Table of Contents

Part 1: Multiple Sites Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: "Real Bauls Live under Trees:" Scholarly and Popular Imaginings of Bauls and the Marginalization of Baul Women Chapter 3: "I've Done Nothing Wrong:" Feminine Respectability and Baul Expectations Part 2: Negotiations Chapter 4: Negotiating between Paradigms of the Good Baul and the Good Woman Chapter 5: "Do Not Neglect This Golden Body of Yours:" Personal and Social Transformation through Baul Songs Chapter 6: Renouncing Expectations Concluding Thoughts Glossary Bibliography

About the Author

Assistant Professor of Religion and Asian Studies, Furman University

Reviews

The dominant tropes imagined for the Baul tradition of eastern India and Bangladesh are constructed around male models: the wandering mistrel carrying his ektara instrument who engages in esoteric ritual practices. Lisa Knight's sensitive ethnography, however, fills in the significant lacunae of the lives and practices of Baul women. She artfully analyzes the ways in which these women bridge the contradictory expectations of Baul traditions as 'wanderers' and those of the non-Baul communities as respectable, settled Bengali householders. This study will significantly impact the ways in which readers understand Baul traditions, asceticism, boundaries of religious identities, and women's agency and performance in South Asia.
*Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger, author of In Amma's Healing Room: Gender & Vernacular Islam in South India.*