Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

List of Figures

Note on Transliteration

Note on Translation

Introduction

1 Why Songs, and Why Bhaba Pagla’s Songs?

2 How to Study Bhaba Pagla’s Lyrics?

3 Filling the Gaps

4 Limits, Obstacles and Strategies to Overcome Them

5 Researching Sources

6 Structure of the Book

Chapter 1 Context: Bauls, Baul Literature and the Absence of Bhaba Pagla

1 Digesting a Critical Debate: Bauls’ State of Art

2 Representing Bhaba Pagla in Academic and Popular Literature

3 Escaping Classifications, Disappointing “The Communists”: Perspectives on Bhaba Pagla’s Absence from the Literature on Bauls

4 Lack of Individuals, Focus on Traditions

5 The “Archeology of Knowledge” on Bengali Oral Traditions – A New Perspective for the Development of the Field

Chapter 2 Composition: The Songs of a Migrant Avadhūta

1 The Composer: From Bhabendramohan to Bhaba “the Mad”

2 The Compositions: A Return Trip from the Voice to the Ink

Chapter 3 Performance: Music for Money, Songs for Salvation

1 A Multitude of Performative Contexts

2 The Performers: Footprints of Dust in the Limelight

3 Enactment of the Performance: Sound, Text and the Sādhanā of Singing

Chapter 4 Transmission, Tradition and Technology: Training and Learning in the Bhaba Pagla Community

1 Transmission and Its Media

2 Technologizing of the Wor(l)d: The Impact of Audio-Video Reproduction Technologies on the Guru-Disciple Line of Transmission

Conclusions

Appendix: A Selection of Songs of Bhaba Pagla in English Translation

References

A Bibliography

B Catalog of Field-Work Recordings

C Discography

D Filmography

E Annotated Webliography

Index of Names

General Index