Kothay Raat Hoye Jaay mentions that during the days of gramophone
records, a disc record had the duration of three minutes and ten seconds, which had to be the length of a
song (and the lyricist and composer and singer had to act accordingly) (7). Undoubtedly, film music, as
it too had to be released on disc records, had to work within that restraint. Economy of long playing
records (generally two songs on each side) later gave way to audio cassettes (six songs on each side),
which meant that the production line had to enlarge itself. Bengalis who have dominated music
industry responded with a prolific output.
It should be mentioned that Bengali composers did not just dominate Bollywood, but also had a
sizeable international clout, Ravishankar himself being an example of that. Udayshankar's close aide,
Timirbaran Bhattacharya, who was an internationally acclaimed Sarod player is another example of
Bengali composers making it big abroad. He became a famous music director in the Pakistani film
industry centred in Karachi.
As we get to see that Bengali dominance continued in Bollywood well into the 1940s, 1950s,
1960s, we need to remember that the likes of Raichand Boral and Pankaj Mullick worked in an
atmosphere quite different from the one in which K C Dey and S D Burman and Salil Chowdhury
dominated Bombay industry, as the second group was constituted by migrants/refugees from a stagnant
Bengali industry. Therefore, the Bengali dominance in the film music of Bombay industry also signifies
a Brain drain, as it comes to signify a cultural imperialism to which Kolkata's music industry was
subjected to. But that was perhaps still qualitatively better than the ghastly sway of southern dominance
over Bengali industry of today
This should also be noted that cinema as an industry not just subjects music to the vagaries of
market, to the whims of consumer preference and to the unscrupulous money that oils this giant wheel,
but makes music a truly public, collaborative art form. However, precedents always existed in the
forms of popular performances of Kirton, Kobigaan, Jatra, from which the musical unconscious of
Indian and Bengali cinema continued to draw its paradigms. But it rarely so happened that the famous
trinity of lyricist, composer and singer came to be fused into a unitary godhead, when it came to film
music. Still, such a unitary trend exists from Tagore to Kabir Suman, representing an underlying
current of romantic individualism which also impregnates the idea of autonomous self-fashioning.
Some albums of Suman Chattopadhyay
It's not like film music as a form of collaboration deliberately stayed away from that
individualistic subjective pattern, but no doubt film music encourages popular, public stereotypes as
opposed to subjective extremities. The decline of Bengali film music towards the end of 1980s created
the scope for the emergence of unitary music, which fused the lyricist, composer and singer into one
figure again, as Suman Chatterjee burst into the scenario. For someone who was growing up during the
1980s and 1990s, which is the case of the present writer, there was a paradigm shift when singers like
Suman and Nachiketa arrived.
Again, it was not exactly that Bengali music completely crashed and came to a standstill before
their arrival, which is how popular perception frequently puts it. The truth is in fact far from that. But
there is no denying that a new development was taking place in the early 1990s.
Actually, Bengali music became closer to contemporary sensibility in the 1990s with the advent
of Suman Chattopadhyay. In his autobiography Suman speaks of the separation of Bengali songs from
the colloquial, contemporary, modern language of Bengali poetry (177), and speaks of his resolve to
write such lyrics which will not be susceptible to such admixture of shadhu and cholit (a grammatical
vice called guruchondali, which has long been banned in prose, but curiously continued to appear in
popular song lyrics). It should be noted here that the songs of experience, as we are calling them, have
been painstakingly aware of the question of modernisation and standardisation of Bengali words, and
Rupam Islam devotes a number of pages to this question in Rupam on the Rocks and informs us that his
concern with modernisation of spelling goes back to his little magazine days (93-97).
Rupam Islam's first book (Rock journal to be precise), Rupam on the Rocks, which was also the name of a popular fm radio
programme that Rupam Islam did
When it comes to the Bangla Band Chandrabindoo, it is interesting to note that their three
figureheads, even after the band has virtually stopped to bring out its own albums, continue to work as
journalists. Chandril and Anindya have long stints as journalists. Anindya at present edits the Sunday
magazine Robbar from the house of Protidin, and Chandril, having worked in the ABP group, which
was followed by a period of separation during which he worked in Robbar is now again associated
with ABP group. Upal, in his capacity as a cartoonist is also associated with ABP group.
Chandrabindoo. Upal in the centre, Chandril on extreme right, Anindya on extreme left.
Chandril has two books of poems to his credit till date, and he was a student of SRFTI, the only
film school of Kolkata could boast of for a long time. The present writer had the opportunity to watch
Chandril's diploma film, Y2K- Sex Krome Aashitechhe. Throughout his writings, be it lyric, poem, or
prose, Chandril strategically uses sexuality to frequently undercut romantic notions of love. More
importantly Chandril's non-fictional prose has been a trendsetter in Bengali language, and his writing
style has been numerously replicated from big media houses to little magazines. Frequent puns,
neologism, parody, pastiche of history and culture, defamiliarising perspectives on current affairs, a
(non)belief in the ubiquity of human drudgery, dreadfulness, and death, a decentred and decadent
(non)subjectivity mark the content of his prose, while the form is likewise fractured, punctured and
sentences often run into several lines without full stop, with a heavy use of comma. They form a
community with the lyrics of Chandrabindoo, which very often have a deliberately anarchic quality,
and resist all stable, assured grand narratives.
Some of the albums of Chandrabindoo
No wonder that Chandrabindoo turned the slogan of Nabarun Bhattacharya's fyatarus into
music (fyat fyat shai shai), which was also used in the eponymous play of Suman Mukhopadhyay. The
blurb of Rosh Kosh Shingara Bulbuli Mostok (collection of Chandril's writings published in ABP)
introduces Chandril as a non-doer of a series of non-deeds, like he did not refuse a million dollar prize,
did not inhabit an asylum after a melancholic breakdown, and that includes this description: he did not
read Baudrillard. Such a negative mention of this renowned postmodern thinker is in agreement with
the style of postmodern literature.
Anindya began his career as a trainee journalist in the newly revived news daily Jugantar in
1993, which very soon closed down again. His regular column in Robbar titled Niruddesh Shomporke
Ghoshona (Declaration about the Missing), later published as an eponymous book, had one entry on
this episode of his life (36-41). The same book of Anindya curiously also has an article on Suman
Chattopadhyay. Given that this book deals only with the missing (The book opens with an article on
Dodo birds, ends with one on Neandarthals, and also has an entry on Soviet Union), this topic is
interesting. At an obvious level, following his conversion, Suman Chattopadhyay really ceased to exist,
and was replaced by Kabir Suman. But at another level, when Anindya was writing this column, Suman
ceased to exist as a musical phenomenon, and became rather known for his politics. Still, it is
imperative on us to note how Anindya describes the rise of Suman:
In the beginning of the 1990s, there was not anything special in Bengal's bazaar. Neither any
political movement, nor any great socio-event, even the excitement of Mohunbagan and East
Bengal did not at all stir us then. People used to silently watch One Day Cricket matches on
colour television and noisily watch theatre at Academy. Politics and sexuality both were
so very drab that (a rally at) Brigade or (Raaga) Bidhushri no longer appealed to the Bengali
mind. Even the biggest chicken did not ever think that the Marxist Communist Party's
government would lay an egg of people's democratic revolution one day. Barring some
vegetarian stains of piss, nothing was written on discoloured walls.
In that middle-classiness Suman comes. As the embodiment of Grim Reaper (Kalbhoirob). As
the dream, hope and wish fulfilment of a whole generation. (18-19)
It can surely be said that Suman's advent brought Bengali song closer to Bengali poetry that has been
written in an urban, smart, contemporary language (as I observed in my article on Ishwarchandra Gupta
in JBS 3.2, this is not merely a twentieth century phenomenon, and can be said to be largely a legacy of
Ishwar Gupta). More importantly, Suman's oeuvre brought Bengali music into a community with
Bengali literature. Songs again regained that literary respectability which was lost after Tagore, to the
point that lines from Suman's song Shurjo Bollo Ish from his second album Boshe Aanko appeared in
the Bengali question paper of the Test Examination of Madhyamik at Hindu School, Kolkata in 1995,
as the present writer remembers having seen it in the proverbial and iconic Test Papers published by
ABTA (All Bengal Teachers' Association) in 1996 (it came in the Bhaab Shomprosharon or expand-thetheme segment).
Suman's writing career (that was journalistic in nature, where he used the pen name Manab
Mitra) in fact preceded his emergence as a popular singer during 1990s, a fact which is put forward in
his autobiography. Quite interestingly, Nachiketa too is a writer, and has a collection of his writings
published from Patra Bharati Kolkata. Apart from contributing occasional columns to newspapers, he
has authored stories and novels. Many of them harbour an angst that emerges from the failure of the
communist project of revolution in Bengal (Nachiketa's songs Anirban and Anirban 2 immediately
coming to mind, which speak of a Naxalite revolutionary named Anirban). Some of them display the
contemporary quagmire of deceit, political ploys, helplessness of people, corruption, an overall social
inertia, and in the midst of this murky atmosphere, rise of a hero who is unmistakeably an image of
Nachiketa himself. The details of the fictions are not so much important. What is more to the point here
is that Nachiketa's fiction writing forms a community with his music; his fictions connect his songs to
others cultural forms.
Nachiketa's first three albums, in that order
Anjan Dutt was primarily into cinema before he came to be a lyricist-composer-singer. He got
best actor award for his role in the film Chaalchitra in the Venice Film Festival in 1981, which was
more than a decade before his first music album was released. His experience of his first movie as a
director, Badadin (1998) got reflected in his song Raja Ray from mid-1990s. That song also spoke
about the despondent situation of contemporary Bengali film industry. Dutt directed his next movie
Bow Barracks Forever in 2004, and since then has done very few music albums, and been into film
direction (occasional acting too) mostly.
Throughout the 1990s what (again by popular perception) was called Jibonmukhi songs (the
epithet Jibonmukhi, first used by Nachiketa in his first album the cover of the first album prominently
declared itself as Jibonmukhi Bangla Gan, like Suman's albums used to have the heading Sumoner
gaan in the beginning) dominated music industry, and as a result, what existed prior to that became
obscure, and rapidly went on to become passe, at least among the youth.
Kishore's death led to the rise of Kumar Sanu, a shadow singer who used to imitate Kishore. Indeed the very first album of
Sanu, Amar Shilpi, was a tribute to Kishore Kumar after his death. The lasting popularity of these albums, originally
released in cassette format during late 1980s, ensured that they were later released in CD format as well, during the 1990s
However, no one can forget the tremendous popularity of Kumar Sanu (lampooned as Kumar
Panu in one of the popular numbers composed and sung by Nachiketa, titled Ulto Rajar Deshe)
music towards the end of 1980s and early 1990s. He gave three phenomenal hits in rapid succession:
Omor Shilpi, Shurer Rojonigondha and Priyotoma Mone Rekho. Kumar Sanu, originally named Kedar
Bhattacharya, was a known shadow singer who sang the songs of Kishore Kumar, and Sanu's rise itself
was made possible by the demise of Kishore Kumar. To the credit of Kumar Sanu, we must admit that
the songs had melodious tunes, had tolerably good lyrics, and Sanu's vocal rendition had a quality
which could appeal to the masses.
These albums mostly used to be released before DurgaPujo. Being non-film music, their release
was strategically done at this point, as Bengalis purchased Pujor Gaan since music industry emerged in
Bengal, and that goes back to the days of Gramophone. When DurgaPujo came, such songs, played on
loudspeakers at different Pujo Mondops (Makeshift Canopies which act as temple of Goddess Durga
for the period of DurgaPujo) used to generate a festive ambience.
When Kumar Sanu was singing amar shohor Kolkata (Kolkata my city), a popular number
from his repertory from late 1980s, there was a distinctly leftist-sounding chorus playing in the
background. Of course that does not mean such oposhongshkriti (literally meaning bad culture, a
bhadralok concept used to distinguish approved, sombre and respectable forms of culture from nonapproved, non-sombre, non-respectable forms of culture) as Kumar Sanu had no easy acceptance in the
respectable and conservative plethora of certified bhadralok culture. Further, songs of movies like
Beder Meye Jyotsna (a Bangladesh-inspired film, songs of which were sung by Kumar Sanu) enjoyed a
certain immunity from the left, as they were too embarrassing even to discuss.
Anjan Dutt in one of his early songs addressed to Suman comes up with this line Robindro Ki
Gonoshongeet konotai thik dicchilo na buker bhetor phNushe othar rosh (Neither Tagore songs, nor
people's songs provided the angst that one needs in the bosom to speak out), which neatly sums up the
musical preference of the bhadraloks prior to the songs of transition. People's songs (gonoshongeet)
was the standard name applied to leftist songs, alluding to a sustained cultural phenomenon that began
with Gononatyo Songho (IPTA). Significantly, Anjan always acknowledged Suman as the fountainhead
of the kind of songs he himself believed in doing. Indeed, Suman spearheaded this kind of ideological
constellation within which Anjan's songs moved, which was progressive, liberal, humanist, universalist
and hopeful of change. The title song of one of Anjan's albums says: Cholo Bodlai (Let's Change).
Dutt's first album, Shunte Ki Chao and second album, Purono Guitar
Remake of popular film (and non-film) songs from the black and white era shot to prominence,
albeit briefly, during 1990s. Srikanto Acharjee is generally considered to be the most popular singer
associated with this phenomenon of remake, though he later on himself gave up remaking, and instead
concentrated on his own basic songs. A testimony to barren times, when left platitudes replaced
experiment and innovation in popular culture, this remake phenomenon also touches upon the
commerce of live shows which form the bread and butter of singers, and which generally have a steady
demand for the popular songs of yesteryears. Remake thus connected music commerce directly with
the culture of soirees and performances. Remake was also a crucial expression of the widespread
cultural phenomenon of shadow singing. As the songs of transition were not best known for melody,
the phenomenon of remake also filled a certain vacuum, a demand for melody that was not catered to
by Suman, Nachiketa and Anjan.
The rapid rise and fall of CDs have been followed by a return of film music in Bengal.
Commerce dictates that music finds it easier to survive in live concerts and in the promotional
campaigns of film music, in this age of internet piracy. Anupam Roy's arrival marks this significant
new turn in the trajectory of Bengali popular music. Chandrabindoo started their foray into Bengali
film music in 2009, and till 2012, they worked as lyricist, music composer and vocalist in a number of
movies. For the movie Antaheen, they won national award for best lyrics in 2010 (the movie was
released in 2009). However, after 2012, they have no significant movie to their credit, and this probably
alludes to a waning of Chandrabindoo's influence after the arrival of Anupam Roy (both have the same
target audience, hence a competition cannot be ruled out). Between 2009 and 2012, members of
Chandrabindoo have lent their music, lyric and voice to these movies: Box No 1313, Cross Connection,
Brake Fail, Antaheen (all 2009 movies), Jodi Ekdin, Ekti Tarar Khonje, 033, Natobar Not Out (all 2010
movies), Icche, Rang Milanti, Gosainbaganer Bhoot (all 2011 movies), Aparajita Tumi (2012).
Chandrabindoo won national award for best lyrics for the movie Antaheen
During this phase, Kabir Suman himself increasingly started acting in films, and working as
composer-lyricist-singer in film music. He has acted in all the movies of director Suman
Mukhopadhyay till now. He also bagged national award for music direction in 2014 for Srijit
Mukherjee's Jatismar.
A Poster of the movie Jatismar
Back in 1990s, Nachiketa gave music to a soap opera, titled Kuasha Jokhon and the music
became hugely popular following which the songs of that daily soap (in Tollygunge lingo, megaserial)
were commercially released in an eponymous album.
Nachiketa's album Kuasha Jokhon
Rupam Islam received national award for playback singing in Mahanagar@Kolkata in 2010.
Rupam directed the music of this movie as well.
A Poster of Mahanagar@Kolkata
Anupam Roy's first solo album (2012) comes two years after his successful stint in film music.
His songs in Autograph in 2010 catapulted him to tremendous fame, and in 2015, he has made his
debut in Bollywood with the film Piku.
Between 2010 and 2015, Anupam Roy has been associated with these movies as
vocalist/lyricist/composer:
2010: Autograph
2011: Cholo Paltai, Rong Milanti, Baishe Srabon
2012: One Liner, Teen Yaari Kotha, Hemlock Society, Laptop, Chorabali
2013: Shunyo Onko
2014: Chhaya Manush, Window Connection, Highway, Chotushkone
2015: Bela Sheshe, Piku (Hindi), Kath Mundu, Saheb Bibi Golam
Three Albums of Anupam Roy: Bakyobageesh, Durbine Chokh Rakhbo Na, Dwitiyo Purush
Besides, Roy has worked in 22 Bengali movies in the capacity of a vocalist for other lyricists
and composers so far. He has been associated with little magazines, has published two books of poems.
He got his first novel published in 2014, and in 2015 made his foray into Bengali graphic novel. In
autograph, his song Aamake Aamar Moto Thakte Dao has a line: amar jonno aalo jelo na keu
(nobody put up a light for me). Such a renegade line was not possible in the earlier two phases.
Here, let us reassert that in the journey from the songs of innocence to those of transition,
subjectification undergoes certain shifts towards an urban, bhadralok, left-liberal paradigm; but those
changes notwithstanding, there is no fundamental transformation of the mode of subjectivity. The same
individualism, the same naivety, same positivism, the same high Romantic-Victorian sensibility (that
witnesses its Bengali apogee in Tagore) are frequently seen. Until the songs of experience arrive on the
scenario, the feminine subject (the love interest) is what the author makes her to be, in the vein of
Amaro Porano Jaha Chay, Tumi Tai Go.
Suman reflects this pattern of subjectivity when he says in Tomake Chai, that he wants to
behold his beloved bringing festive spirit to a rally of tired people. However, in the song Office Time
(from the album Ar Jani Na, later on remade as the album Ebhabeo Phire Aasha Jaay) of
Chandrabindoo, the lyric says that there is no chance that she would be found in a rally (Michhile
Tomake Dekhte Pawar Kono Scene-ee Nei). From the subject of modernity, to the non-subject of
postmodernity, if we trace this development in Bengali popular music, the first thing that strikes us is
that Ar Jani Na was released in 1997, while Tomake Chai came in 1991. It can be said that within a
period of six years, Bengali music moved from modernism to postmodernism, from live-giving
illusions to disillusionment.
There are reasons to classify Band music as postmodern. It is less self-assured, more decentred.
It does not speak of revolutionary resistance in the vein of a Suman or Nachiketa, but instead reveals a
blas knowledgeability about the present condition. The non-subject, with all the angst and entrapment
of existence becomes a recurrent trope in Rupam Islam's music. Again it is significant that Rupam
started his musical career after his foray into little magazines (Ei To Aami 126-7). Rupam in fact in his
high school days founded an organisation called Avant Garde Parishad (Parishad is Bengali for
Council), and as the name suggests, they discussed the latest intellectual trends from the west. The little
magazine edited by Rupam was the mouthpiece of this organisation.
Cover of Ei To Ami
Cover of Rockstar
Rupam in spite of having a predominant image as a solitary singer indeed he has solo albums
to his credit has always stuck to the band format for public performances. His music can be said to
exist in a community. His mention of his closeness to late poet Sunil Ganguly (Rockstar 7), among
other things, alludes to the fact that his lyrics exist in a cultural continuum with Bengali poetry.
Further, he looks at the band music as partnership, as a collaborative project; however, he sees lyric
writing as an essentially solitary endeavour (speaks of the necessity of creative loneliness), which must
be shaded from the glare of the collective (Rockstar 26-27).
Some of the solo albums of Rupam Islam
Bangla Bands' music is known for its peppy, popular, fast rhythmic tunes, but fast tunes
earmarked our folk songs for a very long time. Kobiwalas used to have a repertory of both slow melody
and fast rhythm. While the first appealed to the elites, the latter was a favourite of toiling masses, and
for further details, one can refer to my article in the previous issue of Journal of Bengali Studies Vol.3,
No.2. Shiva's songs can be taken for an example: be it the high Sanskrit Shiva tandava stotram, or
colloquial Shiber gajon, they always display a festive pace, a rapid flow of rhythm.
Going back to Suman's songs, we can say that if that music lacked a popular vigour and fast
rhythm, that lacking was probably attributable to the left-liberal bhadralok tastes which dominated the
social reception of art. Suman's autobiography is a case in point.
A Sharodiya Pujoshonkha is a complete configuration of space and time. In a periodical, the
political infrastructure of a period's culture is laid bare as if in a Brechtian theatre. The Pujoshonkha of
Aajkaal in the Bengali year 1400 (1993 CE) exemplarily illustrates this aspect. Suman Chattopadhyay
authored his memoir Hoye Otha Gaan (Song Being Made) in this pujoshonkha. The editorial of this
issue expresses remorse over the demise of Utpal Dutt, and this pujoshonkha pays homage to him by
posthumously publishing his play Ognishojja (Bed of Fire) which is a tirade against Hindu
fundamentalism in the backdrop of Raja Rammohan Roy's movement against Sati immolation. The
play begins with a snide attack against Ayurveda (identified with quackery) with which the western
system of medicine is then favourably compared. Hinduism is depicted in a completely negative light,
collaboration with the west is promoted in the guise of bishshomanobota. The same pujoshonkha
carried a novel by Debesh Roy on the demolition of Babri Mosque.
Suman in an interview, back in 1990s
This was the political climate prevailing in the early 1990s which saw the advent of Suman
Chatterjee's music. Suman, in the title song of his third album, Icche Holo, observes that he wants to
see collective farming all over the world before he breathes his last (Morbo Dekhe Bishshojure
Jouthokhamar). That aspiration, and that potential hope (the album was released in 1993) constituted
the core leftist ethos which permeated this milieu from which Suman's songs emerged. Contrary to that,
Rupam Islam's song Ei To Ami in Mahanagar@Kolkata says Ei To Amar/Jouthokhamar/Katchhi
Katbo/Shesh Phoshol/Boshundhora/Ghater Mora/Chitar Kathe/Shoinyodol (This is my collective
farm, I reap and shall reap the last harvest, this earth is moribund, and the soldiers are on the burning
pyre of woods). Collective farming, which stood for a promise of life in death, in fact, nothing short of
resurrection in Suman's lyric, comes to signify a lone reaper of the last harvest from an earth that is
morbid, and there is an imagery of death in fire with no possibility of resurrection (because the pagan
pyre, unlike the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tomb, does not speak of resurrection, immortality of the soul
notwithstanding).
Suman's songs were markedly different in one respect from the kind of music which previously
dominated our popular sensibility, as we already pointed out: his songs lacked melody. They also had a
discernible western influence, which was also true (to a greater degree) about Anjan Dutt who soon
followed Suman. It is interesting that there is at least one western song which had been rendered
separately by Suman and Anjan into Bengali. Anjan's Ekta Bondhu Hobe Ki Bolo Tumi Amar and
Suman's Chaichi Tomar Bondhuta both are direct Bengali renderings of a song of Bob Dylan; the
tunes are different, and the adapted lyrics are at slight variance too, but the Dylan stamp is
unmistakeable. Suman's Bengali songs have been variously derived from the west, Dylan's Blowin' in
the Wind has become Kotota Poth Perole for example. He has been called Bengal's Bob Dylan, a tag
which came probably because he sang with a guitar on the stage, and was as such the first known
Bengali singer to have done so, and it was a tag that he refused. Nevertheless, Suman's autobiography
Hoye Otha Gaan is a testimony to the thorough western influence on his music, his childhood training
in Indian classical notwithstanding (though he was exposed to a variety of western music from his
childhood because of his musician parents).
Death of the author used to imply the death of the romantic dream of the individualist-solitary
author. However, in our academia, this concept was used to peddle an ahistorical view of the text: death
of the author meant death of history, and everyone was free to interpret a text as an autonomous, selffashioning unit following I A Richards and F R Leavis. This was actually a backdoor return of the
individual author, only the author got rechristened as a close text, without any context whatsoever. As
we look at the concept of auteur in cinema studies, we find that usual high romantic emphasis on the
singularity, solitariness of a self-fashioning individual work. Now, Bengali songs since the lyrical
revolution staged by Tagore, entered this ahistorical phase. As opposed to that, Kobigaan was deeply
immersed in history. Vaishnav songs operated within a hermeneutics of myth and history. Songs were
part of a larger network.
It is a folk Indian tradition that gives birth to our film music (deriving from our age old cultural
repertory of jatra; in north India it went by the name of nautanki; all of them go back to the high
position assigned to music in dramatic performances in Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit), and therefore songs
and dance in our cinema have a historical context.
When Suman appears on the musical scene, he represents a curious admixture of this culture
industry. On one hand, he is a lone auteur, a self-fashioning bhadralok, representing the high
individualist dream of a Tagoeran sensibility, on the other hand, he made songs which clearly
acknowledged a social and political matrix within which the verbal machinery operated. But ironically,
rise of Suman also registers the fatal break-up of bhadralok and popular culture. Pulak Bandyopadhyay
sometime in the 1990s complained in an interview (no citation can be given, as it was an interview in
an obsolete film magazine from the Aajkaal group, titled Television that later stopped circulation; the
present writer refers to it from memory, as no copy of the magazine could be procured) that producers
insisted that Bengali movies are seen by rickshaw pullers, and songs should be meant for them, lyric
should be what they could understand. This tension did not exist earlier. As Bengali music veered
towards the Songs of experience, the single screen theatres gave way to multiplexes, which simply
resolved this problem by making niche movies, targeted at urban middle classes.
When Trinomool Congress was formed in 1998, the first visible political spectacle was the socalled Cut-out culture imported from the south of India. Large cut out images of Trinomool supremo
flooded the roads of Kolkata. Interestingly, it was the same period when Bengali film industry was
beginning to get influenced by South, which could of course be a mere case of coincidence, but
probably Bengal badly needed some blood transfusion, no matter whatever was the quality of the
blood. The influence was discernible in the case of Film music. O Bondhu Tumi Shunte Ki Pao, Ei
Gaan Aaamaar (Hey Friend, Can You Hear This Song of Mine), a chartbuster form the first
commercially successful movie of Superstar Jeet (Shaathi), was a case in point. The tune of typically
south, vocal rendition was characteristically southern, the first part of the opening was sung in a doleful
melody (O Bondhu Tumi Shunte Ki Pao) followed by a peppy rhythm (Ei Gaan Aamaar). It was a
turnaround of sorts for an industry which many observers viewed as sick; after almost a decade a
Bengali film song was doing the rounds in DurgaPujo loudspeakers everywhere.
This is not to say that Bengali film music since the talkies used to exist in a pristine state prior
to the recent southern turn. It was always influenced by external factors. Western influences have
always been there. Then, with the great slump followed by the closing down of New Theatres and the
mass exodus of Bengali film artists to Bombay, in a classic case of Derridean supplementarity, credit
titles in the beginning of a movie began showing the suffix Bombay within a bracket after the name of
an an artist; this is, for example, how Manna Dey sang his first Bengali film song. It carried weight,
commanded awe, guaranteed commercial appeal, and ensured that the Bengali film industry is forever
enthralled to the glamorous dominance of Bollywood. And this is how Bengali popular music was
surviving throughout the 1980s.
In this scenario, Suman's advent was like arrival of fresh rain in the midst of an excruciating
Indian summer. The later phenomenon of Bangla Bands and the arrival of Anupam Roy cannot ever be
sufficiently grateful to Suman, for this single reason, that in Suman Chattopadhyay, Bengal attained
musical sovereignty after a long time, as it stopped being subjected to the ignominy of being a satellite
of Bollywood and other non-Bengali power centres. However, this sovereignty eversince is repeatedly
corroded as we lack a consolidated Bengali capitalist class who can promote and produce cinema and
other allied public arts like the music industry. In a classic illustration of Marxian base-superstructure
model, the crisis of Bengali music emanates from the crisis of Bengali economy.
In spite of that crisis, there is much in the achievement of Bengali music in the recent decades
which can be celebrated. The richness and variety of its development can be a treasure island for
cultural studies. Its trajectory has interesting turns. The songs of innocence had a belief that love was
possible, the songs of transition had a belief that revolution was possible, but the songs of experience
have this (non)belief that love and revolution are perennially deferred and remain illusively out of
reach. The first category was mostly sentimental, conformist and commercial, the second was mostly
sassy, candid and conscientious, the third continues to be savvy, non-credulous, non-committed and
nonchalant. For a cultural historian, these three phases of Bengali music can map the social, political
and and cultural evolution of the Bengali people throughout the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.
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Select Discography
Chakraborty, Nachiketa. Ei Besh Bhalo Aachhi. 1993.
---. Ke Jaay. 1994.
---. Ki Hobe. 1995.
---. Chol Jabo Toke Niye. 1996.
---. Kuasha Jokhon. 1997.
---. Aami-e Pari. 1998.
---. Dolchhut. 1999.
---. Daybhar. 2000.
(Up till 2000 was the prime of his musical career)
---. Ekla Cholte Hoy. 2002
---. Mukhomukhi. 2003.
---. Ei Aagune Haat Rakho. 2004.
---. Aamar Kotha Aamar Gaan. 2005.
---. Tirjak. 2007.
---. Ebar Nilanjan. 2008.
---. Hawa Bodol. 2011.
---. Sob Kotha Bolte Nei. 2012.
---. Drishtikon. 2014.
Chandrabindoo. Aar Jani Na (Don't Know Any More). 1997.
---. Gadha (Donkey). 1998.
---. Twaker Jatna Nin (Take Care Of Your Skin). 1999.
---. Chaw (Chaw is the first letter in the word Chandrabindoo,it also colloquially means let's go). 2001.
---. Daknam (Nickname). 2002.
---. Juju (The Bugbear). 2003.

