著者

村瀬 智 Satoru Murase

出版者

国立民族学博物館

雑誌

国立民族学博物館研究報告 = Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology (ISSN:0385180X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.20, no.4, pp.719-751, 1996-03-29

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This paper is an ethnographic study of the Bauls of Bengal, aspecific group of people who are mendicant religous musicians. Thispaper discusses religious beliefs and practices of the Bauls.Since Rabindranath Tagore drew the attention of the public to therichness of the Baul songs and their religion, quite a number of peoplehave collected Baul songs, and written about the Bauls. However, mostprevious writers have been scholars of Bengali literature, religioushistory, religious studies, and musicology. As a result, they haveprimarily dealt with Baul songs, Baul religion, or Baul music. Althoughthey have contributed much to our understanding of the Bauls, there is,unfortunately, virtually no anthropological or ethnographic literaturethat attemps a scholarly presentation of the Bauls as people. The basicobjective of this study is to meet this scholarly need.It is true that various traditions such as Vaishnava Hinduism, Tantrismand Islamic Sufism flowed into the religious beliefs and practices ofthe Bauls. However, an idea which is common to all Bauls is that thehuman body is the container of truth. And, in spite of theheterogeneous traditions incorporated in them, the Bauls are concernedprimarily with "sadhana" (spiritual endeavor) , and not with any systemof abstract speculation. The Baul religious beliefs and practices concerningthe Baul sadhana, which involves ritual sexual intercourse and someother practices, are expressed in their songs. However, they use thewords in the songs in an ambiguous way, so that ordinary people mayunderstand the apparent meaning, while the real meaning is kept secret.The matter of the sadhana has been exclusively transmitted from guru todisciple and discussed only among the people inside the community.It should be mentioned in this connection that I have taken initiationand received a series of instructions from two gurus. As I usuallydid during my field research, I told them honestly that I would like towrite something about Baul religious practices in my paper. However,they have somewhat different opinions concerning the secrecy of the Baulsadhana. One told me, "The matter of the sadhana is transmitted onlyfrom guru to disciple and should be kept secret." Another said, "TheBaul religion is the religion of man (manuser dharma) so that everybodyhas the right to know it, if he/she is interested in it." The latter furthertold me, "You may try to write everything, but you won't be able to doso. As the taste of the ripe mango is too sweet for words, so you cannotexplain your experience to one who has not experienced it. But some ofyour readers may have interest in the matter and will come to you. Inthat case, teach them whatever they want. If you have difficulties in doingso, send them to me." The solution which I have found is a combinationof all. I should exercise moderation in writing about the matterin my paper. At the same time, if I consider that I may write something,I should deal with it in a straightforward manner. Then, if anybodycomes and asks me seriously, I may convey directly what I have learned.