Fokir Lalon Shah - Lord Of Folk Song

Fokir Lalon Shah

Fakir Lalon Shah also known as Lalon Shah (c.1774–1890), was a Bengali philosopher poet. He lived in the village of Cheuria in the area known as Nodia in the Bengal Presidency of British India, corresponding to the district of Kushtia in present-day Bangladesh. Lalon composed numerous songs and poems which describe his philosophy.

Among his most popular songs are khachar bhitor auchin pakhi, jat gelo jat gelo bole, dekhna mon jhokmariay duniyadari, paare loye jao amay, milon hobe koto dine, aar amare marishne maa, tin pagoler holo  mela, etc.

Lalon Shah Fakir was a Baul guru , and singer and composer of Baul songs .According to tradition, he was born into a Kayastha family in the village of Bhandara in Kushtia .As a young boy, Lalon caught smallpox and was abandoned in a critical condition by his parents . Siraj Sain , a Muslim faqir , picked up the child and nursed him back to health . Lalon was later inducted as baul faqir . He set up his akhda at Chheuriya , where he lived with his wife and a few disciples .

As a humanist who completely rejected all distinction of caste and creed .He was also a fine poet and lyricist , whose songs are sung not only by his followers but also by non-Bauls .In 1963, a mausoleum and research centre were built at the site of his akhda. Thousands of Bauls come to the akhda twice a year, on Dol-purnima in the month of Falgun(February-March) and in October, on the occasion of his death anniversary .During these three-day song melas, Bauls pay rich tributes to their spiritual; leader.

Lalon Shaha left no written copies of his songs, which were transmitted orally and only transcribed later by his followers .Kangal Harinath Majumdar (1833-1896) was his direct disciple. Rabindrnath Thakur was also inspired by his songs and published some of them in the monthly Probashi magazine of Kolkata . Lalon died at Chheuriya at the age of 116 on 17th October 1890.

Lalon lived in the village of Cheuriya which now falls in Kushtiya district in Bangladesh; but like Rabindranath Tagore, he is one of the few people whom a mere political boundary cannot take away from his lovers and admirers in “Indian” Bengal . Lalon was neither a follower of Islam nor Hinduism. What he truly followed was a mixture of the postulates and philosophies from both these religions and very truly. “He was none of these so he was both”. In the long course of his life he attracted a large number of followers, both Hindus as well as Muslims, mainly from the then demarcated lower strata of the society through his songs of universal equality and Dehatatwa.

Lalon always kept silent about his origin so that he does not get typecast into any particular religious group. He was observant of the social conditions around, and this reflects through his songs which spoke of day to day problems, in his simple yet deeply moving language. It is said that he had composed about 10,000 songs of which 2000-3000 can be tracked down today while others are lost in time and hearts of his numerous followers. Most of his followers could not read or write and so unluckily for the lovers of Baul, very few of his songs are found in written form. Lalon had no formal education as such but his songs can educate the most educated of minds throughout the world. Long before free thinkers around the globe started thinking of a classless society, Lalon had already composed around 1000 songs on that theme.

Many a times Lalon, through his songs, has hinted various organs of the human body, metaphorically and in a very mystic and extremely subtle ways. The basic senses are termed as “6 thieves”, and the Snai as “The Man of Heart”. Even in the first of the translated songs (below), one can see the allegorical references of a house with eight rooms and nine doors which is nothing but the human body itself with various major organs and senses being compared to the doors and rooms. In the second translated piece below you can see the human body compared to a house where one can easily find the neighbor Shnai very near to his house, but Lalon is sadly lamenting that still now they have not meet.

A Strange Bird

Look, how a strange bird flits in and out of the cage! O brother, I wish I could bind it with my mind’s fetters. Have you seen a house of eight rooms with nine doors Closed and open, with windows in between, mirrored? O mind, you are a bird encaged! And of green sticks Is your cage made, but it will be broken one day. Lalon says: Open the cage, look how the bird wings away!

(Translated by Azfar Hussain)

The land of mirrors

A neighbor is always staying there.

But alas! Not even for one day could I see him.

There is one land of mirror very near to my house...

Perhaps the greatest influence that Lalon has had was on India’s greatest literary and renaissance figure and poet, Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore visitedKushtiya in 1892 just two years after Lalon’s death and for the first time in his life experienced folk culture as a representation of society. In fact, Tagore managed to write and compose nearly 150 songs, influenced from those of Lalon, at his akhra (residing place) Cheuriya, from which only a few songs were published in the monthly Probashi as 'Haramoni' in 1920. Tagore said that here, in these songs, “Hindus and Muslims have been united under the same sky - there is no barrier of caste or creed...”

Tagore wrote that it is a fact that he infused the tune of Baul (Lalan) in many of his songs and dramas. Dusan Zbavitel, a Czeck Folklorist wrote that 'it is my firm belief that if Tagore had not stayed in the countryside (Selaidah in Kushtiya), he would not have become, what he was, as a man or a poet. Now the scholars are discovering the Baul-motifs in his songs, dramas and poems, which merit elaborate discussions (Folklore, II, Calcutta, vol. 14, 1961).

American humanitarian and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg was influenced by Lalon’s doctrines and wrote a poem named “After Lalon”. Allen even followed Lalon’s writing style by including the poet’s name in his workings – which was essentially a form of Lalonesque so to speak.

Farida Parveen from Bangladesh, folk bands like Dohar and Bangla, and quite a few Bengali singers from India are doing noteworthy works now in recording different Lalon songs and bringing them to everyone’s ears. If one remembers Lennon pieces like “Imagine” or “Give peace another chance”, which also speak of classless society, he can easily appreciate how much ahead of his time Lalon was.

At the site of his shrine (Bengali: Akhara) in Bangladesh, a mausoleum and an academy of study on his work have been built. Thousands of his admirers visit twice a year – once during Holi and a second time on his death anniversary during October. There is a song festival (Mela) held on October’s occasion which goes on for 3 days during which Bauls, Fakirs, people from rural and urban places all pay tributes to this great mind of Bengal.

The great Lalon was not famous in life time. But his baul philosophy was introduced by Rabindranath and contemporary scholars. He was the greatest mystic-singer of the subcontinent. Lalon believed, the ‘body’ is the universe and the universe is the body. He was revolutionary, challenged to contemporary life style, religions and practices with simple word of songs.

In Kushtia at the Lalon shrine every year held “Lalon Festival” the biggest gathering of Bauls and Bauls’ performance. Nowadays in Bangladesh modern signers also following the folk approach and word of Lalon songs. Bengali Folk music is incomplete without Lalon and so is the Bengali renaissance which started with him, as a movement to abolish the darker aspects of our society, including doing away with demarcation with respect to religion or caste. Long before any of the eminent social personalities started to speak on these, Lalon sang about them in powerful yet simple verses. Tagore was deeply indebted to him for opening his horizons to rural and real Bengal. So, one can very well understand, the great difficulty of penning down Lalon’s enormous contribution in one sentence. All Bangladeshi appreciate very much Lalon song, particularly for its deep spiritual meanings and inspiration.