Beautiful songs, melodious beats and graceful movements were the hallmark of the Baul performance at the Seena Ba Seena (heart to heart), a festival of music held at the Sarkhej Roza on Saturday. The spiritual setting of the Roza proved to be the perfect background for the performance by Parvathy Baul complete with ektara (a musical instrument) in hand, duggu tied to her waist and the nupoor on her legs.
Parvathy's sharp voice coupled with the music and beat of duggu and graceful leg movements gave a holy touch to her performance. The festival, which is part of the Heritage Week, introduced the audience to Bauls' (singing), a group of mystic minstrels from Bengal. Bauls refer to a very heterogeneous group, with many different sub sects, but their membership mainly consists of Vaishnava Hindus and Sufi Muslims.
They can be identified by their distinctive clothes and musical instruments.
Bauls comprise only a small fraction of the Bengali population, but their influence on the culture of Bengal is considerable. In 2005, the Baul tradition was included in the list of "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by Unesco.
The audience also got to see performances like Gurbani and Rajasthani sufi songs.
Hundreds of music enthusiasts who visited the cultural and heritage festival to get a feel of sufism were enthralled by the performance.
Debmalya Nandan, a professional and Bengali who has made Ahmedabad his home visited Sarkhej Roza for the first time when he learnt that Baul music will be performed there."Passion and sincerity expressed through the renderings with the architectural splendour as the background seemed to take me to a spiritual world," said Debmalya.
After Baul performance, came the turn of Gurbani - a term used by Sikhs to refer to any composition of the Gurus. Bhai Baljeetsingh and group from Amritsar took listeners to another level of spiritual ecstasy when they began Gurbani with instruments like Tar Shahenai. Hayyat Khan Langa and troupe also added to the pious atmosphere when they performed Sufi Rajasthani Songs.
An announcement about the Ahmedabad International Arts Festival in November 2010 was made at the event.
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