---. Hulabila (Hullabaloo). 2005.
---. Ebhabeo Phire Asha Jae (Even that's a Comeback). 2005.
---. U/A (U/A). 2008.
---. Noy (Nine). 2012.
Chattopadhyay Suman.
Nagorik Onyo Kotha Onyo Gaan (collaboration). 1986.
---. Nicaraguar Jonyo (collaboration).1986.
---. Tomake Chai. 1992.
---. Boshe Aanko. 1993.
---. Ichchhe Holo. 1993.
---. Gaanola. 1994.
---. Ghumou Baundule. 1995.
---. Chaichhi Tomar Bondhuta. 1996.
---. Jatismar. 1997.
---. Nishiddho Istehar. 1998.
---. Pagla Shanai. 1999.
---. Jaabo Ochenay. 2001. (After this point, he was known as Kabir Suman)
Dutt, Anjan. Shunte Ki Chao. 1994.
---. Purono Guitar. 1995.
---. Bhalobashi Tomay. 1996.
---. Keu Gaan Gaye. 1997.
---. Ma. 1998.
---. Chalo Bodlai. 1998.
---. Priyo Bandhu. 1998.
---. Hello Bangladesh. 1999.

---. Kolkata16. 1999.
---. Bandra Blues. 2000.
---. Asamoy. 2000.
---. Rawng Pencil. 2001.
---. Onek Din Por (with Kabir Suman). 2004.
---. Ichchhe Korei Eksathe. 2005.
---. Abar Pothe Dekha. 2007.
---. Ami ar Godot. 2007.
---. Unoshaat. 2014.
Islam, Rupam. Tor Bhorshatey (1998 / HMV) Re-released as Neel Rong Chilo Bhishon Priyo (2003 /
HMV).
---. Fossils (2002 / Asha Audio).
---. Fossils 2 (2004 / Asha Audio).
---. Mission F (2006 / Asha Audio).
---. Rupam n Bumpy (2007 / UD Series).
---. Aupodartho (2007 / Asha Audio).
---. Fossils 3 (2009 / Asha Audio).
---. Mahanagar @ Kolkata (2010 / HMV SaReGaMa).
---. Na-Hanyate (2010 / HMV SaReGaMa)
---. Nishkromon (2011 / HMV SaReGaMa)
---. FOSSILS 4 (2013/ Inreco)
---. Prerona (2014)
Moheener Ghoraguli. Shongbigno Pakhikul O Kolkata Bishoyok. 1977.

---. Aabar Bochhor Kuri Por. 1995.
Roy, Anupam. Durbine Chokh Rakhbo Na. 2012.
---. Dwitiyo Purush. 2013.
---. Bakyobageesh. 2014.
Tamal Dasgupta holds a PhD from the Dept of English, University of Calcutta. He is the founder editor
of Journal of Bengali Studies and is Assistant Professor of English Literature at Bhim Rao Ambedkar
College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India.
Indic Philosophy in Bengali Religious Songs

Somnath Sarkar
In this article I intend to discuss the influence of Indic Philosophy in Bengali religious songs. When
one speaks on the philosophy of the Vednta in Bengal one deals with the learned community in Bengal
writing on the Vednta. But when one deals with Bengali songs having a Vedantic base, then one deals
with the large masses of the Bengali people who sing or hear such songs. And if one can establish that
these songs have a philosophical foundation and that foundation is Vedantic, one realizes that the
Vednta has entered the bloodstream of a whole people, that it is in widest commonalty spread.
But how can a song be philosophical? Or to speak in general terms, how can poetry be
philosophical ? This is a basic question of poetics and I do not have the space, perhaps, far less the
competence, to deal with the subject. As an Indian reader of poetry I know that our ancient book of
verse, the Rigveda, is not only a religious book, it is largely a philosophical work. It anticipates the
later Upanishadic or Vedantic idea of the One. The Rigvedic verse in the first maala. Skta 164 and
k 46, says: Ekam sadvipr bahudh vadanti (The real is one, the learned call it by different names).
And parts of the Upaniads are great poetry. Let us take the opening verse of the Kena Upaniad :
keneitam patati preitam mana kena pra prathama praiti yukta ('By whom willed and directed
does the mind light on its objects/By whom commanded does life the first, move?' tr. S.
Radhakrishnan). It is a profound question put in memorably poetical words.
Then we come to our medieval poetry written in our vernaculars and they are all songs, from the
Tamil Alwars of the sixth and seventh centuries to the Shakta songs of the eighteenth century Bengali
poet Rmaprasda. These vast literatures of songs are not only religious but profoundly philosophical.
Guru Nanak (1469-1533) is known for his Japji which is a Upaniad in one of our vernaculars. Kabir
(d. 1518) is a highly philosophical poet. In his Kabir and His Followers (1931) F. E. Key goes deep
into the Vedantic basis of Kabir's philosophy. He says:
Ahmad Shah is most emphatic in stating that Kabir's teaching is monistic. There are
indeed many passages that seem to bear this out. On the other hand, there are passages
which seem to agree with the Visistadvaita doctrine, or modified Monism, which regards
the universe as the body or manifestation of God. and not as the creation of Maya, and
allows some kind of individuality to the soul after its absorption into the Supreme, (p. 71)
I think when our poets are philosophical and Vedantic, they are at once Dvaitavdin and Advaitavdin.
I do not have the time to go into the details of Kabir's philosophy. If a reader is especially interested in
this theme s/he may read the French scholar Charlotte Vaudeville's works on Kabir available in French,
English and Hindi. Speaking of Vedantic ideas in Bengali religious songs I must first mention the Tamil
Alwars who are not only Vedantic but who inspired a great Vedantic philosopher of the South,
Rmnuja of the twelfth century. Rmnuja preached his Visidvaitavda, that is qualified monism
which is the synthesis of Advaitavda and Dvaitavda, through his great commentary on Vdaryaa's
Vedntastra known as rbhya. In this discussion of Vednta in Bengal I cannot go into the details
of the influence of the Tamil Alwars on this great Tamil philosopher. I can only quote the words of the
Oxford scholar, J. S. M. Hooper, who says in his Introduction to the Hymns of the Alwars (1929) : The
Alwars provided the soil out of which Rmnujas teachings naturally sprang, and in which later it
could bear fruit. He is not really the morning star of the bhakti movement; that is a name far more fitly
given to the Alwars. (p. 6) Dr S. N. Dasgupta agrees with this view in the third volume of his A
History of Indian Philosophy (1940) where he says : . the works of the Alvar which were
collected together by the disciples of Ramanuja at his special request, and from which Ramanuja
himself drew much inspiration and food for his system of thought. (p. 80) In the first volume of his
Indian Philosophy (1923) Dr Radhakrishnan speaks of the influence of the Alwars on Rmnujas
bhakti or theistic Vednta. Later in his introduction to his edition of the Vedntastra (1960) he is more
emphatic on this point when he says : Ramanujas interpretation of the Brahma-sutra is influenced by
the Bhagavata doctrine and the bhakti cult of the Alwars. Radhakrishnan adds that We find in
Ramanuja's system a synthesis of the prabandha literature of the Alwars and the theistic current of the
Upanishads.' (p. 47)
While dealing with Vedantism in Bengali song I should begin with Carypada : Buddhist Mystic
songs discovered by Haraprasad Shastri (1853-1931) and published by the Vangiya Sahitya Parishad as
Hjr Bachharer Pura Vgl Bhshy Bauddhagn O Doh in 1916. Although these songs were
composed by Buddhist monks, they have a Vedantic base. While reflecting on the Vedantic element in
the Carypada I thought of an important statement of Radhakrishnan in the first volume of his Indian
Philosophy: 'Early Buddhism is only a restatement of the thought of the Upanishad' (p. 361). Rhys
Davids says the same thing about the affinity between Buddhist and Vedantic thought in his work
Buddhism: Its History and Literature (1926, pp. 83-84).
Sashibhushan Dasgupta makes a very significant statement about the philosophical foundation of
the Bengali Buddhist songs called Carypada in his Obscure Religious Cults (1946, 2nd ed., 1962) :
'The dominating philosophical note of the Charya-songs is of an immense idealistic vein. . . . And this
idealism is common to the Madhyamika and Vijnanavad Buddhism as well as the Vedanta.' (p. 37)
Later in this work Dr Dasgupta says: 'In the highest stress laid by the Sahajiyas on Sahaja-realization
or self-realization as the summum bonum of the religious life we may trace the old Upanishadic spirit
under the Buddhistic garb. (p. 77) I am quoting a verse from Carypada in song no. 7: niyaddi bohi
dr a ma jahi (enlightenment is near, stray not a far ).1 It is very close to the Vedantic doctrine tat tvam
asi (That art thou) (Chndogya Upaniad, vi. 15.3). Actually the word advay (non-duality) occurs in
this verse in its old Bengali form adaa.
Where do we find Vedantic ideas in our Vaishnava songs? We must first realize that theistic
vaishnavism is not necessarily un-Vedantic. Theistic Vednta is bhakti Vednta. It is Rmnuja Vednta
which contemplates a loving God worshipped by His devotees. Let us remember that the
Bhgavatapura, which is obviously a bhakti kvya, is looked upon as a verse commentary on the
Vedntastra, and the spirit of Vaishnava songs from Jayadeva to Bengali Vaiavapadval is the spirit
of the Bhgavatapura. Bengali vednta as it is present in the Bengali religious songs, vaiava,
kta, bul or the songs of the Brahma psalter (Brahma-sagta) is bhakti vednta. The problem of
scholars who speak of bhakti vednta is that it is not to be found in the Upaniad or in the Brahmastra which may be taken as a dvaitavdi text, but which does not say anything about the divine love in
vaiava songs. But the Bhagavadgt, which is a constituent of the Prasthnatraya, is certainly a
bhakti text. The vaiava lyrics are a vivid and picturesque presentation of the love of God which is the
essence of the teachings of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavadgt.
The kta songs of the eighteenth century Bengali kta poet Rmaprasda have a Vedantic
foundation. Rmaprasda seems to reject dvaita-vednta when he says: cini haoy bhlo nay man cini
khete bhlobsi ('It is not good to be sugar when I love to taste it'). But Rmaprasda's songs have also
an advaitic strain: m m kare dkisne r / myer dekh pbin / thkle ese dekh dita, ashravan se
beche ni. ('Do not cry for mother: if she at all existed she would have responded to your cry. She is
not alive.') Then the kta poet says'm gechhe nm Brahma chhe' ('Ma is gone, but Brahma
exists'). Actually Bengali religious songs are at once dvaitavdi and advaitavdi. If the kta cult is
rooted in tantra it is necessarily Vedantic in its essence. Sir John Woodroffe says in his Sakti and
Sakta 'The sakta faith of today is a particular presentation of the general Vedantic teaching.
Rmaprasda is acquainted with vedantic ideas, the idea of sagua and the idea of nirgua, the
idea of skra and nirkra the idea of bhakti and mukti. But he has no problem with apparently
conflicting ideas. He can see Brahma in his mother. A song of Rmaprasda which seems to be difficult
to understand :
Kena miche m nm kara, Myer dekh pbe nai/
Thkle ese dekh dita sarvan bche ni//
when the poet is distressed by an unhearing Mother he resorts to Brahma who is none other than
Mother. He has even no sense of conflict between bhakti and mukti. The Bengali vaiava spurns mukti
and exalts bhakti ; but Rmaprasda does not distinguish between the two.
prasd bale bhakti ubhayere mthe dharechi / ebr ymr nm Brahma jene dharma karma sab
cherechi/)
Baul songs are philosophically Vedantic, but they are studied as a synthesis of several cults,
Buddhist Sahajiya, Vaishnava Sahajiya, bhakti cult and sufism. I am not going into the details of these
cults in their bearing on Bengali Baul poetry since my business is to show their philosophical base in
the Vedanta. But I must, however, say a few words on sufism in Baul songs. It is often said that sufi
monism, which presents the goal of sadhana as the merger of the individual in God is an Islamic
philosophy. The Muslim mystic Hallaj declared that he was the Truth and for this blasphemy {anal
haq) he was executed. The idea is indeed very close to the monistic philosophy of Shankara's Advaita
Vednta. None of us can deny what Annada Sankar Ray has very succinctly stated in his An Outline of
Indian Culture (1978). Annada Sankar says :
Bauls come from both Hindu and Muslim communities. Their beliefs and practices are
drawn from the Sahajiya cult of Buddhism, partly from the Vaishnava doctrine of love
and partly from the mystic teachings of the sufis. (P. 62)
Brahmasagta, the psalter or hymn-book of the Brahmo Samaj, has 2013 songs in its latest
unabridged edition by Satish Chandra Chakraborti published by the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj in 1931.
In this 110-page edition of the anthology there are many other songs mentioned as Nagar Sakrtana,
Sanskrit songs, Hindi songs and Urdu songs. It is a very precious volume in Bengali song-literature
which gives us an idea of the variety of religious experience even when that experience has a common
Vedantic foundation.
Rabindranath Tagore was a philosopher, poet, dramatist, teacher, essayist, singer and painter of
outstanding repute. His philosophy of life was based on the ideals of dedication, patriotism and
naturalism. Although he was an ideal philosopher, but the thoughts of naturalism, pragmatism and
individualism are also reflected in his philosophy. Tagores philosophy reveals that he was a vedantist
in true sence of terms. He had faith in one Supreme Being that is Brahman. He finds unity in diversities
in the world and a spiritual unity between man and man, man and nature. The relationship between God
and man must be like the relationship between love and joy. He believes both the presence of God in all
manifestation of matter and spirit. Therefore he says It will not to reject the impersonal aspect of truth
altogether. He believes in the concept that presence of Brahman in all being. True salvation takes
place when individual realizes presence of Brahman within him. Tagore was an ardent follower of
nandayoga, Thus he sings
nandalake magalloke
virja satyasundara /
Rabindranath Tagore supports the monism of Indian philosophy. During the Mghotsava, Kaviguru
wrote so many Brahma-sagta. As we read through the Brahma songs we realize that they are
invocations of Brahma in a definitely theistic note even they speak of One advaita reality. Those songs
are
tumi ki go pit mder, eki e sundara obh, mahsihsane basi unicha, he vivapita,
Koth cha, prabhu, esechi dnahna etc.
Another song of the Brahma-sagta is an expression of the discovery of the One in the Many :
Ki gbo mi, ki unbo, ji e nanda dhme / puravs jane enechhi eke tomr amta
nme.
Influence of the Upaniad in Tagores life is highly remarkable. He read the doctrines of major
Upaniads properly and utilized the verses in his writings. Examples are given below :
Taittiryopaniad (2.14) says
yato vco nivartante aprpya manas saha/
nanda brahmao vidvn na bibheti kadcana//
Influenced by this verse kaviguru wrote the famous song
ke dke re picchan hate/ ke kare re mn /
bhayer kath ke bale j / bhoy cche sab jn/
On the other hand, vetvetaropaniad says about the liberation and transmigration of soul
vedhameta purua mahnta
ditya vara tamasa parastt/
tameva viditvti mtyumeti
nnya panth vidyate yanya//
Rabindranath in this true sense said by his famous song
nce janma, nce mtyu pche pche
tt thai thai, tt thai thai tt thai/
k nanda, k nanda, k nanda,
divrtri nce mukti, nce bandha//
Same meaningful verses are available in Bhadrayakopaniad also esya param gatire sya
param sapadeo sya paramo loka eo sya parama-nanda.
Modern poetry saysTruth is beauty, beauty is truth. Our goddess of knowledgedev Sarasvat
is not only truth but also beauty. Upaniad also say in this connectionnandarpamamta yad
bibhti.
And Tagore says

