“This path of searching is itself the aim of the search and the answer to this search. ‘Music’ exists in all of creation, in life and death”, is what Parvathy Baul says when asked about what Music means to her…
Parvathy Baul is a Baul Folk Singer, Musician, Storyteller and one of the leading Baul musicians in India. Though she began her early learnings in Kathak and Hindustani classical music, she later found her way into Baul music upon encountering one incident which she says changed her life and outlook on Music.
When she was 16, she was on her way to enroll herself in the institute of Shanti Niketan.
“I was on a train to Shanti Niketan with my brother to register as a student. Somewhere in the middle of the journey, a Baul singer came into our compartment – he was blind, was clad in a long orange kurta that had faded with time and a white dhoti, and had an Ektara made of tin. His long fingers and long nails struck the string of Ektara, and the sound immediately told me something that I’d known for a long time, a sound that transported me to another reality. When he started singing, all the people and train compartment disappeared from my sight; though I couldn’t understand a word of the Bengali song, it left me with traces of something very deep, a path less travelled, and a world to discover”.
Upon then, she found her Guru Santan Das Baul and had been receiving lessons from him for almost 20 years. Now, She is one of the most renowned Baul artists in India and around the world. She has performed various worldwide concerts and performances that always go beyond singing songs. After learning from a traditional puppeteer Ravi Gopalan Nair, she went on to incorporate puppets in her live-art theatrical performances.
She has always stated that “Music and spiritual practice are inseparable. Indian yogis have always emphasized singing as a way to experience true surrender in divine love. In fact, by invoking the beauty and the thought of the beloved you invoke the beloved inside you”.
When I wanted to explore Baul Music, I had no idea what they do and the way they do it. I remember my phone beeping and a video was sent to me by a friend. It was a song performed by Parvathy Baul for a small group of friends that had gathered there. With the braided hair swirling across every now and then, I can still see the hand that was stringing the ektara and the feet that were dancing throughout the song with those anklet sounds echoing through the room.
The fact that we can still hear the liveliness of that Ektara every time it’s strung, it’s because of the voices that are spread throughout the air by souls like Parvathy Baul…