Tradition · Baul fair · India
Poush Mela, Santiniketan
A fair begun in 1894 at Santiniketan to mark the anniversary of Debendranath Tagore's Brahmo initiation, and the reason the Baul singers of Birbhum have a national audience. Rabindranath drew on their songs directly — their melodies and their refusal of caste and temple run through his own — and the mela is where they are still heard in numbers, alongside the Kantha embroidery and the craft of the district. It is a religious anniversary that became the country's main hearing of a wandering tradition.
- Function
- Arts & performance
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 23.680, 87.683
Worth knowing
The fair was suspended for several years from 2020 in a dispute between the university and the state over who runs it, and Bauls held it outside the grounds instead — so the tradition outlasted its own venue.
Connections (2)
- Shrine within citySantiniketan
The Poush Mela is why the Bauls have a national audience. It was begun in 1894 to mark the anniversary of Debendranath Tagore's Brahmo initiation, and Santiniketan grew around the same ground; Rabindranath took the Bauls' melodies and their refusal of caste and temple directly into his own songs, and the mela is where they are still heard in numbers. A Brahmo religious anniversary became the principal hearing of a wandering, illiterate tradition.
- Site withinSantiniketan
The Poush Mela is held every December at Santiniketan — Rabindranath Tagore's university town in Birbhum district of West Bengal. Established by Debendranath Tagore in 1894 to mark the Brahmo Samaj's foundation day, it is the largest annual gathering of Bāul folk-singers in Bengal and the showcase for the Visva-Bharati student craft output.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Poush Mela”. Visva-Bharati University records; Jeanne Openshaw, Seeking Bauls of Bengal (2002).
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