This song is a cry for madness. A call to take the plunge. And when Radha called out to “Kaala!”, her Dark Beloved, in a frenzy of intoxicated love on the last night of the Rajasthan Kabir Yatra, every fibre of Parvathy’s being seemed to personify her. A hush settled into the restive audience.

Parvathy tells us that this song is by an unknown fakir from Bangladesh, and describes the last few moments of Radha’s life, just before she walks into the dark waters of Yamuna river, mistaking it to be her Dark One, her beloved Krishna.

***
Find lyrics/translation of this song at
http://ajabshahar.com/songs/details/2...
Discover a universe of Bhakti, Sufi, Baul poetry and music at http://www.ajabshahar.org.
***

(Click on Settings for subtitles in English & Bengali transliteration. Click ‘B’ on keyboard to remove the black background in subtitles.)

Parvathy Baul is a Baul singer, practitioner, painter and storyteller from Bengal and has been a disciple of Shashanko Goshai and Sanatan Das Baul. She divides her time between her home in Trivandrum, Kerala and the Baul ashram she has built near Shantiniketan in Bengal. (https://parvathybaul.com/)

Parvathy electrified audiences at the Rajasthan Kabir Yatra, a travelling festival which toured 7 villages with 13 singers of Bhakti, Sufi and Baul poetry in Feb 2012. The Yatra was organized by Lokayan in Bikaner (www.lokayan.org) in partnership with the Kabir Project, Bangalore.

This is one of a series of uploads for Ajab Shahar, a webspace dedicated to mystic poem and song, created by the Kabir Project team (http://www.ajabshahar.org ; http://www.kabirproject.org).

Song Credits:
Ektara, Duggi, Vocals & Dance: Parvathy Baul

Translation: Shabnam Virmani

Video Credits:
Cameras: Aarthi Parthasarathy & Smriti Chanchani
Editing: Aarthi Parthasarathy
Sound: Atirek Pandey
Sub-Titling: Nandini Nayyar & Shabnam Virmani
Collection: The Kabir Project

Place: Bikaner, Rajasthan, India
Date of Recording: 29 Feb, 2012