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322 Journal of the American Oriental Society 125.2 (2005)
through the juxtaposition of the bdnl of the bhagats with that
of the Gurus, between the views of theproponents of the newly
emerging Sikh faith and those of the new faith's spiritual
precursors. The AG,rather than being a monochromatic hymnal
containing a set of ideologically compatible compositions,becomes
something much more dynamic: a text in which Sikh Gurus not only
espouse particular doc-trines, but engage, as it were, in active
exchange with their precursors. By demonstrating how this mightbe
the case, Pashaura Singh has altered the way scholars are likely to
view the bhagat bdnl in the future.
MICHAEL C. SHAPIROUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Seeking Bduls of Bengal. By JEANNE OPENSHAW. University of
Cambridge Oriental Publications,vol. 60. Cambridge: CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2002. Pp. xii + 288, illus.
Bauls are idealized as emblems of Bengali folk culture. In
popular imagination in West Bengaland Bangladesh they are lone
wandering minstrels, free of the strictures of society, who express
theirreligious beliefs in folk songs. They are known for their
condemnation of the caste system and arecelebrated as symbols of
Hindu-Muslim harmony. While on the one hand they are exoticized
andromanticized, on the other they are demonized, sometimes for the
very same qualities for which theyare admired, i.e., their lack of
respect for boundaries of caste and religion. They have also been
con-demned for their sexual and scatological practices, when these
have become known.
The present anthropological study is a revision of part of
Jeanne Openshaw's doctoral thesis sub-mitted to the School of
Oriental and African Studies at the University of London in 1993;
the sectioncontaining the autobiography of the Hindu Baul composer
Raj Khyapa is included in another book tobe published at a later
date. The book is based on fieldwork over a period of seven years
from 1983to 1990 conducted in West Bengal, largely with Hindu Bauls
both male and female, although Openshawinterviewed Muslim Bauls as
well. Openshaw carried out her research primarily in the Rarh area
in thesouthwest of the state among Bauls who are Jat Vaishnavas
(Vaishnavas by caste) and in the Bagriarea in Nadia and Murshidabad
districts, where she studied the lineage of Raj Khyapa
(1869-1946/7).The main focus of her research is "Raj's people"
{rajer lok), as they call themselves, through whomOpenshaw had
access to unique material. She not only interviewed Raj Khyapa's
followers, includinga couple of his direct disciples who had
firsthand knowledge of him, but also had access to
autographmanuscripts of his writings comprising almost two hundred
songs, an autobiography, treatises on theoryand esoteric practice,
and an account book. To my knowledge, these are the first
manuscripts written inthe hand of the Baul who composed them and
the first autobiographical account 6f a Baul poet's life,since
Bauls do not reveal the details of their lives before initiation.
Even authentic biographies of Baulgurus by their disciples are
unknown.'
This pathbreaking book debunks stereotypes which, although not
totally false, give distorted picturesof Bauls. It also points out
fallacies in previous scholarship on Bauls and aims to present them
in theirown image. The picture that emerges is much more complex
and nuanced than in earlier studies. Thesestudies, Openshaw argues,
reify and essentialize Bauls, wrongly depicting them as comprising
a moreor less unified and homogeneous group. While maintaining that
there is a core of characteristics thatconstitute Baul or
bartamdn-panthi (see below) identity, Openshaw does not draw
artificial lines aroundBauls. Rather, she emphasizes their
radicalism, diversity and creativity, their ability constantly to
absorbnew ideas and come up with new interpretations. Previous
studies were often based on collections ofBaul songs by many
different poets, decontextualized and interpreted according to the
scholar's pre-conceptions. Openshaw focuses on Raj Khyapa's lineage
in order to present a detailed, contextual
1. The biography of the renowned Baul poet Lalan Fakir,
purportedly by his disciple Duddu Shah, that came tolight in the
1960s is a forgery motivated by the desire to give him Muslim
parentage and claim him for Islam.
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Reviews of Books 323
study, instead of an overgeneralized one relying mainly on a
disparate collection of songs. Previousstudies were also often
based on material collected only from male Baul musicians. In order
to correctthis bias, Openshaw centers her study on "Raj's people,"
who are initiates but who do not earn theirlivelihood from singing,
and she interviewed both male and female practitioners. She also
concentrateson this group because it stresses elements not
emphasized in earlier studies, among which is its highvaluation of
women.