satya magala premamaya tumi,
dhruvajyoti tumi andhakre/
The most famous upaniad Bhadrayakopaniad says about the immortality in the conversation
between Yog Yjavalkya and Maitrey at 4th chapteryenha nmtasy kimaha tena kury/
Katopaniad also says like that in the conversation between Yama and Naciket. Here Naciket also
said to Yama that he does not want any wealth, he wants only iternal bliss self consciousness.
Rabindranath also emphasizes the upaniadic lines in his own that
Ti die yadi tomre pi
kena t dite prin ?
mr jagater sab tomre deba,
die tomy neba vsan/
The most popular mantra of opaniad

Hiramayena ptrea satyasypihita mukham /
tattva pannapvu satyadharmya daye //
This verse is a prayer to God by the worshipper. He who realizes Brahman, the Absolute, becomes
Brahman. Rabidranath says is the light of above verse
tomy mora karva varaa/
mukher hk karva haraa//
On the other hand he also wrote
panre die racili re ki e
panri varaa!
khule dekh dvra, antare tr

nandaniketan.
The famous poetry Dui pkhi of Sonr tar kvya emphasizes the correlation between Jvtman and
paramtman in the light of the mantra of Muakopaniad . The Upaniadic mantra is
dv supar sayuj sakhy
samana vka pariasvajte
tayoranya pipala sydvattyananannanya abhickati
Every human beings performs the ll of Jvtman and paramtman, Tagore, in this content, wrote the
famous song
ti tomr nanda mr par
tumi ti esecho nce
my naile, tribhuvanevar,
tomr prem hata ye miche//
In the opaniad, there are certain mantras which apparently admit of interpretation from the point of
view of jnakarma-samuccaya. Vidy and avidy are opposed to each other and said to have different
results. Vidy means upsan the worshipful meditation of the various divinities. In that very true
sense, a vedantist pursuing the logic of advaita may not seize the essence of Rabindranaths truly
Upaniadic mind. It is a mind yearning for Reality as the truth of life and to understand the nature of
this yearning we have to see the variety of its feeling and expression. There is a tenderness of feeling in
his religious poetry which may not suit the metaphysical strait jacket of any school of the Vednta.
He wroteTomy natun kare pba bole hri kae kanI lose you every moment if only to
have the pleasure of finding you anew. In the same song we have the idea of nya but it is not meant
to be the void which is the annihilation of everything. The poet says God wears the void as a raiment
only to establish his endlessness. If God is endless, he has given man an endlessness. mre tumi
aea karecha emani ll tava. And there is an advaya where the endlessness of man is in union with
the endlessness of God.
Lastly, I conclude the essay by the great poetry of Rabindranath Tagore
Sabr-paraepavitra kar trthanre/
ji bhrater mahmnaver Sgartre//
Bibliography
Anirvan. Vedamms (Vol.1). Calcutta (Now Kolkata); Sanskrit college, 1991 (3rd ed.)
(1st ed. 1961).
Apte, Vaman shivaraman. : The Practical Sanskrit English Dictionary. Delhi ; MLBD,
Fourth Revised and Enlarged Edition, 1965. rpt. 1975.
Banerji, Suresh Chandra : A companion to Sanskrit Literature. Delhi; MLBD (2nd ed.
1989) (1st ed. 1971)
Das Gupta, Sureandranath : A History of Indian Philosophy. Vol. I-III; Delhi ; MLBD,
1988 (rpt.) (1st. ed. Cambridge, 1922).
Chndogyopaniad. In Upaniadgranthval. Vol. 2. Ed. Swami Gambhirananda.
Kolkata; Udbodhan Karyalaya, 1366 B.S. (4th ed.)
Chakraborty, Nirod Baran. A Dictionary of Advaita Vednta. Calcutta (Now Kolkata);
The Ramakrishna Mision Institute of Calcutta, 2010 (3rd rpt.). (1st ed. 2003).
Dasgupta, R.K. Vedanta in Bengal. Calcutta (Now Kolkata); The Ramakrishna Msion
Institute of Culture, 2003.
Dasgupta, Sashibhusan. Obscure Religious Cults. Calcutta; 1962(2nd ed.) (1st ed. 1946)
Deussen, Paul. The systems of the Vednta. New Delhi ; Akay Book Corporation, 1987.
Maxmuller, Friendrich. The Vedanta Philosophy. Delhi ; Nag Publishers, 1979. (1st ed.
1894).
Rabindra-rachanavali, Visva-Bharati, Achalita Sangraha, 1962, p. 44
ibid., p.136
ibid. vol. 2 1962, p.13.
ibid., 185.
ibid., 209.
ibid., vol. xiv, 651
ibid., p. 654
ibid., p. 660
ibid., p. 681
Radhakrishnan, Sarvapalli. Indian Philosophy. vols.1and2, London;1941(rpt.) ( 1st ed.
London, george & Allen Ltd. 1927).
Sinha, Debabrata. Metaphysics of experience in Advaita Vednta. Delhi ; MLBD, 1995.
Sen, Prasanna Kumar. Vividha Dharmasangit. Kolkata ; Basumati Sahitya Mandir, 1907.
Sen, Sukumar. Old Bengali Texts (Indian Linguistics, Vol. X)/ Linguistic Survey of
India, Govt. of India, 1948.
Upaniads (Selection from 108 Upaniads). Ed. T.M.P. Mahadevan. Delhi; MLBD,
2000.
Somnath Sarkar, PhD, is Assistant Professor and Head of Sanskrit, Kanchrapara College, University of
Kalyani, West Bengal, India.
Hindu Reformism and the Comic Songs of Dwijendralal

Roy in Colonial Bengal
AYON HALDER
The Bengali comic songs owe their lineage to the early nineteenth century poets who excelled in their
endeavour to delineate the social mores humorously and lampoon the oddities which were traced in the
character of certain class of people. Dwijendralal Roy, who was perhaps the most popular among the
comic song writers of late nineteenth and early twentieth century, came to compose his songs after
people like Iswarchandra Gupta, Rangalal Bandopadhyay, Michael Madhusudan Dutta, Amritalal Basu,
Chandranath Das and others who had already set the tone. Besides, there were also few other exponents
who wrote such songs for plays. D.L.Roy took a dig at the newly emerging middle class who wanted to
call themselves reformed only because of the fact that they were fortunate enough to possess liberal
education of the West. But this new class of Bengali people was characterized by affected disposition
when it came to practice of those liberal ethics that they boasted of in public. At times they were
trapped within two widely apart poles and looked awkwardly out of place. D.L.Roy who himself was
educated in the West, engaged himself in writing several comic songs that were not much in vogue
then. But he took this form to perfection by composing songs like Reformed Hindus, Bilet ferta,
Nandalal, Hindu, Kobi, Nutan kichhu koro and many such other ones. The collected comic songs of
D.L.Roy which were published as Hasir Gan, were wide ranging in their subject matter because they
touched upon almost everything by deriving influence from history, myth, society, love, nature and
even food and drinks. Among these songs the most popular songs that brought immediate laughter and
portrayed incongruous pictures of the educated Hindus who shaped their lives according to Western
ideals are those which are premised on social concerns. In his song Reformed Hindoos D.L.Roy
succinctly depicts the upwardly mobile Hindu class and elaborated their farcical notoriety. The poet
recounted the awkward condition of the native elite who championed the enlightened ideals of the
British and secluded themselves from others whom they considered to be the representatives of the
lower strata. D.L.Roy accomplished this narration with such precision that the depiction immediately
brings into mind the incongruity that defines this hybrid sect. However, he also referred to the
heterodoxy straightway in the song itself and denounced the deceitful activities that they were engaged
into by alluding to the hypocrisy all around. Roy waged his attack against the self-proclaimed reformed
class with an unremitting intent and painstakingly pointed out the flawed mores which were prevalent
at that time. Dwijendralal unabashedly condemned the alcoholic, westernized Hindus with their weird
sense of dressing in public and the quaint jargon that they were also accustomed with. This clearly
unveils the fact that the lyricist of the song here is indeed on a mission to carry out his onslaught
against the whims of the conceited Hindus who were ridiculed for their aberrations. The peculiarities
which were intrinsic parts of the reformed Hindus were laughed at by the poet who went on to label
that haughty class as curious commodities, human oddities, demoninated Baboos. The scornful
invectives that Roy resorted to in this song were directed at the refined attitude of the resurrected
Hindus who cared a fig for any religious faith whatsoever. What they seemed to be engrossed with, as
evinced by Roy, was these Hindus who were well acquainted with Western philosophy used to read
Mill, Hume and Spencers books to validate their ways of life. This was not that they were immensely
influenced deep down by their philosophy but purposefully took recourse to certain liberal ideals of
Western metaphysics like exercising free will or having reservations against religious doctrines with an
emphasis on moral ethics to justify their double standard. This became evident when D.L.Roy candidly
disclosed that the reformed Hindus who might have enlightened views about women's emancipation,
female education, infant marriage or widow remarriage to affirm their enhanced outlook, disregarded
any such egalitarian belief when it came to private life. The new Hindus were fond of delivering highflying lectures and composing poems with an excess of sentiments. They were completely devoid of
the urge to act for the betterment of their own life. Though the new class of radically defiant Hindus
avowedly defended their love for ethical values, they turned a deaf ear to morality in their life. Thus the
dichotomy between the supposedly liberal ideals and the unwavering acceptance of age-old habits and
rituals egged on Roy to compose these comic songs.
Dwijendralal Roy himself suffered from a tremendous backlash from his own community when
he returned from the West and began to exert independent thinking with an underlined emphasis on an
investigation of Bengali cultural identity. He imbibed the crux of Western metaphysics while he was
roaming around and it was also during this time that he read a considerable amount of literature which
broadened his horizon to a large extent. Sri Debkumar Roychoudhuri who wrote his biography titled
Dwijendralal narrated elaborately DL's thoughts and ideas about the cultural unity of the East and the
West by urging his fellow people to pick up progressive ideals from the West. He opined that people of
Bengal would never lead a life according to their own will unless they broke free from shackles of rigid
norms inflicted on them. He seemed to be radical in his belief as he went further to plead that people of
Bengal had had enough of the traits of gopal in their character but it would not do any world of good
for them being self-contented. What he wrote in his letter instead was that the Bengali people had to
learn to be rakhal in order to lead life with satisfaction to the fullest extent. In one of his letters that he
wrote on 14th August, 1885 he espoused his own understanding of the progression that relied heavily
on the refusal of any staunch uniformity as he reaffirmed this by commenting, Individuality is the
fountain of progress and the source of human happiness (Roychoudhuri 206).
When he came back from the West he underwent the worst possible flailing and he was castigated.
But his character was tinged with such niceties of idiosyncrasies that he published a little book named
Ekghare after being condemned for the stay abroad. He was not at all intimidated by the kind of
affliction perpetrated on him but resisted it by composing comic songs and defended himself against
the accusation that he had fallen from grace. He made his intentions clear previously when he
composed Lyrics of Ind where he referred to the cultural unity that he much cherished in lifeIf it
has pleased God to unite England and India in the strong ties of wedded interest and in the still
stronger, more sacred, indissoluble bond of mutual love and gratitude, it is the aim of the author to
establish a marriage and an intellectual commerce between their poetries as well. When he started to
write comic songs which were published under the title Hasir Gan he intended to laugh at the
affectations rampant of that time. He infused Western tune in Bengali lyric and created an
unprecedented style of song writing which became popular in no time. Sri Roychoudhuri inserted the
words of Panchkadi Bandopadhyay in the biography of D.L.Roy as these were quite relevant in this
case. Bandopadhyay who was also one of Roys close associates in the literary supplement named
Sahitya ( Asadh, 1320) pointed out the larger impact of those songs which affected the lives of almost
all sortsthe Brahmos, the Theosophists, the new Hindus, the babus, the pundits or the political
revolutionaries but none from these groups had any censure against him for the delightfully genteel
humour that was deployed in these songs. The refined form of humour was at times mingled with
pungent satire but the people who were the butt of ridicule also reveled in the laughter that was evoked
out those compositions. As evinced by Panchkadi Bandopadhyay, it was the time that was marked by
the haughty temperament of the new Hindu class who boasted of their Brahminical origin and looked at
others condescendingly and the young progressive intellectuals who legitimized their erratic ways of
living with several ostentatious activities. With this Panchkadi also stressed upon the fact that the comic
songs of Dwijendralal ushered in a revolution in the shoddy existence of the people in Bengal with a
gust of wind that brought new lease of life. However, D.L.Roy in his comic songs minutely
documented the customs and rituals and also situated himself in the songs that were written in a
confessional mode. This was undoubtedly a strategy to guard himself from the incurring wrath that
would easily be elicited if he had directly made any references. He artfully avoided such occasions and
maintained a sharp critique throughout by drawing attention to the linguistic and cultural hybridity that
were much in vogue then. Dwijendralal who once blatantly defended the liberal notion of Western
ideals, denounced any attempt to acquire them without assimilation. In one of his comic songs Bilet
Ferta D. L. Roy again harped on the same theme and addressed the people who loved to adorn
themselves with Western habits and etiquettes. The words that he wrote in his letters when he stayed
outside his country and the lyric of these songs apparently seemed to be mutually exclusive in terms of
the fact that whereas in his letters Roy professed much in favour of intrinsically liberal ethics of the
West, he was vehemently verbal against the pursuit of any such in public. But this outward incongruity
dissolves when it is assumed that Bengali sahibs only pretended to be like Western people to carve out
a space of their own in the society. They were so miserable inside that they were always in search of
this faade to validate their worth among others. This was evident when D.L.Roy wrote, Amra Bangla
giyechhi vuli/Amra shikhechhi biliti buli, that is to say, many among the Bengali people of late forgot
their mother tongue and learnt to chatter in English.
D.L.Roy meticulously portrayed the hybrid entity and made fun of such medley. The readers
can also get glimpses of political commentaries in this song as Roy wrote, Amra bilet ferta kotay/
Dese adi congress ghotai/ Amader saheb jodio debota, tobu oi/ Saheb guloi chotai, that is, we who
returned from the West form a common political platform Congress and even if we are destined to
regard the British as our saviours, we engage ourselves to enrage them. Here Dwijendralal might have
insinuated the derivative discourse of nationalist project in the colonial Bengal by reconsidering the
fact that nationalist movements were fissured along the lines of class and caste. The comic songs are
self-reflexive in nature and anticipate the nuances of modernist poetry. The resistance against colonial
aggression was tinged with the Brahminical essence in it and the heterogeneity of its character was
denied from within. The young educated individuals were fond of mimicing the colonial masters
proficiently and this was why D.L.Roy wrote, Amra chherechhi tikir ador/Amra chherechhi dhuti o
chador/ Amra hat, boot ar pant coat pore/ Sejechhi biliti bador. What Bhabha expounded in The
Location of Culture about mimicry as a potent weapon to unveil the falsified notion of colonial
superiority can also be alluded to in this regard as Roys comic songs might be deciphered as one of
earliest attempts to acknowledge this notion by drawing portraits of people well clad in Western
costumes and well versed in Western literature. But the most important message that the lyricist
purported to convey in these songs was the immense futility of vainglorious efforts exerted towards the
adoption of the West outwardly and the comic laughter which was invariably derived out of the bizarre
assemblages of the two ethnically divergent cultural identities. A close reading of the comic songs of
D.L.Roy affirms that he was an engaged adherent to cultural investigation, not a possessor of disregard
for fellow Hindus.
Works Cited
Roy, Dwijendralal, Hasir Gan. Kolikata: New Britania Press, n.d.
Roychoudhuri, Sri Debkumar, Dwijendralal: Jiban. Kolikata: Kuntalin Press, n.d.
Ayon Halder is a Research Scholar in the Department of English, University of Kalyani, West Bengal,
India.
Searching for Moner Manush (Man of Heart): Bauls of

