Bauls are a group of semi-wandering mendicant and minstrels who are part of the longer tradition of syncretistic religious folk sects of Bengal. However, the most well-known of them are the Bauls, who belong to the Kushtia /Nadya area of Bengal, and the most famous member of the sect is Fakir Lalon Shah (1772 – 1890), though no accuracy is claimed.
Like all folk religious sects, their belief and philosophical structure are informal. It is a blend of traditional social practices in all aspects, encompassing a diverse mix of faiths as interpreted by rural people, plus social inclusion and humanism, the use of meditation to connect with the Divine and a focus on spirituality, among other aspects.
Such ideas and practices are not innovations of any particular era or sect, but rather are linked to the social history of rural Bengal, which dates back centuries. Rural people absorb formal ideas of religion through various filters of their own, including their own coping mechanisms for facing life’s challenges. They resist injustice socio-economically, face exclusion and oppression, but also seek harmony and peace. In this process, they evolve their traditions, whether social or religious, to manage their own lives.
Bauls express their beliefs and ideology through songs and music, which is key to them. This communication method makes their ideas accessible to all. The ideas are simple and based on a peasant understanding of “mysticism, spirituality, and universal humanity,” as their oral liturgy suggests. These aspirations are also universal, making such sects socially acceptable to almost all despite their esoteric practices in many cases.
Their musical tradition is just as important as a vehicle for transmitting their beliefs. Over time, these songs have transcended rural borders and become part of the urban middle-class cultural landscape. Although they thrive as music rather than philosophy, these songs convey a message of humanity and spirituality in a broad sense. Thus, Baul songs have created a cultural identity that has significantly contributed to their status as the most representative branch of rural-based folk religious sects in Bengal.
Informal Rural Religious Culture and Bauls
Bengal’s rural society culture is syncretistic as its formation is informal. They have absorbed several central and state-based cultures but blended them with their experiential views of life and attitudes to produce a variation that is essentially their own. Interestingly, that variation has become a tradition in its own right.
Syncretistic folk sects were prevalent, and such ideas remain popular to this day. The rural population can easily relate to such a fluid belief structure in general. As a mostly non-literate people, let alone proficient in the foreign languages of formal religions, such as Sanskrit or Arabic, rural people adopted many of their ideas without reference to any formal religious texts. This gave them a theological “space” of sorts to interpret formal religious ideas as it suited their life.
Their cultural products were either oral or practised, as expected, not textual. Hence, the rise of such folk sects, based on oral communication and incorporating music, was inevitable.
Historically, Bengal was far from the Aryan centers of North India, so the influence of pre-organised religious and cultural structures, such as animism and shamanism, was established before the introduction of any book-based formal religions. Although Hinduism entered the region from the 2nd or 3rd century onwards, its impact was limited. The North Indian ruling classes were also not keen on conversion; therefore, the local people mixed ancient and new traditions to develop a syncretistic belief structure from an early stage.
The case with Islam was the same from the 14th century onwards, and Muslim conversion was also self-motivated, not forced. A spike is seen only in the 17th century, when large-scale agricultural growth occurred, contributing to some reduction in rural poverty and motivating people to add more content to the mix as they felt more comfortable with it, led by the “Charismatics” under the Mughal rule (Pillai, 2025). Thus, with each era, various fresh ideas, both local and external, were added to the core religious construction based on their interpretations, experiences, and convenience.
When the Muslim Turko-Afghans held state power, Hindu clergy structures faced challenges to their influence in rural areas, according to some scholars, as state power was predominantly held by the Turko-Afghan Muslims. One result of this effort to sustain influence was the focus on the caste system and exclusive faith identity behaviour patterns. This even victimised Lalon, who was cast out from the community for having eaten at a Muslim’s house.
Incidentally, this trauma of being excluded contributed to the development of his idea of “universal humanity” and rejection of the Hindu caste structure. While Muslim society did not have a caste system, their class and social segregation was high, causing significant suffering too.
What Does the Term Baul Mean?
There are several explanations about the source of the word. The more established view is that it is probably derived from the Sanskrit words vātula, meaning “mad, crazy,” or vyākula, meaning “impatiently eager, upset.”
However, it is also said that the Bauls were related to the Sufi branch of “ba’al,” and some claim that the word “Baul” is derived from the Persian word “Aul,” which is found in both Sufi sects. Thus, the origin remains an unresolved issue, although it is clear that they all refer to mystic sects or experiences as the key denoting factor of the sect.