The book is divided into five parts ("Background: Literature on
Bauls and Baul Songs," "In Searchof Bauls," "Received
Classifications," "Reworking the Classifications," and "Practice
[sadhand] andTalking about Practice [hari-katha]") consisting of
two chapters each, plus an introduction and con-clusion. The
following summary cannot do justice to the richness of the material
in the book and thecomplexity of its arguments.
Chapters one and two are devoted to secondary works on Bauls,
including official colonial sourcesand Bengali scholarly and
literary texts. In chapter one, "What's in a Name? The Advent of
'the Baul',"Openshaw traces the changes that the image of Bauls
underwent from the nineteenth century down tothe present, placing
these changes in the context of the historical, political,
religious and social trends ofthe time. Early sources dating back
to the 1870s project a negative view of Bauls as low-class
enter-tainers and as Hindu Vaishnavas or Bairagis (Vaishnava
renouncers) belonging to many different sam-praddys (sects or
traditions) who perform immoral sexual and scatological acts.
Towards the end of thenineteenth century, when Bengalis, inspired
by nationalist sentiments, began to take a renewed interestin their
folk culture, the image of Bauls underwent rehabilitation. An
idealized, spiritualized stereotypefashioned largely by
Rabindranath Tagore and his associate Ksitimohan Sen, and still
prevalent todayin middle-class Bengali society, depicts Bauls as
lone, wandering mystics, whether Hindu or Muslim,with no sectarian
affiliations, who do not require a female partner to attain
realization. More recently, anovergeneralized view propounded by
Upendranath Bhattacarya in his book Bangldr Baul o Baul gan("Bauls
of Bengal and Baul Songs") (Calcutta: Orient Book Company,
1957-58), the first study to bebased on extensive fieidwork and to
focus on Bauls' esoteric aspect, portrays Bauls as a single
religioustradition (dharma sampraday), separating the "real" from
the "fake,"
Chapter two, "The Making of the Bauls: Histories, Themes, Baul
Songs," concerns scholarly con-structions of Baul identity,
Openshaw gives an overview of different scholarly opinions
regarding theirdate of origin, placed anywhere from the fourteenth
to the eighteenth century, the religious traditionfrom which they
are presumed to have sprung, posited variously as Upanishadic
Hinduism, Buddhism,Vaishnavism, Sufism, and materialism (lokayata),
and their defining features as determined from songs.She argues
convincingly that these approaches are flawed since scholars
mistakenly assume that "thename Baul denotes a sect, a sampraday
(tradition), a cult, an order of singers, a community, a spirit,
aclass of mystic, a religionin short an entity of some kind" (p,
56), and that this entity has an unbrokenhistory that can be traced
back to its beginnings. Moreover, the defining features are
arbitrarily selectedfrom a vast body of disparate songs and applied
across the board to all Bauls, Openshaw dismissessuch approaches as
irrelevant to her aim of presenting Bauls in their own image,
explaining that Baulsreject all knowledge not based on direct
experience, and so are unconcerned with tracing their past. Inthe
second half of the chapter, Openshaw turns to a discussion of Baul
songs. She remarks upon the lackof consensus among scholars
regarding how to define a Baul song and concludes that the
assumptionthat there is a "clearly defined genre of 'real' Baul
songs" (p, 63) is incorrect. Although songs com-posed by Bauls and
dealing with topics related to Baul practice and philosophy
constitute the core ofBaul songs, those composed by non-Bauls or
uninitiated amateur Bauls written in a "Baul style" cannotbe
summarily excluded from the corpus any more than their composers
can be rejected as "fake" Bauls,Openshaw stresses that Baul songs,
which are often encoded, can have multiple interpretations
andlevels of interpretation, with new interpretations continually
being added. There is no "rigid adherenceto a symbolic code" (p,
70), This, she points out, makes translating the songs a nearly
impossible task.Even if extensive commentary is included, she
argues, it imposes undue fixity, since it is not possibleto
anticipate new interpretations.
In chapters three and four, "Fieidwork in Rarh" and "Fieidwork
in Bagri," Openshaw presentsfurther evidence for her argument that
the word baul has been substantialized and reified "into a fixedand
exclusive identity for certain kinds of rural practitioners and
even into a sampraday [sect]" (p, 112),
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324 Journal of the American Oriental Society 125,2 (2005)
when in fact there is no such unified and homogenous phenomenon.
