Lounge
On the road with Parvathy Baul
Summary
The renowned Baul performer and spiritual teacher Parvathy Baul speaks to Lounge about bringing Bengal's mystical tradition to the world
Despite her great popularity as a singer and performer, Parvathy Baul is clear about one thing. “I’m not a musician. I’m a Baul, and when I travel, I do so as a Baul pracharak (preacher)," she says. Over the past two decades or so, Parvathy, 48, has been unstinting in her efforts to raise the profile of Bengal’s famous Bauls, and shine a spotlight on their philosophical, mystic and religious traditions, beyond the mainstream image of Baul performers as carefree folk singers.
This has, in part, played a role in Parvathy choosing to perform abroad as well. The disciple of one of Bengal’s most famous Bauls, Sanatan Das Baul, Parvathy says that she was given a mission by her guru: to use the fact that she is both from the tradition and that she is an educated woman, and widen the ambit of the tradition’s reach, something that Baul practitioners have historically found difficult to do.
To this end, Parvathy, apart from composing and recording as well as performing, also runs the large akhara of Sanatan Siddhashram (named after her guru), just outside Santiniketan, in West Bengal. Here she teaches Baul music and meditation techniques, and hosts annual retreats where she and other Baul masters impart musical and spiritual teachings to an ever-growing number of people from around the world. As Parvathy says, many of the latter have come from other countries to Bengal after seeing her perform. Lounge spoke to Parvathy Baul about her travels, and the things she has learnt along the way. Edited excerpts:
When was your first international performance? What was the experience like?
It was in 1999, when I was 23 years old. My first impression was intense sorrow and fear. I went to Lebanon, to Beirut. Pretty much from when I left the airport, everywhere I could see bombed buildings, houses in disarray, people living in the streets.
It shocked me to tears. I felt like I had wandered into a surreal painting by Salvador Dali. It truly looked like his paintings, with the melting clocks and buildings. I had never imagined that such a landscape could exist. It was terrible to see children and adults with missing limbs. People begging in the streets, soldiers everywhere.
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I had been invited to hold a workshop at a Beirut university, with local students who were my age. They were my audience as well as participants in the workshop. We were a very close group, and I stayed in touch with them for many years afterwards.
When I heard them talk about their struggles, of living with war, living with hopelessness, it affected me deeply. On the other hand, they showed me great love and acceptance and told me how the music and philosophy of the Bauls seemed so apt to their situation.
The dean of the university, who had organized the workshop and had invited me and some other international artists, used to invite us to his home in Beirut for our meals. I felt so terrible when I found out that the very next year that house was bombed, killing him and two girls who used to care for us.
So that was my first trip, and my gurus, in their infinite wisdom, ensured that my very first exposure was a shocking one. All other experiences after that trip was so much easier.
When you travel, what instruments do you travel with, and how do you keep them safe?
I always travel with an ektara (a one-stringed instrument that is a spiritual and musical calling card for Bauls), a dugi (a type of hand drum) and nupur (a percussive instrument made of tiny bells worn around the ankle). Apart from these I also carry hand cymblas (kartal) and hand clappers (khartal or manjira). I also carry an extra tuned ektara, in case a string breaks, as well as extra strings; and a small kit with which to make minor repairs or change strings.
For the longest time, these were all that I would carry. But recently I’ve started playing another instrument, the ananda lahari (a rhythmic and melodic chordophone instrument popular with Bauls) I carry that with me as well. Finally, I carry an asana (mat) on which to sit, while performing, and an ektara stand.
When was your first tour?
My first world tour was in 2000, and my accompanying musicians were also Bauls, travelling abroad for the first time. That year, we toured cities like Amsterdam, Geneva, Paris, Torino (we played at the Museum of Oriental Art there), Brussels. Then we travelled to the US, where we played at New York’s World Music Institute, at the Cleveland Museum and Chicago University.
How do you balance your duties at the Sanatan Siddhashram with your travels?
The way I work and live has completely changed since I started the ashram. When I was in Kerala, my horizons were quite small. I always had the mission given to me by Sanatan Baba, to spread the word of Baul. There were many options for an ashram site, but ultimately, I decided on Bengal. We must honour the source where the Baul tradition was born and grew.
The ashram is my child, and it requires my constant attention. So my entire mode of existence has changed. This means basically spending six months at the ashram, and six months out. Earlier, because I used to travel on invitation, I had to be ready to travel at any given time, whether for a music festival in March, or something else in July, or whenever else. Some of these were longer tours, and sometimes I would be back in a week.
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That is something I can no longer do. Now I decide in advance the months that I will travel and perform, and if any festivals were to coincide with my travels, I play them. My travels are now organised by me or by people who have been associated with me for many years, including my many students around the world.
This helps my work, since the focus of this new way of travelling is very clear: Baul music and philosophy is front and centre.In a festival there are many other kinds of art forms that are competing for attention, and as a performer, you are just one of many. Festivals are important platforms, and you reach a diverse number of people this way, but the attention to Baul is often lost.
But the current way of touring is entirely Baul-oriented. Only those people come who are interested in Baul, who want to learn the music and the philosophical tradition. Most of the people who come to my annual Baul retreats in Bengal come after being exposed to such focused performances. These days I only play festivals where I find that thematic match.
After all these years playing and performing abroad, what are some of the things you've learnt?
There’s no end to the things I’ve learnt. I have changed as person. The sum of my learnings are these: first thing was to learn to love my country, the greatness of the Baul tradition. The other big thing I’ve learnt is that people are the same everywhere, nobody is different, everyone is equal.Superficially, the cultural expressions may be different, but the inner life is the same for everyone.
I have also learnt to be fearless, and any discriminating thoughts about dualities: good, bad, pure and impure have slipped off my personality. I see the world differently now. I’ve loved learning about and interacting with all the different cultures, languages, just the diverse ways people express themselves.
But I must say that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learnt to recognize things, even racism. The latter from the way that payment for a brown artist from India is less than payment for anyone from European countries or from the US. When I asked organisers why am I being paid less, they would say “because expenses are less in your country".
Give me one favourite memory from your travels.
When I was in Germany earlier this year, we were travelling in a big group that included my students, not to mention a lot of luggage. At first, we had thought that we would take trains everywhere, but then I decided to rent a large van in which everyone could travel together.
So, we tried booking that, but the rental people could only provide a few smaller cars. When my students went to make the booking, they found that the agency had made a mistake and we were one car short. Germans are extremely professional, so the man at the rental agency was very apologetic. To make up for their mistake, they offered a van that was larger than what I had budgeted for, and they made it available at the rental rate of the smaller cars!
So, we ended up getting this very spacious, luxurious van, and we toured all of Germany in that van, singing throughout. That was a lot of fun, and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We travelled together, stayed together, cooked together. This is the travelling life that I want!
Like a travelling caravan.
Exactly! Go wherever you want, stop whenever you want.
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