Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c14.s2: (iv) Poet Tagore and the Bāul songs
Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c14.s2
- Language
- English
(iv) Poet Tagore and the Bāul songs
c14.s2.1
The Bāul songs, with the ingrained spirit of freedom, the mystic conception of divinity and love and also with the charm of their tune, leading the mind to supreme renunciation and indifference, had strong influence in the evolution of the poetico-religious mind of poet Tagore. Tagore says in *The Religion of Man* that in his youth he could not harmonise his inner spiritual demands with his relationship with the monotheistic church with which he was closely associated. After a long struggle with the feeling that he was ‘using a mask to hide the living face of truth,’ he severed his connection with the church. “About this time,” says the poet, “one day I chanced to hear a song from a beggar belonging to the Bāul sect of Bengal. ....What struck me in this simple song was a religious expression that was neither grossly concrete, full of crude details, nor metaphysical in its rarefied transcendentalism. At the same time it was alive with an emotional sincerity. It spoke of an intense yearning of the heart for the divine which is in Man and not in the temple, or scriptures, in images and symbols. The worshipper addresses his songs to Man the ideal……”¹
c14.s2.2
¹ Cf. also *Dabistān*, Vol. I, Preliminary Discourses, p. clxvi.
c14.s2.3
¹ *The Religion of Man*, Ch. VII, *The Man of My Heart*, p, 110.
c14.s2.4
And in the whole creation there is none save me that speaks or sees or hears.
*The Idea of Personality in Sufi-ism* by Nicholson, p. 21.
c14.s2.5
Again he says,—"Since then I have often tried to meet these people, and sought to understand them through their songs, which are their only form of worship. One is often surprised to find in many of these verses a striking originality of sentiment and diction; for, at their best, they are spontaneously individual in their expressions."¹
c14.s2.6
¹ The Religion of Man, p, 111.
c14.s2.7
In another place the poet says,—"Those, who have gone through my writings, know that I have expressed my love towards the Bāul songs in many of my writings. When I was in Śilāidaha I would frequently meet these Bāuls and I had occasion to have discourses with them. I have fitted the tune of the Bāuls to many of my songs, and in many other songs the tune of the Bāuls has consciously or unconsciously been mixed up with other musical modes and modifications. It will be easily understood from the above that the tune as well as the message of the Bāuls had at one time absorbed my mind as if they were its very element."²
c14.s2.8
² Foreword to Hārāmaṇi by Tagore.
c14.s2.9
The conception of the 'Man of the heart', as confessed by Tagore himself, deeply stirred his poetic mind even in his youth. Tagore, with the Upaniṣadic background of his mind prepared in his early days by his father as well as by the whole environment of his life, naturally tried to assimilate the message of the Bāuls with the Upaniṣadic doctrines.
c14.s2.10
We have indicated in the introduction that through all his songs and poems Tagore sings of an Infinite Being, Who is seeking His self-expression through the whole creative process for self-realisation,—and the best expression of the Divine personality is through the human personality, and throughout the life-process of man there is going on this continual process of love-making between the human and the Divine. This human personality and the Divine personality, both of which remain combined in the nature of man, are the ‘I’ and the ‘You’, the ‘Lover’ and the ‘Beloved’ so much spoken of by poet Tagore in his songs and poems. In singing of this ‘I’ and the ‘You’ in man, between man and the ‘Man of the heart’, Tagore has been the greatest of the Bāuls of Bengal.
c14.s2.11
The *fraternities* of the Middle Ages, which were so numerous and so varied in their objects, were not all of the same origin. Some were religious, some social, some charitable, and some industrial. The religious guilds, or *gilds*, as they were often called, were associations of laymen for the purpose of performing religious duties, such as the maintenance of a chaplain, the celebration of masses, or the support of a hospital. The social guilds were formed for the purpose of mutual aid and good fellowship, and often included in their objects the relief of the poor, the sick, and the aged. The charitable guilds were established for the purpose of supporting hospitals, almshouses, and other institutions of mercy. The industrial guilds, or *craft guilds*, were associations of men engaged in the same trade or industry, and were formed for the purpose of regulating the trade, protecting the interests of the members, and maintaining the quality of their work.
c14.s2.12
The craft guilds, which became so powerful in the later Middle Ages, were the successors of the earlier *collegia* of the Roman Empire. The *collegia* were associations of artisans and tradesmen, which were recognized by the state and had a legal existence. When the Roman Empire fell, these associations were largely destroyed, but the idea of association for mutual protection and the regulation of trade survived. In the early Middle Ages, the *gilds* began to reappear, and by the twelfth century they were firmly established in many of the cities of Europe.
c14.s2.13
The craft guilds were organized on a democratic basis, and every member had a voice in the management of the guild's affairs. The officers were elected by the members, and the rules and regulations were made by the guild as a whole. The guilds had the power to fix prices, to regulate the hours of labor, and to determine the conditions of apprenticeship. They also had the power to punish members who violated the rules, and to expel those who were guilty of serious offenses. The guilds were thus a powerful force in the economic life of the Middle Ages, and they played an important part in the development of the modern industrial system.
c14.s2.14
The decline of the craft guilds began in the sixteenth century, when the rise of the factory system and the growth of international trade made it difficult for the small, local guilds to compete with the larger and more efficient industrial organizations. The guilds were also weakened by the growth of the power of the state, which began to regulate trade and industry directly, and by the rise of the capitalist class, which sought to break the power of the guilds and to establish a system of free competition. By the end of the eighteenth century, the craft guilds had largely disappeared, but their influence lived on in the trade unions and other labor organizations of the modern world.