She contrasts the differing viewsof Bauls held by bhadralok
(Western educated middle-class) society in Rarh and by rural gentry
inBagri, and discusses how these views affect the attitudes towards
a Baul identity held by those whoidentify themselves as Bauls or
who are identified as such by others. In the Santiniketan area of
Rarh,due to the influence of the Tagorean image, Bauls are
generally viewed in a positive light and not onlydo Bauls there
proudly proclaim their Baul identity, but even bhadralok may take
on a Baul persona,dressing in Baul-like fashion and singing Baul
songs or writing them. In contrast, in Bagri where thebhadralok
stereotype is not prevalent, Baul identity is not regarded as
desirable and few are anxiousto proclaim themselves Bauls, While
Raj Khyapa and his followers are called Baul by outsiders,
theyrarely apply the term to themselves. Since the term baul is a
loaded word, full of contradictory con-notations and false
implications of unity, and since its use would place Openshaw in
the untenableposition of referring to people as Bauls who
themselves reject that appellation, she avoids the term,
pre-ferring instead bartaman-panthi "followers of the path of
bartaman"; here bartaman, lit,, "existent,"refers to what can be
perceived by the senses.
Chapter five, "Two Shores, Two Refuges: Householder and
Renouncer," discusses the distinctivefeatures of the categories of
householder and renouncer among bartaman-panthi?,. In particular,
ittouches on the absence of a sharp divide between them, the
practice of taking renunciation and ini-tiation jointly with one's
partner rather than individually, and the tendency, especially
among "Raj'speople," not to idealize renouncer society but to see
the same fiaws in it that are present in householdersociety.
Chapter six, "Evading the Two Shores: The Guru," argues that the
supremacy of the male guruamong bartamdn-panthls, used by scholars
as evidence that Bauls have a continuous tradition and areeven a
sampraday, is actually undermined by a variety of factors,
including the notion that the femaleis not only her partner's guru
but is the mul (primary) or asal (true) guru. More than many
bartaman-panthi lineages. Raj Khyapa and his followers attempt to
steer a middle path between "the structuredworlds of householder
and renouncer" (p, 157); they stress egalitarianism and the
individual realizationof the practitioner over the hierarchical
relationship that exists between the guru and disciple.
Chapter seven, "Affect: Love and Women," contrasts conventional
householder society which hasa social system based on caste, is
characterized by discrimination and ill will {hinsd), and dominated
bythe male, with the ideals and traits of bartamdn-panthi society,
which recognizes only one^'af (caste),the human being, or
alternatively two, male and female, is characterized by love
(prem), and raiseswomen to a position of supremacy. Belief in the
oneness of all human beings, Openshaw contends,leads to a focus on
emotions. She emphasizes that bartamdn-panthis practice what they
preach, treatingpeople simply as human beings without concern for
status or identity. Chapter eight, "Theory: Images,the T and
bartaman," discusses the human being, in particular the female
partner, as the focus ofbartamdn-panthi devotion, in preference to
an image of a deity, which is rejected as anumdn (lit,,
"con-jecture"; the term connotes canonical religion and is the
opposite of bartamdn). It also explains thebartamdn-panthi concept
of the self. Raj Khyapa and other bartamdn-panthls argue that since
the self,identified with semen and menstrual blood and therefore
not separate from the body, is the same ineveryone, there can be no
distinctions between the self and others (Span-par).
Chapter nine, "Practice," argues that scholarship on esoteric
practice is full of overgeneralizationsand misguided attempts at
systematization. While the esoteric practices of bartamdn-panthis
follow thesame broad outlines, there is little uniformity in the
individual practices, the techniques used, and thetheories behind
the practices. Moreover, in talking about sddhand (practice),
practitioners may use dif-ferent models at different times,
depending on the context, or even different models at the same
time.In addition, these models may only be sketchily drawn and
subject to reinterpretation. Models of thefemale body in
particular, Openshaw points out, are vague. Since the female is
held to be self-perfected,sddhand is primarily for the benefit of
the male and described from the male perspective, Openshawalso
provides new details about sddhand. Previous studies have discussed
the practice of seminal re-tention during sexual intercourse,
Openshaw found that while preventing ejaculation is extremely
im-portant, total seminal retention is not always advocated.
Rather, during the central sddhand performedwhen the female partner
is menstruating, some emission may be sanctioned.