Bengal and Fakir Lalon Shah
Anirban Mondal
Bauls are the very own cultural assets of Bengal and have become internationally acclaimed. Baul is a
folk religion too where there is no trace of God or Allah. To them it is the human body, and human
body alone that is the object of worship. They have no social and religious hierarchy in their
community. They always keep themselves engaged in searching for Moner Manush (Man of Heart).
Their hymns of worship are nothing but their songs. The outburst of emotion through their
songs eliminates the divides like Hindu-Muslim, male-female, upper-lower classes and castes. It is only
at their Akhra where one can observe the actual religious harmony and can observe Bengals original
picture of spiritual life and thinking. If we want to know Bengal and Bengali culture, we have to know
their spiritual life and if we want to know Bengalis spiritual life, we must focus on Bengalis folk lifeculture.
Baul is a folk culture of Bengal. Baul tradition is the joint venture of Shahajya Buddhist, Hindu
and other communities. No single religious community can claim Baul as their own. It is through
Baul by which various communities have come closer for its humanist practices. For this, Baul
music, a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was approved on 25 November
2005 by The United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
There is no fixed source from which the word Baul has been derived. One of the most
accepted opinion is that the word Baul has been derived from the word Batula which means Mad.
From another accepted source, it is the word Bajrakul from which the word Bajul has been derived
and from Bajul the word Baul is derived.1 Latter is more appropriate as recent research shows that
the words like Bajrayan, Bajra-Tatma, Bajrakul have been used in Buddhist-Sahajia from the
ancient period. Bengali Chayapada is the result of Buddhist-Sahajia Sadhak community. Indeed,
Baul communities share the tradition of secret sadhana (meditation) where they use songs (generally
bearing dual meaning) as the medium of communication with the other initiated person.
The origin of Baul tradition and the community, in a sense, clearly shows the tensions of their
existence. Their marginal condition in the society leads them to their secret sadhana (meditation) for
Moner Manush (Man of the heart). As most of the people from Baul community are illiterate, they
follow the oral tradition and their songs descend from generation to generation only by the process of
listening and memorizing. As they are from the common masses their songs are decorated with simple
and rustic allegory and at the same time they show the contemporary society, its good and evils mainly
to the village folks.
Fakir Lolon Shah (1774-1890) is the main pioneer and the greatest spoke-person of the
marginalized Baul tradition of the undivided Bengal. Rejecting the religious institutions and their
dogma, Fakir Lalon Shah has created a world which is based on human and humanity. This
multifaceted personality was a socially concerned Baul, and the-then societys problem had touched
him deeply. So through his songs he raised his voice against class, caste, religious malice and so many
social issues which we can still observe in our Pan-Indian society. This self-learned folk-poets
conscious outlook towards society and poetic power was amazing. The main contribution of Lalon
Shah is that, he has given a lower classs folk-religions songs the height of literature. The voice of
Fakir Lalon Shah, his songs and philosophy are now not limited only within Bengal and Bengali
speaking areas, but have spread all over the world. Now Lalon Shah has become the symbol of world
fraternity, humanity, equality and peace.
Fakir Lalon Shah used to keep himself engaged in gathering knowledge from within and in
search of Moner Manush or Sahaj Manush or Achin Manush. He took the medium of songs to
express his long gathered knowledge where his main motto was realization and poetry was its bearer.
Atma-Tattwa (self-realization) is the driving force of Baul and this holds true for Lalon. It echoes
the ancient Indian wisdom atmanang biddhi . Lalons song:Atmatatta je jeneche/ Dibyagyani se
hoyeche is nothing but the echo of the words of the great Greek Philosopher Socrates Know thyself.
In Lalon Geeti Achin Pakhi is synonymous toMoner Manush. It is worth adding that
Rabindranath Tagore himself admitted that the song Achin Pakhi by Lalon was the inspiriation behind
his concept of Jivandevata. In his speech on The Philosophy of Our People at the Presidential
address at the Indian Philosophical Congress, Rabindranath Tagore said These people roam about
singing their songs, one of which I heard years ago from my roadside window, the first two lines
roaming inscribed in my mind.
Nobody can tell whence the bird unknown
comes into my cage and goes out.
I could feign put round its feet the fetter of my mind.
Could I but capture him.
This village poet evidently agrees with our sage of Upanishad who says that our mind comes back
baffed in its attempt to reach the unknown Being; and yet this poet like the ancient sage does not give
up adventure of the infinite, thus emplying that there is a way to its realization. 2 Later in London, in
his speech on The Religion of Man, Tagore said: I felt that I had found my religion at last, the
religion of man, in which the infinite became defined in humanity and came close to me so as to need
my love and co-operation. This idea of mine found at a later date its expression in some my poems
addressed to what I called Jivandevata, the lord of my life. 3
Keeping human and humanity as the centre of Bauls assessments of religion and society are
somehow more radical than some mainstream religious communities. From the aspect of Baul,
propagation and manifestation of humanity are more fundamental than religious scriptures. Baul Guru
Lalon sings targeting Shariyatpanthi Muslim: Ki nishan dekhile bujhi shariyat hachel,/ Kholosa
koriya taha kohoto fajel. Andajee na kohio baat, koho hadich mote/ Kobe hobe shora hachel jabo
marfate. (By which Symbol I will understand that I have observed sharia,/ Make me clear about that.
Do not reply me in conjecture, tell me exactly/ When I will able to achieve sharia and will go for
marfat.) . He again sings: Jodi shorai karjo shidho hoy/(tobe) Marfat keno dhorte jay.( If sharia is
sufficient for accomplishment/ (then) what is the need of marfat.) It is exigent to write here that Islam
attributes four doctrines i.e. sharia, tariqat, haqiqat and marfat. The sharia regulates only the external
relation of the subject to Allah and his fellow-men and entirely ignores his inner consciousness. The
sharia demands and is only concerned with the fulfillment of the outward forms. Tariqat means the
disposition of heart on which the five prescribed duties of the shariat are based, and all the actions
following from that disposition. To repeat the kalma belongs to shariat is to think of God continually
and meditate on his ninety-nine sacred names belongs to tariqat. In haqiqat the end of all desires is
reached. The man becomes perfect. He has passed beyond faith and unbelief, beyond good and evil. He
is free from the Law. He has no need of prayer; for every prayer has been granted. 4 And the upper
and supreme stage is Marfat which means the pure knowledge of God and it is the Moner Manush of
the Bauls which they search within. To them unlike sharia prayer is not a technique, it is not a ritual,
it is not a formality. There is no pattern to it. It is a spontaneous outpouring of the heart, so dont ask
how, because there is no how and there cannot be any how to it. Whatsoever happens in the moment is
right. If tears come, good. If you dance, good. If nothing comes and you simply remain silent, good.
Because prayer is not in the expression; it is not in the container, it is in the content. Sometimes silence
is prayerful, sometimes singing is prayerful. It depends on you, it depends on the heart. 5
Lalon has no faith or support to the showiness of the religious rituals. He rather promulgates a
strong protest against ritualistic religious acts . To him dharma is a belief which keeps a mans
qualities intact within himself and it resides in the human heart and men as human being its dharma is
humanity. One of songs where Lalon saysMatir dhibe kather chobi;/Bhoot bhabe sab deva-devi
Vhole na se esob rupa/ O je manush-ratan chene.
Jinn-fereshtar khela/ Pecha-pechi alavhola
Tar nayan hoy na vhola/ O je manus voje dibyagayn ea.
The meaning of this song is that those who know human and humanity (manuhs-ratan), they cannot be
lured by any idol (matir dhibi) and supernatural things. Those men, who keep believe in human and
humanity, to them man is God and humanity is his way.
In Baul songs we can find harmonization of religion, Bauls are not against any religion, they are
against the showiness and hollowness in the name of religious deeds. They are the worshipers of
Humanism. Baul Guru Lalon sings: Je ja bhabe sei rupe se hoy/ Ram-Rahim- Karim-Kala ek atma
jogotmoy. ( He becomes what he thinks/ Ram-Rahim-Karim-Kala all are the same sole in this world.)
The dwelling place of Bauls Moner Manush is in human body and human being is an
indispensable part of the society; hence all social goods and evils are the objects of the Baul songs.
Religious tensions, caste system, class division, gender discrimination and many other social binaries
are obstructive to their sadhana (meditation). Most of the Bauls are from the illiterate background but
their substantive knowledge about society cannot be denied. Hindu-Muslim conflict is an age old
problem in Bengal and living in denial of this problem nothing good can be possible. Lalon was aware
of this, he sang: Fokiri korbi khyapa kon rag ea,/ Ache Hindu-Musalman dui bhage. (How will you
meditate/ While (Bengal) is divided into two, Hindu and Musalman.) To Lalon, this universe is created
by God so also human being is also created by Him and as He is the creator of the whole so there is no
logic behind observing different religions. Lalon sings: Bedh- Puran koreche jari/ Jabaner sai hindur
hori/ Ami ta bujhte nari/ Dui rup shristi korlen ki tar proman. (Veda-Purana have announced/ Sai is
for Jaban and Hori is for Hindu/ I cannot understand / If any evidence in the creation of the two.)
Observing Lalons non-sectarian stance in the society, the people of his contemporary
questioned many times about his religion and Lalon replied in his song: Sob loke koi Lalon ki jaat
sangsare,/ Lalon koi jeter ki rup dekhlam na ei sangsare. ( All ask Lalons religion in the society/
Lalon says he has not seen the shape of his religion in the society till yet.) Lalon also questioned back
to them in his song: Sunnath dile hoy musalman/ Nari loker ki hoy bidhan/ Bamon chini poita
proman/ Bamni chini kishe re.( If you circumcise the boy, he becomes a Muslim/Whats the rule for
women, then? I can recognize the Brahmin man from his sacred thread;/But then how am I to know the
Brahmin woman?)
The most profound theme we can observe in Baul and in Lalon Geeti is Lalons reaction
against class and caste system of Indian society and the religious conflicts. His age old songs are still
modern in the context of our present society. When the lalonite Baul singer sings the song:
Jat gelo jat gelo bole eki ajab karkhana/ Satya kaje keu noy raji sab dekhi tana na na.
Jokhon tumi bhobe ele,/ Tokhon tumi ki jat chile
Adar jabar belai ki jat nibe;/ Ea-kotha amai bolo na.
Brahmin-chandal chamar-muchi;/ Eki jole ea hoi goo shuchi
Dekhe shune hoi na ruche,/ Johm ea ta kauke charbe na.
(Ill be excommunicated; Ill lose my caste,
Cries everybody; what a strange affair is this,
But no one wants to follow
The path of truth;
I see that everybody dillydallies.
When you first arrive on this earth

And when you finally depart
What is your caste or creed?
Why dont you say it?
The Brahmin and the Chandal,

The high caste and the low,
The same water cleanses everybody.what I hear and see
Disgust me, and Death, I know,
Will spare none. )6
Hinduism made its own rules like Sati to burn women with their dead husband in the same
pyre. Islam compares widow with black spider (Al-Quran, Surah Al-Ankabut 029:041-43) and
sometime she is forced to get married with another married man (Al-Quran, Surah An-Nisa 004:003) to
get protection, fulfiling the desire for polygamy. In Baul there is no concept of marriage so eventually
there are no words like widow and widowhood. Deplorable condition of widows and their miserable
condition in the society is one of the main causes of their entering into the Baul community.
In Baul tradition women have a special importance and value. They consider women as prakiti
(nature) and men as purus (man); without purus and prakiti any creation or well deed is not
possible. To them, men and women possess the equal power as Lalon says: Adam bolo kon nure hoy /
Ma houa ki sei nure nai . . . It means, if Adam is made of light (nur) and Eve is made from Adam, then
both share the same thing. Eve is also a mother, so through Eve (woman), the power and love of God
spread all over the world.
In his songs Lalon has given women higher position, Lalon sings:
The original Mecca is human body
Try to understand
Why are you tiring yourself roaming around the word?
God has created the human Mecca
With the celestial light
..............
Lalon says in that secret Mecca
The high priest is a woman.

In this patriarchal society where womans identity as human being is in crisis, Lalon overtly announces
that its a mother; a woman fixes a childs real identity. Lalon also sings:
The covert truth
Comes to light
By adulating mother
One learns the identity of father
Who was inside the egg
Whom did he see after coming out?
Sometimes through his sharp allegory and sometimes directly in his songs, Lalon advocates the
independence and the independent thinking of women. Lalon utters: Kuler bou hoye mon ar Kotodin
thakbi ghore,/ Ghomta felecholna re monesadh-bazare, which means: how long you will stay at home
as housewife, now leave your feminine code and come to your land of your own will. These words are
much more effective to the remote rural illiterate women than the heavy weighted words often used by
the theorists/scholars who are working on feminism.
In Baul doctrine, the most significant part is that they are unprecedented towards both spheres
of creator and creature. Baul observes human supremacy regardless of their place, time, gender, class
and caste. They sing: Nanan boron gabhi re tar eki boron dudh,/ Jagat bhoromiya dekhlam eki maa er
puut.(Cows are in different colors but the color milk is same,/ though roam all over the world, we are
the children of the same mother.) Lalon sings in the same way: Manush tattwa satya hoy jar mone,/
Seki annyo tattwa mane. (Those who know the true value of humanity,/ There is nothing more
valuable to them than that.)
From the beginning, Baul has gone through various social- economical- political changes. In the
course of time, people have changed their values and interests radically. Baul songs and sadhana
(meditation) constitute a counterculture for the backward community. Todays society is largely
unconcerned about the value of Baul songs and meditation, shoving this age old tradition towards a
space where Bauls existence is endangered.
End Notes:
Ahmad, Wakil. Baul Ganer Dhara. Dhaka: Gatidhara, 2010. P.15
Rabindranath Tagore The Philosophy of Our People- Presidential Address at the Indian
Philosophical Congress, 1925
Tagore.-The Religion of Man (London,1931)
The Encyclopedia of Islam. Vol-4, p.320-23
OSHO. Bauls: The Seekers of The Path. New Delhi: Fusion Books, 2009. P.8
Choudhury, Abul, Ahsan. Lalon Shain. Dhaka: Gangchil, 2011. P. 282
Books Consulted:
Ali, Abdullah Yusuf. The Meaning of the Glorious Quran. Cairo Egypt: Dar Al-Kitab Al-Masri,
1938.Print.
Ahmed, Wakil. Baul Ganer Dhara. Dhaka: Gatidhara, 2010. Print.
Bhattacharya, Upendranath. Banglar Baul-O-Baul Gan. Kolkata: Orient Book Company, 2001.
Print
Chaki, Lina. Bauler Charandasi. Kolkata: Gangchil, 2009. Print.
Choudhury, Abul, Ahsan. Lalon Shamagra. Dhaka: Pathak Shamabesh, 2009. Print.
-.. Lalon Shain. Dhaka: Gangchil, 2011. Print.
OSHO. Bauls: The Seekers of The Path. New Delhi: Fusion Books, 2009. Print.
Anirban Mondal is a Research Scholar in the Department of English, Banaras Hindu University,
Varanasi, U.P., India.
Music, Devotion and Religion: A Case Study of

Charyapad
Dhananjay Garai
The art of performing music varies from country to country. In Sangeet Parijat it is written
-

In India, classical music acquires a special position due to it richness and a long history. It is said that
classical music originated from Brahma (God of Creation) and the song that the angels represented in
front of Mahadev (God of Destruction) were later on came to be known as Hindustani Classical
Music. Acharya Haraprasad Sastri brought a few manuscripts from Nepal in 1907 and in the year 1916
he published these thousand year old manuscripts from Bangiya Sahitya Parisad. In the preface of the
book he entitled these manuscripts as Charyapad. A critical analysis of this Charya song reveals the fact
that these songs were written much earlier than the Vaishnab Padabali. These songs are part of the folk
tradition of Bengal and are allegorical in nature.
Before dealing with the history of Charjyapada we should first talk about the enriched past of
Indian Classical Music. Different scholars have argued that the music originated with the evolution of
language. During the Vedic age, the literature that was dominating the entire era was constituted by the
four Vedas (Rik, Sam, Yayur and Atharva) and their four parts known as Sanhita, Brahman, Aranyak
and Upanishad. The slokas of Rik Samhita were either sung or recited in sur (tune). Among these four
Vedas, slokas of Sum veda were taken from Rik samhita, which were meant to be sung and that is the
reason why hymns of Sam veda are acknowledged as Sam Gan. These slokas or songs were written
mainly for the religious purpose. But it should be remembered that apart from the spiritual side, these
hymns were used to worship Nature. For the Vedic people, Nature was both the destroyer and the
preserver and was nothing but a manifestation of God himself. This Nature was highly worshipped
through the hymns of Sam veda. Vedic saints while sacrificing the complexities of the mundane world
to Agni (God of fire) used to recite slokas in the form of song. We get a reference of the musical
chanting of the slokas from Vedas even in the Purans and the Mahabharata.
Music is an exposition and overflow of deep, creative emotions. Slokas from Vedas are great
manifestation of emotions. Even the first sloka that came from Valmiki

was also an expression of great emotion. Later on Rabindranath Tagore in his musical drama Valmiki
Pratibha used this sloka and delineated it with melodious heart rending music.
The manuscript which Pandit Haraprasad Sastri brought from king of Nepal later on came to be
known as Charyapada. In this manuscript there are references of 50 songs out of 47 are extant. Among
these, 47 wordings of 23 songs are lost.
In Charyapada, we get a glimpse of ancient Bengali culture and language. The manuscript
contains writing of 24 poets. Most well known of them is the ancient Sidhacharya Lui Pa. Apart from
Lui Pa there are several other poets like Vusuku Pa, Kanha Pa, Kukkuri Pa, Chatil Pa, Dhendan Pa etc.
The Padas or songs were written by Buddhist Siddhacharyas under the Buddhist discipline of
Sahajjan. After the death of Goutam Buddha (Approx. in the year 486 B.C.) the disciples of Buddha
arranged four conferences in order to disperse the proper implication of Buddhas statement and advice
as wells as to end scriptural confusion. In the fourth conference, which was held either in Kashmir or in
Jalandhar arranged by Kaniskka, presided by Basumitra, Buddhism was divided into two groups. One
is known as Mahajan and the other, 'Hinajan'. The former took the liberal principle of Lord Buddha
where as the latter chose the path of rigidity. Mahajan sampradaya (sect) devoted themselves not only
for their own liberation but also for the entire mankind in general. Later on this Mahajan sect was redivided into two more sects Paramitajan and Mantrajan. In Mantrajan sect we trace the development
of Tantra sadhana which later becomes the principal cause of their varied devotional perspectives
under different names, such as Bajrajan, Kalchakrajan and Sahajjan.
There are different opinions regarding the origin of the sect called Sahajan Dr. Sashibhusan
Dasgupta in his book Bouddha Dharma and Charyya Giti writes that we do not get a direct reference
of Sahajiya sect in the religious belief of Buddhism. He further adds The name Sahajiya originated
from the characteristic principle followed by some Bajarajanist saints. Sahajiyas are so called because
their way of worshiping the supreme lord is simple and also because they try to detect the simplicity
within the every object of Nature, which they believe is the ultimate source of spiritual salvation.
The devotional process and principle of Buddhist Sahajiya Charya songs constitute the most
ancient element of Bengali literature. In Charya songs we can trace the manifestation of both literature
and religiosity, though in these songs, the religious part is more pervasive than the literary part. The
basic foundation of these Charya songs is the not the ancient Buddhist religious principle but the
altered aspect of Tantrajan. Saints belonging to the sect of Sahajjan used Charya song to worship the
supreme. Their principal aim was to obtain ultimate pleasure.
In Sahajiya sect the ultimate pleasure is also known as sahaj (simple) or Sahajananda. It also
means sahajato swabhab or innate characteristic. The word Sahaja literally means one which is born
or which originates with the birth (Obscure religious cult Sashibhusan Dasgupta). Through this
Charjya song, Sahajiya sect not only discards the rigidity of their own religion, but also criticizes the
rigidness of other religious principles. The evidence of that we get in the song

[ ]
(the path of meditation is straight, be careful, do not choose the curvy road , for, success is waiting
ahead)

[ ]
Though Charya Poets were not liberal in their religious visions, charya songs are expressions of
their powerful realizations. That is why in Charya songs, we can trace some principles of Brahminical
Hinduism and at the same time, can also see reference to the futility of ritualistic Vedic Philosophy.
While talking about the religious analogies of Charya songs, Dr. Nihar Ranjan Roy observes in his
Bangalir Itihas

.
In Sahajiya sect the concept of Guru or mentor has been given a high importance. So quite
naturally in the songs that were written by the poets of this sect, we can get references of the concept of
Guru or mentor. For example

[ ]
(ask the real mentor for proper guidance towards ultimate pleasure)
[ ]
(mundane complexities can be easily overcome with the help sadguru )
This idea of privileging the position of Guru later on became the central creed of many
movements in India. History tells us that movements like Bhaktibad, Sufism give high importance to
the idea of Guru, taking him as the medium of interaction between Jivatma and Paramatma.
Music is often said to be an instrument that can erase evils within an individual and can regain
the lost paradise. A critical analysis of Bengali Culture will tell us that the melodious nature of a song
brought unity within the diverse Bengali community. There is no exception in the case of Charya
songs as well. Just as Joydevs Gitagovindam with melodious hymns brought Bengal Vaishnabites
under a single umbrella, similarly Charya songs, with their Sahajia tune assembled the Sahajiya sects.
Though these songs were written by several poets but a common thread is going through them.
Scholars of the ancient Bengali Culture and tradition have asserted that Charya songs, played a vital
role in forming the Buddhist Sahajiya tradition as a symbol of unity.
There are different opinions regarding the language of Charya songs. Some opine that languages
of Charya songs are symbolic in nature while the other has argued that the languages of charya songs
are ambiguous in nature. Each word of charya song bears two types of meaning- one is the surface
meaning and the other is the deep meaning. For instance the surface meaning of the word dombi
refers to women belonging from the dome community but the deep meaning of the word suggest that
it is the symbolic word for a pure women. Bidhusekhar Sastri in his Sandha Bhasa, Indian Historical
Quarterly, Vol. IV, pub. 1928, Page 287-96, writes that languages of Charya songs are allegorical
in nature for each song contains two layers of meaning. One is easily identifiable while the other is
symbolic in nature. That is why Bidhusekhar Sastri has acknowledged that the language of Charya is
like twilight, sometimes dark and sometimes it exposes light.
While discussing the impact of Charjya songs in Bengal, Sashibhusan Dasgupta in his Obscure
Religious cults writes The Vaishnava Sahajiya Movement of Bengal marks the evolution of the
Buddhist Sahajiya in different channel. Charya songs, the ancient emblem of Bengali culture, have
had immense impact on Bengali tradition and culture. The trace of the influence of charya songs can be
found in Nath literature, Mangal kabya, Vaishnab Religion, Baoul songs, Doha of Kabir and even in
Rabindranath. R.C. Majumdar opines that the origin of the Baul song of Bengal can be traced in
Buddhist Sahajiya [History of Bengal (Bengali), 2nd Vol. 1373].
Example
Charya Song-
[ ]
Nath Literature

Charya Song- [ ]
Kirtan-
Charya Song-
[ ]
Vaishnava Lyrics- ()
Charya Song-
[[ [ ]
Kabirs Song \

Charya Song-
[ ]
Rabindranth- ?

Charjyapad was a medium of Sahaj worship, the form of which was music but the content represented
various social and religious developments.
Bibliography:
Sukumari Bhattacharya Prabandha Sangraha 1, Gangchil, Kolkata, 2012.

