Arman has rendered his voice in albums like ‘Gorbhangar Gaan’, ‘Lokjan’ and ‘Nadia’. Arman Fakir leads a Bangla Qawwali team and has performed in India and abroad. He has trained the actors of the film Moner Manush on Lalan Fakir by Gautam Ghosh.
Arman, Guru of Fakiri music, also trains the youth of Gorbhanga in his Ashram, a repository of folk culture. Alongside singing, Armaan is also well known for his philosophical verses. He has immensely contributed to the publication of the book ‘Sahaj Geeti’ a collection of 740 Baul / Fakiri songs. He has a huge collection of songs of various lyricists. His father Shamsuddin Khan, better known as Shamu Pagal, was his first Guru. Earlier he used to sing the songs of Lalon Fakir. He is practicing Bangla Qawwali since 1995. Santiniketan, famous for Visva Bharati Ashrama established by Rabindranath Tagore and a popular tourist destination plays a role in popularizing the traditional music to the urban audience.Īrmaan Fakir was initiated into Marfati music by his Guru Gani Fakir of Bangladesh in Kadria Tarika, a form of Fakiri music introduced by Abdul Kader Jilani. The Baul artists of Birbhum take more popular approach to attract the audience. He had a deep interest in this traditional music form and use the melody of Baul songs in the songs composed by him. The tradition of Baul music spread in Birbhum district with the influence of poet Rabindranath Tagore. The Bauls in Nadia are known for singing Mahajani Pada written by the Baul Gurus. However, there is no monetary transaction in skill transmission. Many times it is seen that singers from one district travel to different Akhras in other districts and stay there for days to learn. The actual skill transmission, although informally, take place in these Akhras. There is a living art museum in the Fakirs' village at Gorbhanga in Nadia. These Akhras are the seat of practice, where junior singers and musicians from the local areas come to learn from their gurus or masters by playing and singing with them regularly. Bauls and Fakirs of Nadia are known for their Akhra-based practice. One can see the impact and influence of Sufism, Vaishnavism, Buddhism and Nath doctrines on the Baul-Fakir philosophy.īaul and Fakiri artists are largely found in Nadia, Birbhum, Bardhaman, Murshidabad and Birbhum districts of West Bengal.
Bauls are Hindus and Fakirs are Muslims and both the communities practise the same philosophy with little difference in nuances. The philosophy gets passed on from Guru to his disciples. The Bauls and Fakirs believe that ‘Murshid’ or the Guru is the steersman who can lead a devotee to God. Only then will you get Him, feel Him and be able to know your own self too.īaul is a philosophy and Baul is a music. Do not look for God anywhere, look for Him in the human body.
Living the life of an esoteric, denouncing the material world, they urge people to rise above the narrow divides created by caste, creed and religion to find love, peace and harmony. Then comes, Lalan Fakir, who used to live at Kushtia in Bangladesh and he may be called as the father of Baul music. Chaitanya started his music, called ‘Keertan’, reached out to the oppressed ones and mobilized people against the social divide (due to gender, region, class, caste) and the social evils like ‘Sati’ (Where the widow was forcefully burnt alive along with the dead husband). Chaitanyadev’s Bhakti Cult movement, which is seen as the first social reform movement in Bengal, may be the basis of evolution of Baul music. In this recording we find him interpreting a bicchedi song by Durbin Shah at a sadhushongo held in Jhaudiya, Jalangi in memory of Salimuddi Fakir, one of Golam`s early mentors.Baul music is the soul of Bengal and is essentially the music of self searching. As one of the first Indian initiates into the tariqa and also influenced by other prominent contemporaries of Rashid like Mamtaz and Matal Rajjak, Golam brought the musical tradition of his guru`s durbar into Nadia-Murshidabad (and later, Kolkata) and popularised Rashid`s style of bicchedi singing. He received his tutelage in the Boirabori tariqa under his guru - the great Boyati singer and writer, the late Rashid Sarkar of Manikganj, Bangladesh. Wild-haired possessor of a powerful, bluesy voice, Golam Fakir of Jalangi is one of the most prominent fakiri singers of his generation.
Chhoto Golam Fakir :: Galo Bondhu Aar Ailona