Folklore, Religion and the Songs of a Bengali Madman: A Journey Between Performance and the Politics of Cultural Representation (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9789004324701)

This book explores historical and cultural aspects of modern and contemporary Bengal through the performance-centred study of a particular repertoire: the songs of the saint-composer Bhaba Pagla (1902-1984), who is particularly revered among Baul and Fakir singers. The author shows how songs, if examined as 'sacred scriptures', represent multi-dimensional texts for the study of South Asian religions. Revealing how previous studies about Bauls mirror the history of folkloristics in Bengal, this book presents sacred songs as a precious symbolic capital for a marginalized community of dislocated and unorthodox Hindus, who consider the practice of singing in itself an integral part of the path towards self-realization.

Author: Carola Lorea
ISBN-10: 9004324704
ISBN-13: 9789004324701
Publisher: Brill
Language: English
Published: 08/11/2016
Pages: 334
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.35lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.20w x 0.90d