During the time of Tagore however, bauls were not the popular folk cult it is today. Orthodox society had denounced the sect as god less outcasts. Free spirits in discarded patches. Worshipping divinity not in temples but in the body. Social decrees of caste and marriage thrown to the four winds. These put them firmly on the fringe of society for as long as one could remember. In fact, they invited the epithet Baul in all probability from the Sanskrit word Betul which means restlessness of the wind and craziness. They are often identified as Khepa or Khepi, meaning mad cap.

 It took the urban elite the romantic awakening of twentieth century to remember the village mad cap. The generation was then heady with western enlightenment and imported doctrines of freedom, equality and humanity. The maverick singer, home grown rebel, was a startling self-discovery. From Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam’s literature and music to Jamini Roy’s paintings, the best voices of the time took a cue from the baul’s humble impunity to break free. 

 Since then the baul has found an urban audience. But that is far from saying the sect is a thriving parallel to mainstream culture. Contemporary audience and world music on one hand, sound of the soil on the other. The heritage of non belonging at one end and the market identity of commercialization have placed baul music at the crossroads of time.