Nihar Ranjan Roy Bangalir Itihas Adi 9, West Bengal Wiraksharata Durikaran Samiti,
Kolkata, 1940.
Nirmal Kumar Das Charyagiti Parikrama, Alpa Publishing Concern, Kolkata, 1378 (Bengali
Month Baishak)
Dr. Asit Kumar bandhapadhyay Bangla Sahityar Ixibritya (Vol. I), 2nd Edition, Kolkata
1963.
Dr. Tarapada Mukhopadhyay Charya Giti, Visva Bharati, 1372.
Haraprasad Sastri Hazar Bacharer Purano Bangla Bhasay Boudha Gan O Doha, New edi,
Bangiyo Sahitya Parisat, 1366.
Dr. Sashibhusan Dasgupta Obscure Religious Cults, 2nd ed. Kolkata 1962.
Dr. Probodh Chandra Bagchi and Santi Bhiksu Sastri Charyagiti Kosa of Buddhist Siddhas,
Visva-Bharati, 1956.
Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee Origin and Development of the Bengali language, Calcutta
1926.
Dr. Sashibhusan Dasgupta Buddhist Religion and Charyagiti (Bengali) 2nd ed. Kolkata,
1371.
Sukumar Sen Bangla Sahityer Itihas, Vol. I 4th ed. Kolkata 1963.
Probodh Ch. Bagchi Boudha Dharma O Sahitya, (Bengali) Visva-Bharati 1359.
Harekrishna Mukhopadhyay Padaboli Porichoy, (Bengali) Deys. Publishing, Kolkata 2006.
Bhudev Chowdhury Bangla Sahityer Itikatha Vol. I, Dej, Kolkata 1984.
Dhananjay Garai teaches History at SFS Mahavidyalaya, Khayrasole, Birbhum, West Bengal, India.
Kirtan of Bengal: An Enriched Traditon

Sayantan Thakur
The culture of Bengal has always been the centre of attraction for scholars and academicians
throughout India for its rich fragrances. This richness is because of the rich cultural diversities that it
possesses. Kirtan is that ancient singing style that has been adding a great deal in enriching the cultural
heritage of Bengal. In other words it is one of those rare arts that still survives and continues to engross
the audience with its sahajiya' (simple) heart rending tune.
Rupgoswami in his Ujjawalnilmani Grantha defines kirtan as -"
, that is the loud chanting of the name of God is kirtan. According to Harekrishna
Mukhopadhya, the trace of the word kirtan can be found in Srimad Bhagbat and Puranas. In Bhagbat
it is written that when Prahalad was asked to be poisoned by his father, he replied-
. Here the word Kirtan is very significant in the sense that it clarifies the meaning by
itself, that is, a loud chanting of the name God.1
The tradition of singing or chanting the name of God in a loud voice has been going on in India
for ages. But in Bengal the word Kirtan bears a different connotation. The word Kirtan does not suggest
the song of an individual, rather a kind of group song performed with a particular melody, rhythm and
with lot of devotions. In the western part of India this loud chanting of the name of God is known as
Bhajan but in Bengal the rhythmical performance of Vaishnava lyrics with particular sur'(tune) is
known as Kirtan.
In Bengal, there are two types of Kirtan -Naam Kirtan' and Lila Kirtan'. Different scholars in
the field of Vaishnavism have opined that it can be further subdivided into two. One is Suk Kirtan and
the other is Narad Kirtan.The Suk Kirtan was first introduced by Sukdeb, the son of Vedavyasa, who
sung the slokas from Bhagbat in front of King Parikshit in order to describe the glory of Lord Krishna.
Later on this tradition of loud and rhythmical chanting of hymns from Bhagbat with help of music was
given the name of Suk Kirtan. In Suk Kirtan singers are free to describe lila' of God without being
concerned about time. In other words they are free to sing Raslila' in the morning or Gostha' during
night. But in Narad kirtan singers will have to sing according to the time, that is, singing ragas and
describing different lila' in accordance with time. For instance an efficient performer of kirtan will not
perform Khandita at night and Uttargostha in the morning.
Kirtan and Its Types

Of Naam Kirtan and Lila Kirtan, the former is the ancient version of Kirtan, where as the latter one is
the result of the evolution that Kirtan has gone through for centuries.
Naam Kirtan
Naam Kirtan is basically a loud chanting of the Hare Krishna Naam'.It is usually sung by a large
number of people. This type of kirtan is often divided as Char Prahar' and Asta Prahar'. In order to
attract the devotees towards it, Naam Kirtan is performed with the help of instruments like Shri Khol'
and Kartal'. Devotees, imitating the style of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, loudly chant the Hare Krishna
Naam by lifting their arms up towards the Infinite. This posture of Naam Kirtan bears a special
significance, for it suggests the sacrifice of this fleshy body with its desire at the feet of the Lord
Krishna, the Ultimate Soul. As Krishnadas Kabiraj in Chaitanya Charitammrita writes

2
Nam Kirtan is often perfomed in double Dadra or Kaharba. Singers usually choose different Ragas
in accordance with the time to chant the name of God. For instance those who perform Prabhati songs
like, , usually sing the song in Raag Bhairavi.
Naam kirtan does not only mean the chanting of Hare Krishna Naam, rather there are several
songs which are popular in Bengal which also fall under the genre of Naam Kirtan. These songs are
written by some anonymous poets. Two popular songs among these can be mentioned here.
"
3
and
, ,

In Chaitanya Charitamrita Krishnadas kabiraaj while describing Mahaprabhus liking for Naam Kirtan
writes

4
Scholars in the field of Vaishnavism say that there is a belief in Bengal that Naam Kirtan is one of those
easiest mediums through which a devotees soul gets cleansed and finds the way to emancipate itself
from the barriers of the mundane world. Here it is noteworthy to mention that Naam Kirtan, which was
started by Mahaprabhu, has gone through several changes. Today, different sects perform naam kirtan
differently with their unique melody, style and pronunciation.
Lila Kirtan
Kirtan , which is sung while delineating the lila of Radha and Krishna is known as Lila kirtan. This
type of kirtan is a melodious performance of Vaishnav padabali. Before Chaitanyadeb, Vaishnav
padabalis as well as the performance of Kirtan was not popular in Bengal, but with the emergence of
Gaudiya Vaishnava sect under the leadership of Mahaprabhu and Nityananda and later on with
Narottam Das Thakur, Lila Kirtan along with Naam Kirtan became popular in Bengal. Narottam Das
Thakur in Khetori Mahotsav' outlined the would be characteristic Lila Kirtan, according to which
while performing any Lila, a singer would have to present a pala' in accordance with the time and he
would have to select padabalis' and perfom them in correct taal' and Raga' prescribed by him. For
instance if a singer is performing Kunjabhanga, he will have to sing lyrics like

5
in raga Bhairavi encoded in the book called Gitaratnabali. Though Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu brought
the essence of kirtan in Bengal, his primary emphasis was on Naam Kirtan and Vaishnav padabalis,
because during the time of Mahaprabhu, Lila Kirtan was known as Rasa Kirtan ,which contained sixty
types of Rasa. Among these, Rasa' like gostho', Kunjabhanga','Maan', Ras' were popular. It was
almost 50 years later, that Narottam Das Thakur modulated rasa kirtan' by incorporating in it many
padabalis from new post-Chaitanya Vaishnava poets and changed the entire aspect of it by giving it a
new form, music, cotent and a name, known as Lila Kirtan.
Importance of Khetori Mahotsav'

After the death of Sri Chaitanya, Birchandra along with his father Nityananda took the honest
endeavour of spreading Hare Krishna chants on the soil of Bengal. The three Vaishnavas ,who under
the leadership of Birchandra took the responsibility of the entire Vaishnav Society, to illuminate it with
the light of devotion, were Srinibas Acharya, Narottam Das Thakur and Shymananda. Among these
three Narottam took the initiative to renovate the glory of the Kirtan of Bengal. He was the disciple of
Lokenath Goswami and he learned music from Haridas Swami, the mentor of famous singer Tansen.
Later on, after the completion of his musical training in Brindaban, when he came back to Bengal, he
was requested by his brother to stay in Khetori. It is here in khetori, that for the inauguration of some
idols, he arranged a Vaishnava summit, where he invited learned poets and singers from different parts
of Bengal. This summit was inaugurated by Nityananda's wife Janhabi Debi.
Harekrisna Mukhopadhya, an eminent scholar in the field of Vaishnavism, has argued that the
Kheotori Mahotsav was organized by Narottam with the purpose of not only bringing Vaishnavas under
a single umbrella but also to perform his newly created form of kirtan as well as to form his own sect.
According to Dr Ramakanta Chakravoty, the Vaishnava summit in Khetori was an important

event in the field of Vaishnavism because its principal purpose was to disperse the creed of Vaishnabic
philosophy in Bengal and also to make Kirtan popular. Narottam Das, as Harekrishna Mukhopadhya
opines, realized that the easiest way through which a man could be attracted towards Vaishnavism was
Kirtan. While describing the purpose of Khetory Mahotsav Dr. Chakravorty in his Vaishnavism in
Bengal writes- "In order to disperse the creed of Vaishnavism in the northern part of Bengal, Narottam
depicted Khetory. He did so because at that time the northern Bengal was dominated by Shakta
devotees, who were nothing but dacoits by profession. To reduce the impact of Shakta philosophy,
Khetory summit was organized." 6
Narottam is said to be instrumental in introducing the present form of Kirtan in Bengal. Haridas
Das in his Gaudiyo Vaishnav Abhidhaan acknowledges Narottam Das Thakur as the renovator of
Bangla Kirtan,who rescued it from the threshold of being a lost art and also imbued it by giving it a
new form, melody, content, devotion and dimension.
In Khetory Mahotsav, Narottam Das Thakur innovated a new style of presenting Kirtan which is
now popularly known as Garanhati Kirtan . He is believed to be the first to use ragas in Vaishnav
Padabali and also the prescriber of a particular raga for a particular pada' according to its time and
theme. In that summit he introduced the tradition of singing Gourchandrika', that is, the tradition of
singing those padabalis(lyrics) that describe Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, before describing the lila' of
Radha and Krishna. This tradition of performing Gourchandrika' before the main part of Kirtan was
hailed by the Vaishnava society and later it was gladly adopted by Kirtan singers of post-Narottam era.
Three Gharanas of Kirtan

According to the style of singing and presentation, Kirtan is divided into three main schools or
gharanas. They are Garerhati, Manoharsahi, and Renetti. These three schools have been dominating the
tradition of Kirtan singing in Bengal in the past. Though the use of the first two, due to its heavy
commercialisation has become very rare, the last one still survives in the modern format of Kirtan
presentation.
Garerhati
Garerhati style of Kirtan is known for its use bilambit lai'(slow rhythm). It puts high emphasis on
Indian Classical Music and that is the reason why it is often compared with Dhrupad singing style of
India. The Garerhati School was formed by Narottam Das Thakur in Khetory Summit by singing Kirtan
in a unique style. This school was entitled as such because it originated in Khetory, which was in the
district of Garerhati. From this Garerehat the school became popular with the name Garerhati. In
Garerhati school of Kirtan we can see the use of 108 types of Talas'. Scholars in the field Vaishnavism
have opined that Narottam, during his stay in Brindaban, got the training of Indian Classical music
from Haridas Swami. When he returned to Bengal and planned to renovate Kirtan with his own
erudition from its lost glory, he formed this new school of Kirtan by incorporating in it the very essence
of Indian Classical Music.
Performers from Garerhati Kirtan School often present Kirtan in the old format and they are
usually men with profound knowledge on Indian Classical Music. Though scholars are of the opinion
that due to the lack of availability of well trained singers and heavy commercialisation of Kirtan, this
school has lost its past glory.
Manoharsahi
Manoharsahi,like Garerhati, is one of those ancient schools of kirtan that has been trying to maintain
the original essence of it. This school also gives high importance on Raga and rhythm but this gharana
does not use bilambit lai' as Garehati. In other words, this school is not as rigid as Garerhati in its use
of rhythm and ragas in padabali.
This school does have more varieties in Sur but we can only trace the usage of 54 types of
rhythm. A performer from this school needs to be a well trained man in Classical Music because this
school has the characteristic of presenting padabali in the form of Kheyal. In Manoharsahi, like
Garerhati, we can see the use of Aakhar' as well.
While tracing out the cause of the degeneration of these two most ancient schools of Kirtan,
scholars have come to the conclusion that these gharanas (schools) have become less popular in the
modern format of Bangla kirtan' because of the change of taste of the audience, who now love to hear
commercial Kirtan than the ancient format and also because of the rigidity, that those schools were
unable to discard by modulating it in accordance with the age and its demand. Though these two
schools have become less popular and lost their past glory, singers belonging to any of these two
schools are still given high respect and honour in the field of Kirtan.
Raneti
Raneti' style of singing Kirtan was introduced in the present format of Kirtan by Bipradas Ghosh, the
singer from Debipur, the nearest village from Raneti'. Later on seeing the variety of this school and the
glad acceptance of the format by singers, Vaishnav society acknowledged this format of singing.
Raneti style is the easiest among the three schools of Kirtan. It is not as complex as Garerhati or
Manoharsahi and that is the reason why it still survives in the instant format of the Kirtan of Bengal
.This gharana, unlike the two, does not give too much emphasis on rhythm and ragas. A performer
belonging to this school presents Vaishnava lyrics in the form of Thungri'. This ghararna does not
stress the importance of using Aakhar while singing. Harekrishna Mukhopadhaya in his Padabali
Parichai writes-"Though simple in nature, its melodious tune is not less appealing than Garerhati or
Manoharsahi".
Apart from the three principal schools there are two more schools, which have occupied a
special position in the modern format of Kirtan. These two schools are -Jharkhandi and Maynadal. The
former school was developed by Kabindra Gokul, who brought few innovations in the format of Kirtan
with his new invented sur'(tune), while the latter one, as many scholars have opined ,was a part of
Manoharsahi school. Here it is noteworthy to mention that both these schools,like Garehati and
Manoharsahi, have become quite extinct due to the lack of availability of well trained artist and
extreme commercialisation of Kirtan.
Five Integral Parts of Kirtan

Harekrishna Mukhopadhaya in his book Padabali Parichay writes that original kirtan consists of five
major parts. They are -Katha', Dmmh, Aakhar, Tuk, Chut. These parts, as he argues, play a
major role in maintaining the originality of Kirtan.
Katha : Rabindrnath Tagore through out his poetic career has highly admired the language of
Vaishnava lyrics for he visualises in these lyrics the earnest cry of Jivatma(human soul)
for the
supreme touch of Paramatma(Infinite God). So quite naturally in Kirtan,which is nothing but a

musical presentation of Vaishnava lyrics, words are given a high importance for their ability to bring
out the true essence of devotion.A kirtan singer while performing a kirtan always keeps in mind that in
order to explain such enriched languages of Vaishnava lyrics, he will have to be very careful about the
words. Failure of such may have adverse effect and it may break the sequence of transformation from
one lyric to another, one raga to another and one taal to another. In other words poor choice of words
will not be able to bring out the true essence of Vaisnava lyrics as well as their devotional intensity.
Dmmh : Dmmh is a highly rhythmical rhyming couplet usually written in Payar or Tripadi
rhyme scheme. First stress of Dmmh can be found in Buddhist manuscripts. Later on the concept
became more popular with Kabir . In Bengali literature hymns from Chaitanyacharitamita by
Krishnadas Kabiraj and Ujjawalnilmani Grantha by Rup Goswami are often attributed as Dmmh.
Aakhar : Aakhar is the most important and integral part of Kirtan. It is a short rhythmical
analysis of the complex, highly suggestive lines of Vaishnava poets. In Tagore's opinion, Aakhar is the
Swargam' of Kirtan. Just as a performer of Classical Music uses swargam' to illustrate the Raga and
its effect, similarly a Kirtan singer uses Aakhar to bring in more charm and aesthetic essence in his
performance of Vaishnava lyrics. One example of Aakhar is illustrated belowOriginal Lyrics-
"
7
Aakhar-
Here we see that the original two lines from the Vaishnaba lyrics have been explained with the help of
Aakhar, which also provides in those lyrical lines more charm and appeal.
Thus we see that it is through the use of Aakhar that the meaning of the enriched lyrics of
Vaishnav poets is explained in a rhythmical manner in order to make them intelligible even for an
illiterate listener of Kirtan. Here it is important to note that as there is no definite book on the use of
Aakhar in Kirtan, so a Kirtan singer, while presenting a Vaishnava lyric, has to invent Aakhar for the
analysis of the enriched lyric he is singing. This on the one hand enhances the quality of his
presentation by providing in it the essence of devotion and, on the other hand, also upholds his
erudition in the field of kirtan.
Tuk : Tuk is a highly alliterative rhythmical couplet often used by Kirtan singers to bring
innovation in their performance. There are several Tukas in Bengali kirtan that are almost like Padabali.
Scholars mention that it is the product of the oral tradition of Bengal. It is orally transmitted from Guru
(Mentor) to Sishsa(disciple) and thus it survives in the field of Kirtan.
Chut : Chut is nothing but an alternative name of Taal(rhythm).
Apart from these five major parts of kirtan , there is also another part, which is known as
Jhumur'. Jhumur' or Jhumri' is a kind of sur(tune) , which is used when two or three kirtan singers
perform the same episode or pala' .The first two consciously leave the concluding part for the last
performer, who, by using Jhumur', completes the circle by singing the milan' of Radha and Krishna. 8
Kirtan and Rabindranath

Dinesh Chandra Sen in his Bangya Bhasha and Sahitya argues that Vaishnava lyrics are expressions of
those who shade tears in order to gain the glimpse of that Infinite. If Padali' literature is the history of
that intense cry, then it is in Tagore we can trace that same pain and desire of a soul to be in the holy
company of Paramatma' (Infinite Soul). . The central idea of Vaishnava lyrics and the melodious tune
of Kirtan not only attracted Tagore towards this ancient musical convention of Bengal but also
influenced him to "weave a firm organic relation between the Absolute and Finite"
Tagore was acquainted with Vaishnava lyrics at an early age. In his Religion of Man Tagore
writes - "Fortunately for me a collection of old lyrical poems composed by the poets of the Vaishnava
sect came to my hand when I was young. I became aware of some underlying idea deep in the obvious
meaning of these poems....I was sure that these poets were speaking of the supreme Lover, whose touch
we experience in our relations of love."
It is this acquaintance of him with Vaishnava lyrics and
their melodious tune that developed him and later made him a great admirer of Kirtan.
Tagore found in Kirtan the presence of that sahajiya(simple but charming) sur that could steal a
man's soul from the perplexities of the mundane world. As he expresses "When Chaitanya left his
home to flood the very soil of Bengal with his devotion and melodious chanting, Raga' and Ragini'
were liberated from their bounded spaces to be mingled with the simple tune of Kirtan , that could
alone embrace the entire universe." 10
Tagore was highly influenced by the sahajiya(simple) tune of Kirtan and that is the reason why
we can trace the presence of major characteristics of Kirtan in his songs. For instance, Tagore in his
Bhanusingha's Padabali has made ample use of Maithili language, which was one of the major
languages of writing lyrics for many Vaishnava poets, including Vidyapati. While writing about
Bhanusingha's Padabali Tagore says that the loud recitation of Gitagovindam by his elder brother
engrossed him in such a way that he wrote a collection of Padabali under the pseudonym Bhanusingha.
One lyric from his Bhanusingha's Padabali has been given below in order to show Tagore's use of
Maithili language - ,
- ,
, ,
,
, ,

, ,
,
, ,

,
11
Apart from the language and lyrics, Tagore's keen attachment with Kirtan is best exposed in his use of
the Tune of Kirtan in many of his songs. These songs are categorised under the tag of Kirtanangya'.
Examples of such songs are 1. '
-
[Oi asontaler matir pare lutiya rabo
Tomar charon dhulai dhulai dhusar habo] 12
2.
, ,
--
[Na chahile jare paoya jai, teyagile ase hate,
Dibase se dhan harayechi aami-- peyechi andhare rate ] 13
3. , ,

[Ohe jibonballabh, ohe sadhandurlabh,
Aami marmer katha antarbyatha kichui nahi kabo
Sudhu jibon mon charone dinu bujhiya laho sab |] 14
4. , ?
-, ?
[Majhe majhe tabo dekha pai, chirodin kano pai na?
Kano megh ase hridoy akashe, tomare dekhite dai na?] 15
These songs are often performed with the accompaniment of Khol and their tunes are composed with
such artistry that they constantly remind the audience about the Sahajiya' tune of Kirtan. Besides
among those four mentioned songs the last two are instances of songs based on pure Kirtan, for in them
Tagore has used Aakhar, the most important integral part of Kirtan, in order to bring in charm and
devotion. Example
, ,

Aakhar-
(
, )

,

Aakhar-
( ,
, )

