Seeking Bauls of Bengal [Hardcover]

The author charts the rise of Bauls to their present iconic status as minstrels and mystics.'Bauls' have achieved fame as wandering minstrels and mystics in India and Bangladesh. They are recruited from Hindu and Muslim communities and renowned for their beautiful songs. Using her fieldwork and oral and written texts, the author analyses the rise of Bauls to their present revered status, leading the reader from the conventional historical and textual approaches towards a world defined by Bauls, where love and the body are primary and where women are extolled above men. Hers is a challenging and sympathetic approach to a spiritual and creative people.'Bauls' have achieved fame as wandering minstrels and mystics in India and Bangladesh. They are recruited from Hindu and Muslim communities and renowned for their beautiful songs. Using her fieldwork and oral and written texts, the author analyses the rise of Bauls to their present revered status, leading the reader from the conventional historical and textual approaches towards a world defined by Bauls, where love and the body are primary and where women are extolled above men. Hers is a challenging and sympathetic approach to a spiritual and creative people.Bauls have achieved fame as wandering minstrels and mystics in India and Bangladesh. They are recruited from Hindu and Muslim communities and renowned for their beautiful songs. Using fieldwork and oral and written texts, Jeanne Openshaw analyzes the rise of the Bauls to their present revered status, traversing from the conventional historical and textual approaches towards an ethnographic study of their world, where love and the body are valued and women extolled above men. Her approach is challenging and sympathetic to this spiritual and creative people.Part I. Background: Literature on 'Bauls' and 'Baul-songs': 1. 'What's in a name?' The advent of 'the Baul'; 2. The making of 'the Bauls': histories, themes, 'Baul-songs; Part II. In Search of 'Bauls': 3. Fieldworlƒ%