Bhabendra
Mohan Chowdhury better known as "Bhabapagla"
(1902-1984) was a writer/mystic poet, philosopher, artist, musician and singer.
According to his family sources,
out of an oeuvre of 87,000 songs written by him, only ten
thousand(10000) verses/songs approximately are extant, which
itself is to the best of my knowledge, the highest output, as
compared to, for instance Mira Bai(5000), Tagore (2800),and Nazrul
Islam(3,200) approx.
A figure like him has a special relevance in the current times
when religion is used more to divide than unite. It needs to be
pointed out that quite a few of his disciples were/are Muslim. This
fact sends out a message of spiritual and aesthetic kinship which
transcends communal borders.
The one section of the artistic community that has however,been
singing his songs for a long time has been the 'bauls' of Bengal.
But Bhabapagla's songs have till now been current only in that
sphere. In the last few years singers of national repute - such as
Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, Haimanti Shukla, Ramkumar Chattopadhyay,
Nirmala Mishra, Purnadas Baul, Amar Pal - have recorded
Bhabapagla's songs and that has garnered some level of public
interest. His songs have been sung at concerts by bhajan exponents
like Anup Jalota and Pandit Arun Bhaduri.
In Paris, a Govt. affiliated Research Group has published a
long-playing record of some of Bhabapagla's songs performed by
bauls.This record is current in his Kalna house (Bhabar Bhabani
Mandir). Here it perhaps can be mentioned that recordings exist of
his own voice and his extraordinary harmonium-playing.These
recording however, are becoming diffcult to preserve.
Recent serious academic interest in Bhabapagla has led to an
M.Phil dissertation and a Doctoral thesis (Ph.d) from Dhaka
University (by Gopika Ranjan Chakraborty) and University of
Calcutta(by Dr. Radha Seal) respectively. Songs of Bhabapagla are
taught at the M.A level at the Depts.of Folklore and Bangla in the
University of Kalyani, WB.
The Bengali Academy of Dhaka has published a book entitled
BHABAPAGLAR JIBAN O GAAN(The life & songs of Bhabapagla).
In addition to his songs, there exist a number of his needlepoint
and sketches which show considerable skill. However due to lack of
public awareness and funds, preservation of Bhabapagla's work and
legacy is providing to be difficult.While , at the time of his
death he had thousands of devotees/discples. He was always averse
to publicity and fame.
It would therefore be a great service to our troubled and ruptured
society and nation if attention is focused on one like Bhabapagla,
so that his songs can not only heal the ravaged soul of this
nation but also add to our cultural and creative heritage.
One hopes that sensible people like you, will take some interest
on Bhabapagla's work to help explore this unknown
"Treasure" of literature and thereby add Bhabapagla's
name to the list of those who have, down the ages, contributed to
the spiritual/artistic richness of our nation.
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