Haridas Das in his Gouriya Vaishnav Abhidhan has acknowledged Rabindranath Tagore as a
true Vaishnav. So it was quite natural that a true Vaishnava like him would be a high admirer of this
enriched ancient musical convention of Bengal. The highly rhetorical languages of Vaishnava lyrics
and their charming Sahajiya' tune influenced him so much that he made ample use of them in his lyrics
and songs.
Kirtan, the ancient singing style, has been bearing the cultural essence of Bengal for ages. It is
an art that contains within it the power of evaluating an artist's erudition and his command on music. Its
sahajiya' (simple) tune can not only attract a man but also can steal his heart away from the mundane
complexities of this world of transition. But at the present scenario, due to the immense
commercialisation, the change of taste of the audience and the lack of availability of true artist, this art
has been struggling for its survival. It is standing at the threshold of being a lost art. But whatever may
be the fact, a true appreciator of music and Vaishnav literature will always pray that this enriched
tradition, despite its past glory and struggling present, should survive and continue to disperse the creed
of Vaishnavism and the essence of devotion on the soil of Bengal.
Notes
1. . Mukhopadhya,Harekrishan.Padabali Parichay. Dey's Publishing House,Calcutta 700073 .pp 45-46
2.Kabiraj, Krishnadas.Chaitanya Choritammrito
3. Mukhopadhya,Harekrishan.Padabali Parichay. Dey's Publishing House,Calcutta 700073.pp-64
4.Kabiraj, Krishnadas.Chaitanya Choritammrito
5. Saha,Bankubihari.Gito Ratnabali.Akshay Library,Calcutta
6.Chakraboty,Ramakanta. Vaishnavism in Bengal. Calcutta:Ananda Publishers,1988.pp-88
7.Saha,Bankubihari.Gito Ratnabali.Akshay Library,Calcutta
8. Mukhopadhya,Harekrishan.Padabali Parichay. Dey's Publishing House,Calcutta 700073.pp-55
9. Tagore, Rabindranath.Religion Of Man.
10.Tagore, Rabindranath.Sur o Sangati .pp83
11. Tagore, Rabindranath.www.wikipedia.com,14th March,2015
12,13,14,15. Tagore,Rabindranath.Gitobitan ( Volume 1 &2)
Works Cited
1. Chakraboty,Ramakanta. Vaishnavism in Bengal. Calcutta:Ananda Publishers,1988
2. Das, Haridas. Gouriyo Vaishnab Abhidan .(Volume 1& 2)
3. Dasgupta Surendranath. A History of Indian Philosophy.IV (Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press,1961). pp 16[18,400-40]
4. Dhimahi (Souvenir, Ekchakragram, Birchandrapur, Birbhum ). 2006, 2009
5. Chaitanya Bhagbat,Atul Goswami's Edition
6.Mukhopadhaya,Harekrishna,Poet Joydeb and Sri Gitagovindam. Calcutta: Sahitya Sansad
7. Kabiraj, Krishnadas.Chaitanya Charitammrito.
8. Chaitanya Bhagbat,Sukumar Sen's Edition
9. Sahityaratna,Harekrishna,ed. Boishnob Podaboli. Calcutta: Sahitya Sansad
10.Majumder,das,Ramesh Chandra.Chaitanya and His Age,(NET)
11.Paramahamsa, Dr.Rupnathji. Origin of Vaishnavism (article from NET)
12. Mukhopadhya,Harekrishan.Padabali Parichay. Dey's Publishing House
Calcutta 700073
13.Das.Brindaban.Chaitanya Bhagwat
14. Gupta Sashibushan; Obscure Religions Cults; Calcutta; 1946.
15.Das Lochan; Chaitanya Mangala.
16. Das Nityananda; Premabilasa; 1st Ed.
17.Dey S.K. Early History of the Vaisnava Faith and Movement in Bengal 1961
18.Majumder Biman Bihari; Chaitanya Charitera Upadana.
19.Majumder Biman Bihari, Rabindra Sahitya Padabali
20.Majumder R.C.; History of Bengal; (Vol-I); 1943
21.Mukhopadhaya Asit Kr. Bangla Sahityer Itivritta; (Vol I,II,III); 2nd Ed.
22.Mukhopadhya Dr. Karekrishna; Goudiya Vaishnava Sadhana; 1st Ed.
23.Material for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect.
24. Roy, Niharranjan; Bangalira Itihasa; 1st Ed.
25.Sen Sukumar; Bangla Sahityer Itihaas 1st Ed.
Sayantan Thakur teaches English at S.F.S.Mahavidyalaya, Khayrasole, Birbhum, West Bengal, India.
Sarala Debi Chaudhurani, the Singer and Composer: An

Unexploited Potential
Shrubabati Chakrabarty
Abstract: Sarala Debi Chaudhurani's autobiography Jibaner Jharapata is full of stories how her music
mesmerised her audience. She picked up new melodies wherever she went and her celebrated uncle
Rabindranath Tagore created new songs by adapting, modifying and writing lyrics. Rabindranath set
only two lines of Vande Matram to music, while the rest was set by Sarala. Sarala had a deep regard
for Indias heritage as well as acknowledgement of the modernity of the west. Her repertoire was full
of indigenous and western melodies. She had an immense ability to galvanise people by her music.
Sarala Debi Chaudhurani is almost a staple figure in the history of nationalist and revolutionary
movements in Bengal. Her words have also been quoted by Barbara Southard to open her feminist
study on The Womens Movement and Colonial Politics in Bengal 1921-1936 (1). Bharati Ray thinks
that her politics could be divided into two kinds: politics of anti-colonialism and that of gender were
the primary interests in Saralas life (2). While Ray honours her as early feminist (3), Sikata Banerjee
squeezed Sarala into the category of Indian nationalist (4). But besides her involvement with issues like
muscular nationalism, gender, independence, Sarala was an explorer of many routes to personal and
national freedom.
Sarala's upbringing in the Tagore family was a privileged one, both in terms of material
prosperity and cultural richness. Brought up in Calcutta in the culturally rich environment of Tagore
family, Sarala grew up in an environment where questions of social and religious reform were
enthusiastically and creatively embraced. Sarala, in spite of having an unhappy childhood, was
relatively free from the familial disadvantages common to most of Bengali girls of her time.
Her
mother Swarnakumari, the earliest Bengali woman novelist, lived a busy and professionally fulfilled
life, where children were expected to fit in. But Sarala soon became one of the most outstanding and
enterprising women of the family and also one who perhaps deliberately created a political and
public life beyond the familial spaces and also projected herself as a rebellious individual who carved a
niche for herself in the history of Bengal.
She was supported by her family in her educational, cultural and literary activities. She was
awarded Padmabati gold medal by the University of Calcutta. In her early years Sarala tried to inspire
her countrymen towards courage and physical fitness, much in the style of Vivekananda. Otherwise,
she invoked courage and prowess in women all through her life. Her marriage to an elderly widower of
Punjab disrupted a career full of promise. In her autobiography Sarala hardly mentions her husband and
her silence is sometimes an articulate commentary. She was particularly interested in transforming
woman into a Political Subject and hence she foregrounded the importance of women education to
facilitate her entry into the political process of the day.
Like her life, Saralas autobiography Jibaner Jharapata is remarkable, in terms of her mastery
over the language and style of her writing as well as the ideas and thoughts it contains. It laid bare the
prescriptions she encountered as a daughter and woman, straddled to multiple worlds, occupying
multiple subject positions. It remains a chiaroscuro of a life well experienced very rare for most
women of her times.
Music and Sarala Debi -Singing for India And Making Her Sing
Mahatma Gandhi wrote to Sarala- 'Get rid of your inertia and you can give your music to India. It is not
enough that you sing for her. You can make her sing even as you do. But that requires application and
study, a determination to give your musical talent to India (5).
Sarala was passionate about music while singing was her obsession. Even as a child she showed
a definite flair for music and literature. Her musical education began with Abja babu, a singer of the
Brahmo Samaj. Her Sitar teacher was Bhimbabu (6). Her mother engaged an European lady to give
her piano lessons. Sarala also took lessons in violin at Loreto from an Italian professor (7). She took
lessons in Veena from a maestro in Mysore. Thus she became adept in more than one instrument, not
counting the ubiquitous harmonium. Sarala along with her cousin Indira Debi and Manisha Debi
passed the examination on the theoretical paper of western classical music for which question papers
were set by the Cambridges Trinity College of Music (8).
Sarala received training in indigenous music and European music. However, her artistic talents
as a singer, composer and writer did not receive sustained encouragement from her parents. She
indicates that her parents did nothing to fulfil her potential - though I had a tremendous potential my
parents did nothing to motivate me. They never encouraged me to publish my music and writing.so
my songs remained unappreciated in the pages of my notebook (9). Even in later years she was never
quite appreciated for her artistic merits and history has focused on her nationalist role.
From her childhood Sarala got noticed for her musical talent. As Sarala Debi reminiscenced, in
her childhood, the English-educated Bengalis or at least a section of them were getting accustomed to
westernised life-style. Parties were thrown regularly. But instilled with a sense of pride for their
country they were also eager to display the indigenous talent to their colonial masters. Sahibs and
memsahibs had to be shown that the women of our land were also skilled in music and song. Sarala,
though not even sixteen years old and therefore, not considered fit to attend dinner parties, was
specially invited by the organisers of such parties to render desi songs in the presence of the European
guests. She was invited to family gatherings to sing and she went on singing tirelessly for hours. I kept
musical parties lively, singing non-stop for 4-5 hours without hurting my voice or getting tired. I was
then 11 years old (10).
Sarala wrote : Nowadays from the widespread craze among Bengali girls to sing , it is difficult
to imagine that once upon a time it was a taboo for girls of bhadra (educated middle class bengali)
families to go in for training in music. It was forbidden even to listen to ones own family singing at
home (11). Bengali bhadralok of nineteenth century weaned away their wives and daughters from the
indigenous forms of womens popular culture. Their resistance was directed against womens
participation in popular forms of entertainment (Jatra, Kathakata, Kirtan etc.) composed and performed
by women from outside the respectable society. Bengali men and women imbued the cultural values of
Victorian England, and considered existing forms of Bengali music as vulgar and cheap (12). She
narrated how she and her cousins were rebuked by Dwijendranath Tagore for singing loudly a song
(thumri) from a Bengali theatre (13). Sarala wrote that the women of the Tagore family were trained in
music which was based on classical ragas and dignified, very different from the light, rhythmic and fast
music sang by contemporary professional singers. People of Calcutta yearned to hear these songs
performed by the women of the Tagore household during the Magha festival. Bengali audience, Sarala
felt, had not heard Vedic hymns sung in Bengali before, nor had such solemn yet melodious music
enchanted them earlier (14). As youngster Sarala had a limited role in the music for the Magha festival.
She and other children of the family sang and played instruments as directed by their seniors. Some
years later they were entrusted with the task of organising the music. They rehearsed with great
enthusiasm and performed accordingly.
Before presenting a song they often introduced a concerted
melodic improvisation, i.e. alap, containing all the main phrases of the raga of the song. This was
completely novel at that time.
Dancing recital by Bhadramahila was certainly a taboo and social gaffe in the childhood days
of Sarala. However the Tagore family did try to overcome this inhibition. Sarala and other young girls
of the Jorasanko house took part in the Mayar Khela dance drama staged during an industrial fair
organised by the Sakhi Samiti (1889). Sarala played the part of Shanta
and her music and acting
talent was much applauded. Even after completing the school education Sarala used to train the girls of
the Bethune School for performances in the prize-giving ceremonies. Once she did something daring to
introduce dance-like movements for little girls when a song by Rabindranath was being performed
(15). Several years later the students of Viswa-bharati staged Mayar Khela at the New Empire Theatre
in 1927 which was directed by Sarala Debi. The first music school in Calcutta was established by
Sarala Debi (16).
In her autobiography Jibaner Jharapata , Sarala fondly remembered Rabindranaths recognition

of her musical talent. Young people need encouragement. Rabi mama nurtured my love of music. It
was he who guided me as the high priest to pay my homage to the deity of music (17). Sarala had a
natural flair to set Bengali lyrics to Western melody by harmonisation. Rabindranath asked her to create
a piece for the piano using the words of one of his poems Nirjharer Swapnabhanga. Rabindranath
himself taught Sarala the range of musical chords. Sarala also turned one of the devotional songs of
Rabindranath, Sakatare oi kandichhe Sakale into a Western musical piece (18 ).
Sarala with her passion for music picked up new melodies wherever she went. Whatever tunes
I collected from different sources I was impatient to share it with Rabi mama, because he only could
appreciate such gifts. I even paid street-singers and learnt their music. I learnt a lot of baul
(bhatiali?) songs from the boatmen of Chinsura (19). Sarala sang these typical indigenous songs to
Rabindranath who used them, modified them, wrote lyrics for them and created many acclaimed
compositions.
Sarala, as the editor of the journal Bharati, published a short life-sketch of Lalan Fakir of
Kushthiya, Eastern Bengal (20). Nine songs of Lalan were included in the essay. Sarala introduced
Lalan Shah and his music to the educated Bengali readers. Lalan wrote and sang of an accessible,
immediate divinity that was connected to ordinary people. Rabindranath wrote a number of songs
based on the tunes created by Bauls and collected by Sarala. The songs were Kon alote praner pradip
jwaliye (composed in 1910)and Jadi tor dak shune keu na ase (composed in 1905). (The latter song
was described by Sarala belonging to the genre Baul (21)). However it is closely related with DhapKirtan, and was transcreated from Gagan Harkara's song, 'Harinam Diye Jagat Maataale Egla Nitai').
Lalans original song Katha kay, kachhe dekha jai na was also published by Sarala in her article in
Bharati. Apart from these, the song Ebar tor mara gang-e ban esechhe (composed in 1905) was also
based on Sari folk tune collected by Sarala - the original song was Mon majhi samal samal. In the
same article (22) Sarala included a song of Gagan Harkara- kothay pabo tare. Rabindranath created
Amar sonar Bangla (composed in 1905) from the song of Gagan. Though acculturated to Western
culture Sarala was shaped by and embedded in her native culture. Inspired by nationalistic fervor she
sought to establish a distinct identity of Bengali culture. She encouraged political virility and a martial
heroic culture. She strongly advocated usage of indigenous handloom and handicraft materials.
Imbued with the same spirit she forged connection with indigenous culture at the grass root level. Her
quest for indigenous melodies led her to rediscover folk songs and their entry in the elite circle of
Bengal. Sarala learnt Miras Bhajan, Ramprasad Sens Shyama sangeet and Marathi songs while in
Mayaavati ashram (23). In the process she diversified the world of Bengali music.
She collected tunes and songs from Mysore when she visited the place (24). When she returned
from Mysore resigning from her teaching job, she had a rich collection of songs. She placed this
garland of songs at Rabindranaths feet (25). Eki Labanye purna prane' was composed by
Rabindranath in 1893 from Saralas collection of Thyagarajas song Ati Lavanya rama Kanyalora.
Anandaloke mangalaloke (composed in 1892) was based on the Mysorean bhajan Kayau Sri Gauri
Karuna Lahari collected by Sarala. Some other songs of Rabindranath created from Saralas collection
are Eso he Grihadebata (composed 1894) and Chirabandhu Chiranirbhar' (composed 1893). The
orbit of Bengali music was expanded because of Sarala's extensive collection. These songs inspired by
Carnatic music tunes belonged to the genre of Bhanga gaan within the Rabindra Sangeet. On the
occasion of the wedding of Snehalata Gupta, daughter of Biharilal Gupta I.C.S, Rabindranath wrote the
lyrics of a song- Sukhe thako aar sukhi karo sabe. As he was in Kirkee and was not able to attend the
function Sarala was instructed to compose the music of the song. She composed the song and sang it on
that day (26).
Dwijendranath Tagore composed the devotional song Bhajore Bhajore Bhabakhandane on the
basis of Saralas music. Sarala also composed the music of a poem of Bankimchndra Chattopadhyay.
The song was 'Sadher tarani amar based on Mishra Bagesri (27). Debendranath Tagore told Sarala to
set a few lines from Hafiz to music. Sarala set it to music and accompanying herself on the violin sang
it to Debendranath (28). No wonder Sarala was highly praised by Rahimtulla M. Sayani, the president
of the 1896 Calcutta session of Indian National Congress who was much surprised to hear a Persian
song with flawless diction from a Hindu Bengali girl.

Rabindranath transformed the poem Vande Matram to song by setting the first two verses to
music. He requested Sarala to score the music for the rest of the song. Keeping in mind the tenor of the
song and in consonance with the music set by Rabindranath, Sarala composed the music for the rest of
Vande Matram (29). Nor did she compose the music but actually organised and directed many a public
performance of this song. She contributed in no small measure to the nation-wide popularity of the
song. It has been rightly commented by Margaret Cousins: Sarala Devi Chaudhurani made history on
the Congress session held in Calcutta in 1904 when she trained a group to sing Bande Mataram, a
national song which immediately became as famous for its power to arouse patriotic emotions as La
Marsellaise amongst the French people.(30).
Sarala made active debut in politics through the medium of music. In 1901, on 24 th December
National Exhibition in Calcutta was inaugurated by her song Utho go Bharatlakshmi. Two days later
members of a choir belonging to different provinces of India rendered the song Namo Hindustan
composed by Sarala in the 17th session of the Indian National Congress. Respectable young women
singing in public was itself a new thing as singing before men was associated with courtesans.
Rabindranath himself took the responsibility of organising the performance (31). The song, based on
Mishra Khambaj became very popular. Saralas songs aroused people when she sang nationalist songs
like Vande Matram. The rendering stirred ones heart and mind. Very few singers possess the ability to
create such a tumultuous effect. Mrs. Saviour, the head of the Vivekananda Ashram at Almora rightly
said to Sarala, If nothing else, you will be able to arouse countrymen just by travelling to the villages
and singing nationalist songs (32).
A sense of nationalism and burgeoning patriotism manifested itself early in Sarala's life. In 1901
Sarala wrote the song Hindusthan which was sung in Calcutta Congress session. The nationalist
paper Bengalee wrote : SING HINUSTHAN .the patriotic song to be sung to the opening of the
Congress proceedings is being actively rehearsed by about 50 musicians , representing all classes and
creeds of vast continent of Indiaspecially composed for the occasion by the gifted lady Miss Sarala
Ghosal (33 ). Not less than 300 Congress volunteers were also trained by Sarala to sing the song.
Sarala told them Please join me in chorus. Wherever you are, inside or outside (the hall) let us sing in
unison, all together (34 J.J.pg-126) When the session began in the morning volunteers started singing
in chorus. The song created an unprecedented stir among the crowd.
Recall O Muse, the glories of our past

Sing, sing of Hindustan!
Stir this vast concourse to its inmost depths,
Sing, sing of Hindustan!
Sing that proud name, resounding
With brave deeds,
Fragrant with fame, instinct with
Splendour bright.
Bengal, Behar, Orissa, Rajputan
Punjab, Bombay, Madras, Nepal and Oudh,
Hindu and Parsi, Sikh and Mussulman,
Jain and Christian, sing in every tongue
Sing one and all, Hail to thee
Hindustan!
Strike down, O Muse, dissension that arch-foe,

Sing, sing of unity!
Inspire the strength that springs from harmony,
Sing, sing of unity.
Let us be one grief and joy and aim!
Let heart and hand combine in amity,
Inflame all hearts, O Muse, with energy,
Sing, sing in accents new!
Mould us into one nation great and strong,
Sing, sing in accents new.
Hoist thou the flag of work, the trumpet call
Of honour sound, and rouse our drooping hearts. (34 )
She composed 40 songs. One of her compositions He sundar basanto barek firao was set to
western style of music by Sarala herself (35). Sarala Debi started celebrating Basontosab on the day
of Saraswati Puja. Her friends and relatives, members of the anglicized Bengali society were invited
on the occasion of Sripanchami . Women were asked to wear saffron-coloured saree and/or blouse and
for men some variation of this shade was desirable. The song He sundar barek firao was composed
for this occasion (36). This song and a few songs of Rabindranath orchestred by Sarala presented a
harmonious blend of Indian and western music. Bandi tomay Bharat-janani (Mishra khambaj) was
another of her much-acclaimed songs. It was written on the occasion to felicitate Jagadish Chandra
Bose and published with the title Bandana in the kartik 1309 B.S. issue of Bharati. Other songs of
Sarala Debi were Jano ki manab Kothakar tumi , Priti tumi he antare, and Namo namo jagatjanani
(another version of Bandi tomay Bharat-janani). The last-mentioned song was rehearsed by the
students of Bethune School for a musical presentation. Sarala wrote: Victory to you Mother, crowned
with wisdom!/Embellished with sacrifice of your sons./There is knowledge. Soon there will be
prosperity. / Valiant Mother! / Your wounds will be healed. Bepinchandra Pal felt To date all the
patriotic songs that had been composed were full of anguish and despair and full of lamentations for
our past glory. But this song is extraordinary. It is a joyful and vigorous song with a message of a
glorious future (37). Saralas writings had a strong emotional element. The determining idea in her
literary outpourings was the attainment of power by a people who had been painted weak and cowardly
by the conquerors and eventually by themselves. Empowerment of the nation became the recurrent
theme in all her activities and writing.
Sarala compiled Satagan (1900) - a collection of one hundred songs with notations. Apart from
her own songs and songs of Rabindranath the Satagan included songs composed by Rammohan Roy,
Dwijendranath Tagore, Jyotirindranath Tagore, Saudamini Debi, Gobindadas, Bidyapati ,Bankim
Chandra Chattopadhyay, Atulprasad Sen, Gabinda Chandra Roy and Biharilal Chakrabarty. In 1354
B.S. Dipak Dutta Chaudhuri published Geeta-Tringshati- a collection of notation of 30 songs made by
Sarala. It contains songs of different moods under the sub-titles Patriotism, Miscellany, Siva-geet and
National Anthem. The songs Bande Matam and Kabhi nahi harna (hindi) were classified as national
anthem. The Punjabi version of the last song was composed by Rambhuj Dutta Chaudhuri.
Notes
1. Barbara Southard- The Womens Movement and Colonial Politics in Bengal 1921-1936 N. Delhi .
1995
2 .Bharat Ray- Early Feminists of Colonial India: Sarala Debi Chaudhurani and Rokeya Sakhawat
Hossain ( OUP,2002).
3 Introduction by Bharati Roy -The Many Worlds of Sarala Devi and The Tagores and Sartorial Styles
(New Delhi,2010).
4. Sikata Banerjee : The Scattered leaves of My Life. An Indian Nationalist Remembers, a translation
into English of Jibaner Jharapata by (New Delhi, 2011).
5. Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol 20, letter to Sarala Devi Chaudhurani dt May 2, 1920.
6. Sarala Debi Chaudhurani- Jibaner Jharapata- Deys Publishing and Jadavpur University, Kolkata
April, 2009. pg-26
7. J. J. -112
8. Paricharika-Bhadra, 1298 B.S-,
Samir Sengupta - Rabindranather Atmiya-Swajan , Shishu
Sahitya Sansad,. Kolkata, 2005

9. J. J pg-39
10. J.J. pg76.
11. J.J.pg 75.
12. Sumanta Banerjee -Womens Popular Culture In Nineteenth Century Bengal in Recasting WomenEds- K. Sangari and S. Vaid- New Delhi: Kali for Women,1989.
11. 12. J. J. pg-70.
13. Sarala Debi- Baromama-Bharati-Magh, 1342 B.S.
14. J. J. pg -70.
15. J.J. pg- 100
16. Jogendranath Gupta - Bang-er Mahoila Kabi- -1337 B.S. Kolkata, , J. J. pg-163.
17.
J.J. pg-39
18. J.J. pg-38.