As the title " 'Four Moons' Practice and Talking about Practice"
indicates, the final chapter takes uptwo subjects. The first
section gives an overview of variations in concepts as well as
practices relatingto the "four moons" (semen, menstrual blood,
feces, and urine). It also touches on the rationales for the
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Reviews of Books 325
four-moon practices, including reversing of the downward flow
that leads to bodily decay and death,replenishing of the body with
vital substances that have been lost, regaining wholeness (in the
case ofthe male) through the ingestion of menstrual blood, and
recycling vital elements in order to thickenand refine them. The
second section focuses on the highly creative ways bartamdn-panthis
play withlanguage when they talk about sddhand, which Openshaw
likens to "a fire consuming any fixed po-sition" (p, 236), They
constantly reinterpret myths and stories, often coming up with new
interpreta-tions that are more convincing than conventional ones,
invent creative etymologies that reveal hiddenesoteric meanings of
words, and assign symbolic meanings to names of divinities and holy
figures andto Vaishnava and Islamic terminology and sayings. Their
talk is replete with quotes from song and withriddles, puns, and
code words that frequently have multiple referents. Among the
purposes of encodedtalk about sadhand are self-protection,
separation of the initiated from the uninitiated, and also just
fun.
The conclusion challenges the views of scholars of the subaltern
project. In particular, it refutesPartha Chatterjee's contention
that subalterns have failed "to construct an alternative universal
to thedominant dharma" (p, 240), pointing out that bartamdn-panthis
do indeed construct a universalfocused on the human being. It also
summarizes the main aspects of bartaman-panthi identity dis-cussed
in the book, such as participating in esoteric body-centered
practices, arguing that it is actuallyan anti-identity;
bartamdn-panthis subvert identity with their "conscious
eclecticism" and "cavalierattitude to traditional contents and
structures" (p, 244), In addition, the conclusion restates an
importanttheme of the book, namely, that the social radicalism of
bartamdn-panthis cannot be separated fromtheir esoteric theories
and practices,
I conclude with some minor criticisms and a few points for
consideration. As Openshaw rightlyasserts, too few studies place
Baul songs in their performance contexts, and published collections
havebeen poorly and uncritically edited. She is also rightly
critical of scholars who "are preoccupied witha search for the
unique and definitive text" under the false assumption that "a song
composed by oneindividual must imply one correct version of which
others are corruptions" (p, 65), This approach,she contends,
"encourages the idea of a system, the tyranny of text over
performance, tradition overcreativity," However, a textual approach
should not be dismissed out of hand, particularly if one wishesto
make an edition of a poet's collected songs, on the grounds that
previous editions were arbitrarilyedited by scholars who tended "to
'correct' the songs in the light of their own understanding," and
whodid not use text-critical methods. To be sure, the text-critical
approach may not be appropriate in allcases. Whether it can be
successfully applied depends on the nature of the transmission of
the songsby the poet's lineage.
The songs of Lalan Fakir, for example, are passed down both
orally and in notebooks, some ofwhich were written down by Lalan's
direct disciples who acted as his scribes. The oral
versionsmemorized by Lalan-panthi fakirs are remarkably close to
those in the oldest surviving notebooks,indicating that the songs
have been transmitted with little change. The fakirs clearly do
have a notionof a fixed, authentic text which they attempt to
reproduce in performance. They consider it anathemato alter the
words of a song by Lalan^ and will criticize a singer for placing
Lalan's name in the sig-nature line of a song composed by another
poet. Due to the faithful transmission of the songs, it ispossible,
using text-critical principles, such as preferring the lectio
difficilior and choosing the readingor version that has the
greatest documentary as well as intrinsic probability, to arrive at
a text that isclose to that composed by Lalan, although, it is
true, as Openshaw states, that such a text cannot be saidto be
absolutely "definitive,"
Neither collecting songs directly from performance alone, nor
relying solely on manuscripts issufficient for obtaining a reliable
text. If a singer performing in public forgets the words to a
song,he or she is obliged to cover up for the memory lapse. For
this reason, the singers have warned meagainst collecting songs
directly from performance, belying the notion that "the performance
is thetext," Depending solely on notebooks written, for the most
part, by semi-literate scribes is alsofraught with problems. The
notebooks are difficult to read, full of scribal errors, and
written in non-standard orthography with words run together. The
best way to obtain a reliable text is to compareboth oral
renditions and versions obtained from the oldest surviving
notebooks and to select the mosttrustworthy version as an exemplar,
indicating all significant variants in the notes so that the reader
may
2, Saktinath Jha, Phakir Lalan Sai: des, kal evam silpo
(Calcutta: Satpbad, 1995), 158,
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326 Journal of the American Oriental Society 125,2 (2005)
reconstruct each version. It is also important to discuss both
the text and meanings of the songs withat least one singer, to make
sure that the text has been correctly deciphered, for it is easy,
even for ascholar who knows the tradition well, to misconstrue
esoteric code words and obscure vocabulary fromKushtia dialect.
