Parvathy Baul: Meditation in Motion

At a recent concert in New Delhi, Parvathy Baul sang and danced with the minimal folk instruments -- ektara, duggi (a clay drum) and nupur (anklets). Though Bangladesh and West Bengal are well acquainted with Bauls like Parvathy, her performance in New Delhi left the audience somewhat mystified. While droves of people were seen leaving the auditorium, Parvathy managed to keep the rest in thrall despite the language barrier.
“Bauls do not perform so much as make a journey. I call it meditation in motion because while it looks like a lot of movement, the process of all the singing is to arrive at the point of stillness,” says the 34-year-old Parvathy.
On the heels of her Delhi performance, Parvathy was to wing her way for a concert in Singapore. As for the future, she plans to travel a little in the villages of Madhya Pradesh in central India to learn about the music traditions of the Naths (closely associated with Kabir, the ancient mystic poet-saint of India). Later she is to perform in Pondicherry in South India, before going on to distant Canada and Switzerland.
Parvathy -- singer, painter and storyteller -- calls herelf a wanderer on a never ending road. For her it has been a doubly pitted road because she is one of the few women to adopt the Baul way of life and style of singing. "I wanted to take the path of 'sadhana', the world of expression,” she explains.
Based in the Nedumangad village in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, South India, where she lives with her puppeteer husband, she spent her early years in West Bengal. Though Mousumi Parial, as she was then known could have lived a cushy existence, 12 years ago she decided to travel to meet masters of Bengali music traditions as part of her search for Baul songs and its practice. She had two main guides or what she calls 'vidya' (knowledge) gurus: Sanatan Das Bau from Bankura district in West Bengal and Shashanko Gosahi who left his earthly body at the age of 100.
The conversation switches to a comparison of the Baul songs in West Bengal and Bangladesh. While Baul music in West Bengal and Bangladesh has similarities, she says, there is a point of departure. A West Bengal Baul song, she points out, has a lot of 'prabhav' or influence of Bhairavi and the dance is much more active because the Bauls have a strong tradition of the devotional Padabali Kirtan. On the other hand, Baul songs in Bangladesh trace their origin to Bhatiali (boatman's songs), she says.
“Baul music requires a lot of hard work. Finally you arrive at a point when everything becomes simple and as natural as drinking water,” she concludes.