This project is aimed to 1) digitise the personal note-books of important singers and songwriters of the Baul tradition of Bengal, and 2) locate other endangered notebooks of Baul gurus/performers to digitize in the future. These manuscripts contain spiritual songs of an indigenous religious tradition at the confluence of Hindu Vaishnava devotionalism, Sufism and Tantra. The songs are orally transmitted and performed by itinerant singers. Songs represent their main modality of acquiring and disseminating knowledge about the body, the self, and the cosmos. These compositions are considered as sacred knowledge but also valued as a distinctive patrimony of Bengali literature produced by often marginalized, low-caste composers. The Baul tradition is a spiritual and musical movement in the cultural-historical region of Bengal (encompassing today West Bengal in India and Bangladesh).

This project has achieved the preservation and digitization of thirteen handwritten notebooks of Baul songs, three albums of correspondence between guru and disciple, historical documents, and numerous photos of Baul performers and their families which have been found within the pages of their notebooks.

This collection provides important primary sources for the study of the Baul tradition of Bengal, showing how the songs are passed down across the generations and transmitted from older gurus to contemporary singers/practitioners.

Click here for project website and digital archive.