19. J. J. pg-40.
20. Sarala Debi - Lalan Fakir O Gagan-Bharati, 1302 B.S. bhadra.
21. Sarala Debi Satagan.
22. Lalan Fakir O Gagan.
23. J. J. pg- 170.
24. J.J. pg-87.
25. J. J. pg- -40.
26. Pulinbehari Sen- Desh Patrika-Sahitya Sankhya-1372 B.S.
27. J. J. pg- 52.
28. J. J.. pg- 81.
29. J.J. pg-53.
30. Margaret Cousins Indian Womanhood Today -Kitabistan, 1941 -pg- 56.
31. J. J. pg-26.
32. J.J. pg-83.
33. Bengalee (25th Dec,1901).
34. J. J. pg-126.
35.
Translated by Indira Debi--- collected from I.B file-279/20.
35 J.J. PG-39.
36. J.J pg-162-163
37. .J pg-100-101
Shrubabati Chakrabarty is Associate

Howrah, West Bengal, India.
Professor of history at Shibpur Dinobundhoo Institution,
Review
Father and Son: The Bengali Dynasty in Bombay
Mousumi Biswas Dasgupta
R. D. Burman: The Man, The Music. By Anirudha Bhattacharjee & Balaji Vittal. New Delhi:
HarperCollins, 2011. Paperback, pp366, Rs 399.
When we are looking at R D Burman, we are looking at a phenomenon.
A comprehensive study of R D Burman's oeuvre is yet to be attempted, but this book by
Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal has a refreshing approach which is not academic, and is not
journalistic either.
Study of popular culture, Terry Eagleton once cunningly remarked, joins the classroom with
drawing room in an amazing economy. No doubt, that response of Eagleton is partly a blas amusement
of an academic who himself once suggested that Eng Lit departments should be replaced everywhere
with cultural studies departments, and later on witnessed that canonical studies were indeed getting
replaced, as students and teachers started foraying into popular culture with a vengeance.
But nevertheless, popular culture as a subject is a solid rebuff against the standard reification
and alienation which academic lingo very often forces upon us. In the hand of the liberal intelligentsia,
such academic methods have fast evolved into superstitions and ritual mantras of a secular age.
Because this book is composed by two fans of RD, it by default is free from any possible
alienation that academic jargons might cause. And because this book is not written with a
professionally journalistic bend, the approach to RD's life story is not completely engulfed by Page 3
sensationalism. Interestingly, the usual hagiographical tilt of biographies written by fans (not that this
tilt is absent here) does not interfere with a reader's exploration in this book.
The book's front cover proudly proclaims: Winner of the National Award for Best Book on
Cinema, 2011. The foreword by Javed Akhtar and introduction by Shammi Kapoor (this book was first
published in 2011 when the actor was alive) bear testimony
to the fondness with which RD's
compatriots continue to remember him.

RD was born on 27 June 1939, at Hindustan Road, near Gariahat, south Kolkata. Due to lack of
work in Kolkata, SD was compelled to shift his base sent to Bombay in 1944, where he was offered job
as music director by Sasadhar Mukherjee of Filmistan. In 1946, RD, at the age of seven, was sent to
Kolkata by his father, who wanted his son to receive a proper Bengali upbringing. RD got admitted into
Ballygunge Government School, but he flunked twice in his annual exams, and in 1951 had to leave the
school, and got admission in Tirthapati Institution. In the words of a childhood friend, it was around
this time he became reckless and used to frequently visit a pot joint at Kasba. SD got an air of this,
and took his son out of Kolkata. This was the end of conventional education for RD, who now at the
age of 16 started accompanying his father to the recordings, and soon started assisting him. The rest
was history.
RD entered the world of Bengali music in mid 1960s, and that too at the insistence of his father.
Pulak Bandyopadhyay originally created some lyrics which SD passed on to RD. Both RD and Pulak
were reluctant on the onset, but the project eventually materialised. After this initial success, soon came
RD's immortal Ruby Ray and Phire Esho Anuradha. RD got criticised because of the western-style
of music, but the popularity of his tunes slowly turned such critiques redundant.
This book chronicles RD's musical journey in details, in Hindi as well as in Bengali music
industry. The authors have painstakingly interviewed many contemporaries of RD, and have searched
through many old documents. As a result, this book has become really well researched. An interesting
aspect of RD's musical career, as one can see in this book, is that he always patronised Bengalis (in fact
the majority among his team comprising of assistants, musicians, instrument players comprised of
Bengalis), but he himself got very little help as a Bengali, from other Bengalis.
S. D. Burman: The World of His Music. By Khagesh Dev Burman. New Delhi: Rupa, 2013. Paperback,
pp291, Rs 295.
The title of the book is apt to a fault. This is literally a musical study of SD, and those who have not
studied music, will miss out a large chunk of this book. Very little personal biographical information is
provided, and whenever that is provided, it is only done to illuminate certain aspects of SD's musical
oeuvre. For example, SD's childhood details are provided solely to explain his strong attachment to folk
and classical music.
Interestingly, the writer argues that the world of commercial film music did not see any
significantly popular use of Bengali folk prior to SD's arrival on the scene.
A strong commitment to the masses is illustrated by SD's habit of always singing out the
freshly made tune to his servant following whose approval alone SD worked further on that tune, the
logic being that film music must be able to approach common man.
The writer believes that Bombay industry should be grateful to those Bengalis in Kolkata who
in spite of promising help in dire times did let down SD, whose subsequent national fame was made
possible by those lip-servicing Bengali friends, without whom, SD could not probably have the heart to
leave Kolkata, a city he loved, and was desperate not to leave, and was heartbroken when he was
compelled to leave for Bombay. Also, HMV company turned him down, saying SD had a nasal voice.
In fact it was not a simple case of lack of patronage and turning down, this was way more scandalous:
shocking as it may seem, he failed his audition test (43).
The writer assiduously takes up the case of SD's authorship of a number of peppy songs
towards the end of SD's career when his son was assisting him in music direction and people used to
detect the unmistakeable RD signatures in songs (for example Roop tera mastana in Aradhana: the
popular perception was that it was composed by RD).
The writer complains that there has been no initiative on the part of Bangladesh govt to preserve
the memory of SD, which could be achieved by turning the ancestral home of the Dev Burmans in
Comilla into a museum.
Born into the royal lineage of Tripura, SD's father was the rightful claimant to the throne, but
was deprived from the line of succession, owing to palace intrigues, and later settled in Comilla,
present day Bangladesh.
SD first started this novel practice of using two or more playback singers for the same actor. In
a way therefore, here was the first polyphony, and also the major potential use of the fluidity of film
music.
He was a very strict music director. Sometimes he re-recorded songs if he experienced a single
dissatisfaction. On one occasion, he fell out with Lata Mangeshkar on this count, and roped Asha in
(this is how Asha Bhosle entered SD camp, but interestingly SD finally decided to keep the original
version of the song sung by Lata).
This book's writer is a Dev Burman himself, and his concern for preserving the musical legacy
of SD is praiseworthy. Real disinterestedness lies in working for one's own community, history,
heritage and culture, when the individual researcher can forgo promoting his individual career interest,
and instead works for the collective. Disinterestedness is lost if one is working for one's individual self
interest (under various guises of universalism, objectivity, positivism), uprooted from all ethical and
moral responsibility towards his people. In Bengali cultural studies, we need more and more such
indigenous-insider projects in order to preserve our own history and culture.
Mousumi Biswas Dasgupta is co-founder of Journal of Bengali Studies and is Assistant Professor of
English Literature at Sri Aurobindo College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India.
Workshop
Our Lost Friend: A Story
Amit Shankar Saha
We used to call him 8Br Gaanwala. As soon as he used to get down from the bus and sight anyone
of us he used to take up a song - a Bangla gaan - and that too, well, quite aloud. And before anyone of
us could hear him, to the surprised ears of the passengers alighting from or boarding the bus, his song
used to assault melodiously. A smile here, an expression of annoyance there depending on the moods of
his unintended listeners, were the tokens he used to get before he reached us and his songs get
interrupted by our greetings. Sometimes, finding none of us in sight he used to keep quiet. But he had
made a reputation and maybe the bus conductor would say, Ki, aaj gaan hobe na? And that was all
the nudge he needed. Bursting into rhapsody, taking from the repertoire of Rabindranath or Nazrul or
Dwijendralal or Atulprasad or even Adhunik, he used to come into his own.
We were all students of Jadavpur University and that too of English (Honours). We were a motley
crowd coming from different parts of the city, from different strata of society and apparently from
different cultural backgrounds. What brought us together, apart from the technicalities of application
and admission procedures, was either a love for English Literature or a love for English literacy. Our
8Br Gaanwala was there for the latter reason. He showed a certain disinterestedness in the academic
subject of his choice. Once, in a first year examination, attempting a long answer type question on
Shakespeares Measure for Measure, he allegedly wrote the lyrics of Tagores Anandaloke, in Roman
script in the middle of the answer. Whether professors marking his paper saw or overlooked his
misdemeanour we could never guess as he got average marks, as he always used to get. He was the
epitome of being average - average height, average looks and even average quality of voice. If at all a
scale for comparing averages was required, he could have become the standard. And, perhaps, could
have been preserved for posterity. But that was not to be.
He used to live in north Calcutta, probably Shyambazar area, and used to come to Jadavpur changing
buses, and often too many buses. One day he got off the bus and seeing us quite naturally burst into a
song. But he was raising a clenched fist, which was rather puzzling. As he came near us he ended his
song with a loud Saala! His fist was open and on his palm was a bunch of bus tickets. And he said,
See the conductor took my ticket twice. I was a bit absent minded and could not remember whether I
had bought the ticket or not, so I showed him all the tickets I had in my pocket and he said that that
buss ticket was not there. But its here.
One of us queried, Why so many tickets?
Looking at the space left behind by the departed bus he only said, Ill catch him someday.
We were always in trepidation to travel with him because of his attitude of getting off the bus at any
undeclared point on the way whimsically. He wanted to have a look at Girish Ghoshs house in the
middle of the road or he wanted to have a stroll at Park Circus Maidan! That was him. And he actually
got even with the rogue bus conductor when once we were all travelling in a group in the bus. He
recognised the the conductor and did not pay for his ticket. An he went on with a one-way argument
with the conductor since the other side did not make a single reply. Perhaps his argumentative
engagement occupied our friend so much that he did not break his journey to our satisfaction that time.
He used to argue all the time, that is if he was not singing. He had come up with the proposition that
Bhupen Hazarikas O Ganga tumi boyecho keno was not a good song as its tune was inspired by the
Western Old Man River.
One of us, perhaps Supratik, had argued, So! What is the point? Your Rabi thakurs tunes too are
borrowed from foreign shores.
To which he retorted, Some are. But have you heard me ever singing those?
No one could recall immediately anything to counter him and so Suranjan had rejoined, We dont
remember. We dont know.
His answer was, Dont know. Dont talk.
I added, Salil Chowdhurys Itna na tui mujhse pyar badha was inspired by Mozarts Symphony 40.
He brusquely said, Is that a Bengali song? We are talking about Bengali songs and music.
The arguments had continued. He never gave in and stood his ground.
It was day of the University Fest organised by the students union, and he was to perform. He had
chosen a few Adhunik songs to render. We clapped at each of his songs and encouraged him during his
performance. He was followed on stage by a first year student who sang songs from a collection called
Mohiner Ghoraguli. When our friend came down the stage the first thing he told us was, Cant
youll have applauded my singing more than this novices singing? What indiscriminate applause is
this! And he had walked off. We knew his eccentricities and his argumentative nature and so we
ignored him.
The years passed by. Our debates grew. We graduated. And most of our core group of friends managed
to continue into the Masters programme in English. Our 8Br Gaanwala too managed in his average
ways to continue with us. It was towards the end of our academic sojourn something happened that
made us sit up in alarm. The students union had planned to have a evening with Suman Chattopadhyay
and his music. We were all very excited to attend the programme except our eccentric friend. We had
grown used to calling him eccentric by then but we could never gauge the extent of it. He had got
himself into the organising committee and had made himself indispensable especially with regard to
delegation of duties. It was due to him that three of us, me Supratik and Suranjan, had got first row
passes for the event. But we were veterans in the university and virtually had access to all the corners.
It was this privileged access that revealed to us our eccentric friends diabolic plan. What meticulous
planning and its execution he must have gone through to ensure that no one would be present at the
sound system unit, not even him, at that moment. But he had not bargained that we three would leave
our special seats and come to witness his madness. It was Supratik who removed the live wire in the
nick of time from the body of the amplifier that connected with the microphone. So when Suman
Chattopadhyay touched the microphone and nothing happened, our friend turned around only to
encounter Suranjan. He muscled his way past him and came face-to-face with me. He only exclaimed,
Dhaat saala! And disappeared. The strains of jibonmukhi songs filled the place.
Latter when we confronted him with, Are you mad? You know what you were doing? Are you a
criminal?
He replied, Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan. They are all Bob Dylans fans. As if Bengal doesnt have anything
of its own.
Supratik said, If you dont like then dont hear.
Hah! As if I listen to such crap!
I asked, But werent you overreacting?
He answered, I was underreacting. If I would have power I would have blasted them.
Suranjan exclaimed Madness!
He countered, Where is indigeniety?
I retorted, You hated jargon and now you are talking in it.
That was it. The rift was complete. We drifted apart. At least he kept his distance with the three of us
who knew about his diabolic streak. And we too discarded him from our core group. And as with we
passed out of the university, we took different paths in life. Rarely meeting, more often through
coincidence, we three busy in our daily chores. We never saw our eccentric friend., the 8Br
Gaanwala. The flood of Nachiketa, Anjan Dutt, and their likes and the Bangla Bands totally changed
the musical scenario of Bengal. Until at a chance meeting at College Street Coffee House, where we
three had gone for different purposes, we decided to trace him down.
It was a tough job because we had not kept his contacts or knew about his whereabouts. But we knew
that the students union kept the contact details of all the performers. So to Jadavpur we went. It had
been years and our hopes were dim and yet it was there. A greased palm could get the information for
us. There was no phone number but the address was there - 38, Basanta Bose Road. All three of us
decided to meet at that address the next day.
I was the first to reach the location the following day and found it to be a apartment block, rather
recently constructed. When Supratik and Suranjan arrived we approached the gatekeeper with our
inquiry. He expressed ignorance about the person we were looking for. On being told that our friend
used to sing, he added, as an afterthought, that we should inquire at the club down the road. The club,
once we reached there, was sparsely populated. And here too our inquiry gained ground once we said
that our friend used to sing Bengali songs. An old man said, O! They have shifted from this place long
time back. They sold off their ancestral property. He used to work in Dalhousie. And then he gave us
the name of the company.
The three of us got into Suranjans car and sped to Dalhousie. We could trace the address of the
company to 5, Council House Street. We arrived when it was lunch hour, perhaps fortunately. We
inquired of people pouring over different kinds of food items in different kinds of lunch boxes. But all
to no avail as no one could inform us of anyone by our friends name who works or used to work there.
Until we mentioned about his talent. We were directed to the Recreation Secretary of the company, who
said, Yes, yes. He used to sing Rabindrasangeet and nothing else. But he left the company long ago.
Some years ago our records perished in a fire. I dont even remember his name. I think he got a job in a
cassette company.
IT seemed that by some preconceived plan clues were deliberately planted for us to go from one point
to another. But this time we did not know the name of the audio cassette company. So we decided that
individually we will make inquiries at T-Series, HMV, and other such companies. When our initial
individual attempts did not bear fruit our endeavour lost steam. From week it became months and the
months spilled into years. We could trace nothing. Our 8Br Gaanwala was nowhere to be found. We
abandoned our search. And occasionally wjhen I used to meet Supratik or Suranjan we used to make a
passing reference to our lost friend.
Many years later, once I was walking down Chandni area, where computer hardware is strewn on the
footpath for sale, my path was blocked by a falling heap of audio cassettes. The worker clearing out the
old stock from a CD shop had spilled them in my path, quite miraculously. Is it perhaps the last clue
planted by fate? For I could distinctly see right on top of the heap a cassette cover on which was printed
8Br Gaanwala. I picked up the cassette and the worker asked me if Ill take it and on nodding he
said, Take and started collecting the spilled waste. The cassette was of an album titled Gahana
kusuma kunj majhe, comprising of songs in Maithili and Brajaboli by our friend, brought out by an
obscure audio cassette company that has long ceased to exist. There were no more clues left to
decipher. The onslaught of time and change had swept away our average friends attempt at posterity.
Amit Shankar Saha holds a PhD from Dept of English, University of Calcutta, and is a creative writer.
He has published many short stories and poems in English.
Commentary
Bishnupur Gharana : The Bangali School of Classical
Music
Nachiketa Bandyopadhyay
In a music conference during 1920, the following observation on Indian music was made: The present
state of Indian music is chaotic, and whenever we happen to think of its weakness in contrast with the
vigor with which the music of Europe is growing and spreading, we have to hang our heads down with
shame. Look at the history of European Music, the way in which it has preserved itself and look at the
history of our own music. Even after two decades, the situation remained the same. As early as 1936,
the Maharaja of Dharampura in Gujarat commented on the awful state of Indian music: No other
country in the world has placed music so low, so contemptuously neglected, as this country. Nowhere
in the West, was the young natural instinctive rhythm for the music, completely repressed , censored
and banned as they happened to be in (this) country...."
In any country, the musical movement initiates from national ideology, and on the other hand,
music supports and nurtures national characteristics also. The musical movement of 20 th century India
was not only the outcome of western romanticism ut at the same time corroborated with nationalism
and western radicalism. Hindustani classical music was captivated, dumped, and covered which needed
a reformation, improvised by the state of art technique and dedicated BHAKTI for its dissemination
among the common people.
The heritage of Hindustani classical music started degrading since Muslim invasion, continued
the degradation during the colonial period and waited for further modernization. The reputation of Indian
music was never out of the dark due to our submissive national characteristic.
Herbert Popley narrated The atmosphere of mystical devotion and of submission of what is
looked upon as the divine will is found in all religious hearts. The one treasure- store of legend and
story supplies both North and south with heroes and sages; and agriculture and trade, the village and
the home, and the arts, are filled with the same spirit and use practically the same methods throughout
India.
When the musical theory of Pope Sylvester (330 AD) and St. Ambrose (374 AD) in Europe
emerged, in India it was the time of the emergence of great schools of temple music following the
development of Indian drama. A religious revival associated with the Bhakti movement during 7th-8 th
century drew extensively from Shaivism and Vaishnavism. which resulted in a great development of
musical activity among the mass.
When the great Gregory was developing music in Europe, it was the time of the birth of the
North Indian music through Gitagovindam of Joydeva of Bengal. It connected the Krishna cult with
Bhakti movement. Popley opined that Sangita Ratnakar of Sarangdeva (AD 1210-1247) during the
Yadav dynasty in Devagiri is probably the linking bridge of the musical theory between North and
South
India.
North Indian musical establishments flourished in post Mohammedan invasion during 14 th 15th
centuries as Persian music made forays, and intermixing took place. This is evidenced by compulsory
Persian musical schooling in northern Indian music schools. Legendary Amir Khasru, singer of the
sultan Alla-ud-din (AD 1295-1316), a poet administrator and minister who introduced hybridized
music (Indo-Persian) is credited with generating modern Ragas. He modified vina into sitar. After
colonising south, Mohammedans further improvised the North Indian classical music.
Lochankavis Raag Tarangini is a tribute to poet Vidyapati (15th century AD, court poet of king
Sivam Singh of Trihut) who classified ragas under 12 Thhat or fundamental musical modes. Under
Chaitanyadeva (AD 1485 - 1533), Bhakti movement further revived musical activities in the name of
Sankritan and Nagarkirtan. Akbar (1542 - 1605) patronized music when northern music flourished
more through Darbari system, while Temple drama, Temple music continued to evolve as RadhaKrishna cult flourished. It is the period when Raja Maan Singh introduced Dhrupad in Gwalior.
In early colonial period, Sir William Jones, Sir W. Ourley, Captain Day and Captain Willard
studied Indian music but generally Europeans ignored the science and art and beauty of Indian classical
music. Tulajagi (A.D. 1763 - 1787), a Maratha king of Tanjore sponsored Indian music, who even
wrote a treatise, Sangitasaramritam. Nagmat - e- Asaphi (1813 AD) by Muhammad Razz of Patna also
noted new system of Ragas classification by assembling common ragas and adopted Bilaval scale
(similar to European major mode) as its suddha scale. Pratap Singh of Jaipur (1779 - 1804) organized a
musical conference for standardization of Indian music and was honoured as Sangitasara or epitome
of music. Krishnanandavyasas Sangita Ragakalpadruna (Calcutta 1842) is recorded as a compilation
of Hindu compositions. At the same time, Southern schools also tried to write down a musical tradition
as evidenced by the works of Tyagayya/ Tyagaraja (1800 - 1850 c).
Ram Chandra Kousika informed David Courtney, while conceptualising Indian musical
schools, that he defined Gharana as follows- Gharanas are as old as 100 - 300 years, nomenclatured by
North Indian music schools. They preserve the definite standard of art form, musicianship and
excellence. Presentation, technique and repertoire were preserved in such sanctuaries due to poor
communication and transportation, till the modern system emerged and opened the doors for all,
making the system reduced and rudimentary whereby the royal patronage system waned and the arts
identity found completion at par with mass choice.
Manilal Nag A contemporary instrumentalist, described genesis of the Bishnupur gharana

