দেহজ জ্ঞানতত্ত্ব ও প্রতিবাদী আধ্যাত্মিকতা : বাংলায় লোকায়ত প্রতিসংলাপ হিসেবে বাউল গান এবং ‘মনের মানুষ’-এর অস্তিত-তত্ত্ব/ Epistemologies of the Body and Dissenting Spirituality : Baul Songs as Lokayata Counter-Discourse and the Ontology of the ‘Moner Manu

Abstract

This paper presents a critical analysis of the philosophical, cultural, and historical underpinnings of Baul songs as a unique folk tradition of Bengal. It approaches Baul music not only as a musical tradition but as a medium of expression of a particular religious-philosophical group whose weltanschauung is based on the experience of the body, love, and reality. The core of this analysis is the Baul idea of the ‘Moner Manush’ (the ‘Man of the Heart’), which represents the realization of the immanent deity through the disciplined development of the human body and not through temple-based religiosity or scriptural traditions. This analysis locates the Baul philosophy within the larger paradigm of lokayata (folk or worldly) culture and philosophy, tracing its affinities with the Charvaka school of thought in its rejection of scriptural authority, the caste system, and metaphysical thinking. At the same time, it emphasizes a significant difference between the two: whereas the philosophy of Charvaka is largely restricted to materialism, the philosophy of the Bauls translates the primacy of the body into a mystical and internal spiritual inquiry.

The article also delves deeper into the syncretic basis of Baul philosophy, exemplifying how Buddhist Sahajayana, Nath yogic techniques, Vaishnava devotion, Tantric symbolism, and Sufi mysticism are integrated in Baul songs. Using metaphorical expressions such as boats, birds, houses, and mirrors, Baul songwriters express their esoteric knowledge while avoiding dogmatic formalism. Based on literary, philosophical, and folkloristic traditions, the article argues that Baul songs represent a ‘living continuum’ of the humanistic spiritual traditions of India. Finally, it locates Baul music in the realm of ‘folk mysticism’ that integrates the body and the transcendent, thus providing a profoundly inclusive and humanistic alternative to institutionalized religion in the cultural history of Bengal.