Emendations to the exemplar, if needed, should be made applying the
same principlesof textual criticism used to select the exemplar, ^
When more than one reading or version of a song isdetermined to be
original, as for example, in Lalan's song "eman manab janam" and
the variant ver-sion "eman manus janam," the variants can be given
in the notes with an explanation that they are asprobable as the
readings in the text,"* Alternately, all variant versions may be
published separately,
Openshaw argues for the need of a term other than bdul to
indicate the common identity that prac-titioners recognize with
other lineages. However, no such noun exists, perhaps because as
Openshawexplains, practitioners tend to deny any fixed identity,
often preferring to call themselves simply manus"human beings,"
While bartamdn is one of several terms adepts use to describe their
own lineages andto indicate their common bond and shared identity
with other Hindu and Muslim groups, Openshawadmits that they do not
refer to themselves as bartamdn-panthls. Rather, they say that they
are "inbartamdn" or that they "follow bartaman." She adopts
bartamdn-panthi nonetheless as a "short-handterm" (p, 115),
presumably to avoid awkward phrases such as "those who follow
bartamdn'' I shareOpenshaw's uneasiness with this solution, but it
does seem preferable to using "Baul" in an over-generalized
sense,
Openshaw attributes the discrepancy between the large number of
Hindu Bauls in Rarh and Bagriwho are renouncers and the small
number of Muslim Bauls or fakirs who have taken initiation to
the"absence of an ideal of renunciation in Islam" (p, 99), However,
renunciation {zuhd) is indeed a centralideal in Sufism, While some
Sufis do participate in worldly affairs, others are reclusive and
live in self-denial and poverty. Moreover, many of the Muslim
practitioners I worked with in Bangladesh in Jessoreand Kushtia
were renouncers or khildphatdhdrls (lit,, "wearers of the cloak").
Thus there must be otherreasons for the discrepancy, which remains
to be explained.
This book is a tour de force, certainly the best book in English
on the subject. It looks at Bauls withfresh eyes, is both
thoughtful and thought-provoking, and provides many new insights
into the subject.The book reflects Openshaw's dedication to her
subject and admiration of the people she studied fortheir humanism
and resistance in the face of opposition and persecution. It will
no doubt transformthe way in which scholars view Bauls, It may even
change popular perceptions, "Lalon," a recent filmon Lalan Fakir
made in Bangladesh by Tanvir Mokammel lists Openshaw in the credits
as one of thescholars whose works aided the director, and I detect
her book's influence on it,
CAROL SALOMONUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
3, For more details and a sample of an edited song, see my paper
"On Editing the Songs of Lalan Fakir UsingOral and Written
Sources," in Devotional Literature in South Asia: Current Research
1997-2000. Proceedings of theEighth International Conference on
Early Literature in New Indo-Aryan Languages, Leuven, 23-26 August
2000,ed. Winand Callewaert and Dieter Taillieu (Delhi: Manohar,
2002), 181-90,
4, Both versions are given in the notebook that belonged to
Lalan's disciple Bholai Sai, the oldest survivingnotebook that has
come to light, containing portions dating from 1893, just three
years after Lalan's death. See p, 1,song no, 4 of Jha's
edition.
China-Literatur in der Universitdtsbibliothek Leipzig,
1500-1939: Eine systematische Bibliographie.Two volumes. By THOMAS
JANSEN, with the assistance of Gabriele Schlesinger, Richard
Teschke,and Katharina Zinn, Leipzig: LEIPZIGER UNIVERSITATSVERLAG,
2003, Pp, 523, 409, 98,
On June 1, 1878, Hans Georg Conon von der Gabelentz (1840-1893)
was appointed Super-numerary Professor of East Asian Languages at
the University of Leipzig, marking the beginning of