which is taken as a belief. Court musician Bahadur Khan of Mallabhum introduced this Gharana , even
though evidence supports that his deciple Ramchandra Bhattacharya was the founder member. Till
nineteenth century Bishnupur Gharana continued to flourish at par with Betia gharana.
Sujit Gangopadhyay, the Bishnupur gharana vocalist, in an interview with Arijit Mahalanabis,
journalist, analysed the followingDhrupad repertoire continued by Hindu keepers. He (SG) also
concluded that Bishnupur Gharana is centered in Bhakti as the main driving force ignoring other
ideologies. Khayal is unified by Nibaddha (Dhrupada) and Anirbaddha (Alap). Dhrupad is a
deconstructed form, in which the Bhav of the composition is in the form of a constant structure
(Dhrupad), and is maintained quite distinctly from the RAS of the RAGA in the form of the Alap
History of Vaishnivism records that the culture of Prabandha Geetis flourished under the
leadership of Swarup Damodar Ray Ramananda Swami Krishnadas, Swami Haridas, Krishnanda
Kabiraj, Raghunath Dasgoswami, and Thakur Narottamdas. Traditionally it is believed that Thakur
Narottam Das devised the Padavali Kirtan on the ideal of classical Dhruvapad.
Debabrata Singha Thakur, veteran in Bishnupur gharana recorded in his essay a lamentation of
Dr. Suniti Chattopadhyay We Bengalis are unfortunate that Bengal never hosted any art town like
Kasi, Madurai, Jaipur or Agra. Only one such town exists in Bengal, which is Bishnupur.
During the middle of the 18th century, the main Gharanas, which were founded by the musicians
and their disciple assumed final shape . The main Gharanas were as follows
Seni gharana of Dhrubapada and Rahab, founded by the great brothers- Jaffar Khan, Payar Khan and
Basat Khan of Lukhnow and Banaras.
Seni veenakars, led by Nirmal Sha of Lukhnow
Kawal Gharana founded by Bade Md Khan Kawal ,of Lucknow and Gawalior
Gawaliar Gharana of Khayal formed by the three great kheyali brother Huddu Khan, Hussu Khan and
Nathu Khan.
Agra gharana of kheyal and Dhamar was formed by the descendants of Hazi Sujan Khan (Dhamar).
Betia Gharana of Dhrubapad formed by the disciples of Haidar Khan Seni of Lucknow, who were the
kathaks of Banaras ,as well as the Muslim Ustad of Kalpi.
Bishnupur Gharana of Dhrubapad formed by Bahadur Khan Seni,
and his deciple Ramsankar
Bhattacharya.
Lahore gharana by Punjabi Khayalia, disciples of Shah Sadarang
Ataruli Gharana of Dhrubapada and Khayal founded by the Brahmins of Mathura who embraced Islam
later on.
Dagar Gharana, founded by Bairam Khan, descendent of priestly line of Mathura
Seni Gharana of Saharanpur, disciple of Omrao Khan and son of Nirmal Sha Seni
Sarod Gharana was founded by Niamutulla Khan, a deciple of Basat Khan Seni.
Sitar Gharana of Lucknowwas founded by Golam Mahamad Khan, a disciple of Umrao Khan Seni.
Newman observes- Bishnupur Gharana is nonetheless considered the one true Gharana in
Bengal by virtue of the antiquity of its status as a Seniya Gharana . Like many things Bengali, though,
there is something ambiguous in its nature. As a Hindu tradition, for example, it is distinguished from
other Gharanas. Neuman further points out: [T]he professionalization of art music as a hereditary
occupation apparently began only with the coming of the Muslims. The only Hindu hereditary
traditions are the Banaras baj (style) of Tabla playing and the Bishnupur Gharanas of Dhrupad Singing
(and later) instrumental music. In both these cases the Hindu founder learned their art from Muslim
Ustads (1980:105)
The Bishnupur gharana takes its name from the place in which it was founded in this small
kingdom of south western Bengal where Malla Dynasty, ruled for many centuries. The link to Tansen
comes though the ostensible founder of the Gharanna. Bahadur Khan, who according to tradition was
brought as a court musician by Malla ruler Raghunath II to Bishnupur in the early 18 th century. The
succession from Bahadur Khan came to his Hindu student , Gadhadhar Chakraborty who in his turn
taught Indramohan Goswami, and Ramshankar Bhattacharya. This is the lineage of Bishnupur gharana
given by Bishnupur Doyen Amio Ranjan Banerjee Some historians however opine that it is unlikely
that any musician by the name of Bahadur Khan would have been a contemporary to Raghunath II. It is
more logical to deduce that Ramshankar was himself the founder of the Bishnupur gharana. Amiya
Ranjans chart describes Ramshakar as the Architect of the Bishnupu gharana but lists Bahadur khan
as the Gharans founder nonetheless. Capwell deduced that many Bishnupur singers were also
composers. They composed in Sanskrit, and in Bengali, to go along with the more traditional language
used for Dhrupad and khayalin, the braja dialect of Hindi.
Rajeshwar Mitra writes that Right through the period of Muslim rule, Bengal retained the
remnants of Hindu traditions fostered by the Pala and Sena dynasties. Hence, while western and
northern India were being initiated into various new types of melodies and musical patterns which
came to constitute the noble tradition of North Indian classical or raga music these were practised in
Bengal only within a limited circle. People enjoyed various forms of indigenous and folk music which
were not classical or raga-based (Music and the emerging city;A study of center of musical patronage
in North Calcutta (1800-1950).
Classical forms like Dhrupad, Dhammar and the newly emerging Khayal flourished in centers
of court patronage in Murshidabad, Burdwan and Dhaka. But it was only in Bishnupur that a school
was created. Capwell observed
that the style of the Bishnupur Dhrupadiya was recognized as
exceptionally plain and lacking in the heavy thrills or GOMOK. The portmanteau or Mir (Meend) and
rhythmic permutation of text phrases or BOLBANT that are featured in most styles of Dhrupad were
however present. Bishnupur gharana had legendary singers like Aghornath Chakrabarti (1852-1915),
Pramathanath Banerjee (1868-1956), Bamacharan Banerjee and Kaliprasanna Banerjee (1842-1900).
Jadunath Bhattacharya, popularly known as Jadu Bhatta (1840-83), a disciple of the renowned
Dhrupad exponent, Ganganarayan Chatterjee (1806-74) regularly performed in the royal court. It was
at this crucial moment that Bishnupur singers began associating themselves with different schools or
gharanas of music in accordance with the training they had received from their respective gurus.
The real question is whether the Bishnupur Gharana has influenced classical music in Bengal in these
specific directions, or whether these stylistic tendencies represent aesthetic preference specific to
Bengali culture. I would argue that it is sum total of both, although the latter is more likely true. The
Bishnupur musicians have certainly been influential in Bengal, particularly gharana stalwarts such as
Gyaan Prasad Goswami, Girija Shankar Chakroborty, Satya Kinkar Banerjee (Amio Ranjans Father
and guru) and Jadu Bhatta (Musical guru of Rabindranath Tagore),
The Kotali Gharana: A Lesser Known and Obscure Bengali School of Classical Music
A lesser discussed musical Bengali gharana once existed, which was located at Kotali. The Kotali
region is now in Bangladesh, whereof the present activities of this gharana are unknown to the author.
The Chakraborty family, originally Mishra Brahamans, believed to be the resident of Kanauj (UP),
migrated to Kotalipara, Faridpur, East Bengal (now in Bangladesh) with musical inheritance of
Prabandha Geeti and Saam Gaan, and settled there a thousand years ago. Acharya Biswambhar
Chakraborty initiated the cultural vibrancy of Indian Classical Music through Seni Gharana. Tarapada
Chakraborty was a renowned singer of Kotali gharana, whose father Pandit Kulachandra Chakraborty
and uncle Pandit Ramchandra Chakraborty learnt the secrets of the trade from from Ustad Jahur Khan
of Khurja gharana.
Ramchandra was a court scholar and distinguished musician at the court of Maharaja of Natore.
The Chakraborty brothers later moved to Calcutta with this rich inheritance. Tarapada Chakraborty was
a student of Pandit Satkari Malakar of Gwalior and Betia gharana and later became a deciple of the
great maestro Sangeetacharya Girija Sankar Chakraborty. Tarapada mastered Ragas, Dhrupad, Dhamar
and Khayal Bandishes of different gharanas, mainly Seni, Vishnupur, Betia, Delhi, Gwalior, Rampur.
Girijashankar being a pioneer of Thumri style nurtured Tarapada Chakraborty with the Thumri style of
Banaras and Kirana. Later he improvised Khayal and standardized quality through Tarapada
Chakraborty. Tarapada Chakraborty, the pioneer of this Kotali gharana was crowned as legend and was
honoured all over India for his contribution towards Hindustani Classical Music. Pt. Manas
Chakraborty was the son and torch bearer of Tarapada Chakraborty; by inheritance and merit he
amalgamated the best of classical gharanas to innovate a new style of his own.
Bishnupur Gharana: The Lasting Legacy
Charles Capwell in The interpretation of History and the foundation of authority in the Bishnuppur
Gharana of Bengal (1991) states The Bishnupur gharana is considered the one true gharana of
Bengal by virtue of the antiquity of its status as a Seniya garanna... whose lineage can be traced back to
the descendants of Tansen. Sadly, Ramshankar Bhattacharya's songs are now lost due to negligence.
Bengal was indeed home to Rag-raginis since ancient times, but the Islamic invasion caused a rupture,
and it was only after the dusts settled, we witness that medieval age flourishing of classical music at
Bishnupur.
References
1. The Music of India, Herbert A popley, Associate press Calcutta [J. Curwen and sons Ltd. London],
1921]
2. A worlds heritage of Native music; The Gharanas of Indian ; Ram Chandra Kousika <http: //
saxonian folkways . Files word press.com>
3. The life of Music in North India:The organization of an artistic tradition ;Daniel M Newman;The
university of chikago press ,Chicago London 1990
4. Musical Renaissance and its margin in England and India, 1974-1914. Martin Clayton, Durham
University
5. Ethnomusicology and Modern music history Edited by-Stephen Blum Philip V Bohlman and
D.M.Newman[Charles Cap well- in The interpretation of History and the foundation of authority in
the Bishnuppur Gharana of Bengal (1991)]The university of Illinois 1993.
6.
http://saxonianfolkways.wordpress.com/tag/the-bishnupur-gharana/
7.
(http://saxonianfolkways.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/nawabsayyidhamidalikhanbahasdur.jpg)
(Courtesy of Indian Music and Mian Tansen by Pandit Birendra Kishore Roy Choadhury )
8. The Geography of Hindustani Music: The Influence of Region and Regionalism ...Jeffrey Michael
Grimes UMI 2008
9. Two Men and Music ;Nationalismin the making
of an Indian
classical tradition
.JanakiBakhle,Oxford university press 2005

10. The Rags of North Indian Music;Their structure and EvolutionN.A. Jairazbhoy,popular prokashon
private LtdBombay 1995
11. Bishnupur gharanar utpattir etihas ;Dr. Debabarata Singha Thakur, Bharabi,Kolkata 1977
Nachiketa Bandyopadhyay, PhD, is Registrar of Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, Purulia, West Bengal,

India.
Commentary
Footfalls of Yesteryears: A Brief Overview of Modern
Bengali Songs
Gautam Sengupta
Among so many strange things in human life one very inexplicable event is to view how memories
linger. The extent to which our past hums tunes to the ears of our present is really unfathomable.
The spectrum of Modern Bengali songs should never be summed up simply as mind-blowing.
That would definitely lessen its dignity and also misinterpret its eternally melodious appeal.
Unfortunately musicography has never had its way in Bengal. There is no attempt to trace the heritage
of Bengali music, not to speak of having any systematized account of how creative people have
flowered and decorated the panorama of modern Bengali songs. Only memories remain. And people
recollect, though perhaps in tune with the events of their lives how they grew up and while growing
adored the self-same lyrics and tunes.
Where should one begin, anyhow? And how? Year-wise, artist-wise, or composer-wise? One
thinks that only public memory can demarcate; boundaries will overlap while songs as a whole will
have their sway.
Tappa and Thumri-based semi-classical music in Bengal may be left aside for the sake of the
present discussion, though Ramnidhi Gupta (Nidhubabu) or Ghazal-based and Thumri-based songs of
Nazrul held the stardom almost until the mid-thirties of the last century. Chronologically considered,
Rabindranath had been writing songs in various musical idioms, but all of them belonged to the genre
called Rabindrasangeet which retains its own memorable stamp even today.
It was perhaps Nazrul and his warm heart as well as the need for Bengali songs that brought
lyricists like Pranab Roy or musical composers like Kamal Dasgupta to join the forestage. Till 1934,
artistes with rigorous classical training were too awe-inspiring to be replaced, and thus Angurbala,
Indubala, Kamala Jharia or Ascharyamoyee Dasi did not perhaps think of any able successor. Modern
Bengali song in its true sense of being a distinct genre in the history of Music in Bengal began truly
with Juthika Roy in 1934.
Of course Krishna Chandra (K.C.) Dey, the blind singer, was there in full form, but he rose to
eminence mainly in theatre songs and kirtans. Thus it was Juthika Roy who faced stiff hurdles in
ushering in a new era by singing Ami Bhorer Juthika and Saajher Traka Ami Path Haraye Esechhi
Bhule- both written by Pranab Roy and set to tune by Kamal Dasgupta, all the three being bright
youngsters of the day.
Unpredictability of record sale inasmuch as uncertainty in music climate had kept the dealers
disinclined. It was Kazi Nazrul again rather his charming patronage of newcomers that paved the
way. It was he who stood firm in favour of Ami Bhorer Juthika and it was released. Hardly anybody
knew that history of Bengali music had seen a new dawn.
Some very happy coincidences made the scenario even happier. The advent of Pankaj Mallick
and Raichand Boral, both of them being prime products of All India Radio, made possible unique and
excellent film songs. Films like Doctor, Mukti or Debdas, perhaps otherwise non-remarkable, shot
into heights with the magic tunes of Kamal Dasgupta, Pankaj Mallick or Raichand Boral.
The trio worked wonders. Films were made to sound melodiously through songs set to tunes by
either Mallick or Boral. Apparently melodramatic hits of the nineteen-thirties like Chandidas or
Debdas (by Pramathesh Barua) were rendered sublime by the insertion of Phirey Chalo Apono
Ghorey (K.C. Dey) or Golap Hoye Uthuk Phutey (K. L. Saigal) respectively. Thus the gateway to
glory for the poetic sublimity of modern Bengali song was opened.
Simultaneously, the Roy-Dasgupta combination was working with great success. As it
happened, a few budding artistes with melodious voices were available just at the moment, like
Hemanta Mukherjee, Jaganmoy Mitra and Talat Mehmood. Great songs like Tumi Ki Ekhon
Dekhecchile Swapan,Bhalobasa Morey Bhikhari Korechhey or Duti Pakhi Duti Tirey were born at
this auspicious hour. Every year Puja festivities saw the publication of golden melodies that struck the
urban middle-class mind instantly and continued to linger for many more years.
The next landmark or breakthrough came around the nineteen-fifties, when great lyricists,
composers and artistes combined under the IPTA umbrella. However, there was a simultaneous flow of
great composer-trainers like Shailesh Duttagupta, Anupam Ghatak, Rabin Chatterjee and others. While
Kamal Dasgupta continued to be the uncrowned king with his superb mastery over music, Shailesh
inaugurated a new style soothing, dignified and poised of love song mainly in the melodious voice
of Hemanta Mukherjee.
This phase was put to shade mainly by Salil Chowdhury, the master of many instruments and
avid creator of tunes set to both folk and western styles of music.
Under his influence, western concepts of harmony and chord entered the arena when
Runner or Palki Choley was created. Salil of a later phase created extraordinarily moving love-songs
which are still popular tunes in the lips of todays teenagers. As Lata Mangeshkar collects the memory
of good old days, those were years of bright Puja days, lit up beautifully by Ki Jey Kori/Durey Jete
Hoy Tai or Ogo Aar Kichu to Nai- all, obviously by Salil. Hemanta Mukherjee once observed that
the songs that spontaneously came to his mind were all by Salil Chowdhury. It is Salil alone, he
observed,who can compose a love-song without ever mentioning the word love at all. Moner
Janala Dhorey or Amay Prasna Korey Neel Dhrubotara would instantly recur to everybodys
memory.
Salil, however, was not only a treasure-trove himself. He created a rich legacy a trio of
associates in Abhijit Banerjee, Anal Chatterjee and Prabir majumdar. Together they bred innumerable
songs during the festive or spring seasons of the nineteen-sixties, seventies and primary years of the
eighties.
Naming the songs or artistes would only be a futile exercise. Still, Shyamal Mitra, Tarun
Banerjee, Dwijen Mukherjee, Sandhya Mukherjee, Dhananjoy Bhattacharya, Alpana Banerjee, Arati
Mukherjee are some of the pioneers of that Himalayan height.
Along with Salil and his disciples, the other stars lit the sky Sudhin Dasgupta and Nachiketa
Ghosh. Sudhin almost always wrote his own lyrics for himself, while Nachiketa popularized others
words to a mesmerizing level.
Pulak Banerjee and Gouriprasanna Majumdar were two stalwarts to succeed the Ajoy
Bhattacharya-Pranab Roy-Subodh Purakayastha tradition. Having composed hundreds of songs, their
standard naturally waned during the late-seventies, but by then the air of decline had already set in.
What was the magic behind the flowering? And what made it dry up?
Answers are difficult to ascertain and need detailed research. Decline or deterioration of social
values, changing socio-economic scenario, lack of creative energy, change in attitude to life lots of
factors have contributed to the changes that we have experienced. We have passed through it but are
helplessly unable to explain it.

Post-Suman Chatterjee phenomenon created another kind of music. But that is a different
dimension. It may be a feather on the cap, or may be a temporary digression. History alone can give the
final verdict.
Gautam Sengupta, PhD, is retired Associate Professor of English, Gurudas College, Kolkata, India.
Read us, reach us, post your comments and find the
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ISSN 2277-9426

Journal of Bengali Studies

Bengali Music: Bengalis and Music

Buddhapurnima, 20 Boishakh 1422

Summer Issue, 4 May 2015

Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) Vol.4, No.1

Journal of Bengali Studies

Bengali Music: Bengalis and Music

Editor: Tamal Dasgupta

Indic Philosophy in Bengali Religious Songs

Music, Devotion and Religion: A Case Study of Charyapad

Kirtan of Bengal: An Enriched Tradition

4 Journal of Bengali Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1

Sarala Debi Chaudhurani, the Singer and Composer: An Unexploited Potential

Footfalls of Yesteryears: A Brief Overview of Modern Bengali Songs

8 Journal of Bengali Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1

9 Journal of Bengali Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1

From Songs of Innocence to Songs of Experience: The

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14 Journal of Bengali Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1

Manna Dey and Pulak Bandyopadhyay

Pulak Bandyopadhyay with Kishore Kumar

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1. Hoyto Aamaake Karo Mone Nei

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18 Journal of Bengali Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1

Some albums of Suman Chattopadhyay

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Some of the albums of Chandrabindoo

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Nachiketa's first three albums, in that order

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A Poster of the movie Jatismar

Nachiketa's album Kuasha Jokhon

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Some of the solo albums of Rupam Islam

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Suman in an interview, back in 1990s

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38 Journal of Bengali Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1

---. Chhnoyaache Kolom. Kolkata: Signet Press, 2013.

39 Journal of Bengali Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1

---. Juju (The Bugbear). 2003.

40 Journal of Bengali Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1

---. Hello Bangladesh. 1999.

41 Journal of Bengali Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1

Moheener Ghoraguli. Shongbigno Pakhikul O Kolkata Bishoyok. 1977.

Indic Philosophy in Bengali Religious Songs