Muchkund Dubey states that the word “Baul” originates from the “Bawara” or “Baula” words used in North India to describe individuals who are considered “crazy” or “possessed”. It is possible that the Baul movement originated many hundreds of years ago, but it was not documented in history books until Aksay Kumar Datta released “Bharat Barsiya Upasak Sampraday” in 1870.
No matter what the source of the term “Baul”, the sect’s beliefs and lifestyle all point to a unorthodox lifestyle, rejecting conventional family and social life, and adopting “spiritual love practices”, meditation, and the rejection of materialism for a total search of the Divine within the inner body and soul.
A Hazy History of Origin
15th-century Bengali texts refer to Bauls, as seen in the Chaitanya Bhagavata of Vrindavana Dasa Thakura and the Chaitanya Charitamrita of Krishnadasa Kaviraja. It means that such sects probably arose as a sub-stream within mainstream Hinduism in reaction to social trauma or other causes. However, none refer to a specific sect but a general approach to religion and related ideas. It is also a fact that wandering mendicants were not unknown in Hinduism, in which many “sadhus’ left their home to wander around searching for the “eternal truth”.
Some scholars argue that the syncretistic nature of its philosophical roots has existed in Bengal for a long time, including in “Nathism,” a religious stream that combines ideas from Brahminism, Buddhist Shaivaism, Tantric practices, Shaivaism, Vaishnav traditions, and later Sufi Islam. In other words, Baulism developed over time through a gradual process, accumulating various social ideas and beliefs along the way, and did not suddenly emerge. Others have also pointed out its proximity to Gaudia Vaishnavism, a variant of the North Indian stream as it developed in Bengal, serving as a significant source.
A few scholars have also suggested that after the death of the 15th-century religious reformer Sri Chitannya, his followers worked actively to popularise it, and 1625 AD is the year when it emerged as a separate but minor religion. While some also mention specific names, such as Madhabbibi and Awulchand, Birchandra, or Birvadra, most scholars believe that no individual or group created the Bauls; instead, they emerged through a historical process.
Like all informal socio-religious movements, Baulism remains fluid in terms of the entry and exit of ideas and beliefs.
Bauls and Internal Dynamics
Bauls from a sort of movement that can be clustered into sub-groups, with various gurus leading a faction, and all of them together make up a cult. Other groups, factions have also been in touch with the Bauls, such as “Darbesi, Nera and Kartabhaja sects.
While some writers suggest that the Bauls are reluctant to leave behind written records due to spiritual reasons, it is also true that non-literate rural societies often keep oral records rather than formal written documents on all matters. Baulism is an oral culture, and even its music is passed down through generations and disciples. It is only towards the end of the 19th century that Baul songs began to be recorded by being written down.
Most Bauls do not have conventional households or family life, and they do not engage in economic activities; instead, they rely on alms for their survival. They also find patrons as Lalon’s Kushtia group found in the Tagore family. Many also gather around shrines where alms-giving is considered part of the local religious culture, to live off the offerings.
Some Bauls are, of course, reported to be of the weekend variety and have families to fall back upon, but in any impoverished society, this cannot be very widespread. The ritual for induction into the sect involves reciting mystic verses and observing certain rituals.
While there are no prescribed dress codes, Bangladeshi Baul males often wear white lungis and long white tunics considered “pure” in rural Islam, and women wear white saris. They carry shoulder bags for alms collection. Bauls in West Bengal typically wear an orange dress, similar to the attire of the saffron-clad Hindu sadhus. Mainstream faiths significantly influence them in the area where they live.
Some women serve the Baul males – “sevadasis “(service enslaved people), which goes back to the temple sevadasi culture as well. It may include sexual services too. However, unlike mainstream Bengali society, sexuality related practices are not a taboo subject amongst them, including their belief that it is a form of “sadhona” –meditation- that leads the way to the Divine.
Vaishnavism, Sufism, and Other Variants
Both Sufism and Vaishnavism are mentioned about the Bauls, but the extent to which these linkages are structured is not very clear. Any formal religious ideas found it challenging to gain a foothold, especially among literates, which rural, impoverished Bengal lacked. Hence, these folk sects, more informal than mainstream Hinduism and Islam, were more popular in rural zones as no formal structure was needed to be close to them without giving up their formal religious identity, as the message of love and humanity appealed to all.
Although Bauls comprise only a small portion of the Bengali population, they have a significant impact on Bengali culture. That same year, UNESCO added the “Baul tradition of Bangladesh” to its list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity (Ghatack, 2025).
The Baul tradition is now more cultural and musical, but its music, lyrics, and simple notions of mysticism and spirituality, centered on the concept of universal love and humanity, are still very popular.