Journal of Hindu Studies 2023;XX: XX–XX https://doi.org/10.1093/jhs/hiad026 Advance Access Publication 16 November 2023 © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. From Oral Tradition to Digital Archive: New Primary Sources for the Study of Baul Traditions Carola Lorea *, * Corresponding author: carola.lorea@uni-tuebingen.de Abstract: Practitioners’ notebooks and personal letters are neglected items that de- serve attention in the study of ritual and performance traditions, especially if these can be complemented with oral–aural sources. This article presents some features of an unexplored archive of new sources for the study of Baul songs and popular religious movements in Bengal by introducing and complementing the data con- tained in the digital archive called ‘Songs of the Old Madmen’ (EAP1247, British Library), comprising notebooks of Baul songs and correspondence between an in- fuential Bengali guru and his disciple. I highlight three aspects. (i) The notebook as archive and metadata of Baul performances. (ii) Emic notions of authorship and cultural ownership. (iii) The contextualisation of the digital archive within the his- tory of representation of the Baul tradition. Embedded in such context, this digital archive provides a nuanced and intimate picture where Baul practitioners emerge as neither the lonely minstrels lauded by Rabindranath Tagore, nor as the antino- mian materialists portrayed in more recent scholarship on Bauls. Questioning the politics of cultural representation of digital archives, this article integrates oral histories and ethnographic sources collected during feldwork in West Bengal that are inextricably part of the material digitised through remote capture. Introduction The study of the literature and the practices of the Bengali lineages associated with the term ‘Baul’ 1 is fundamental for the understanding of vernacular Tantric traditions and popular religious movements in the historical region of Bengal. Esoteric and heterodox groups of performers/practitioners referred to as Baul compose and disseminate knowledge in the form of songs. 2 Singers and compos- ers of Baul songs are often known with the honorifc title of ‘madmen’ (khyāpā, pāgal/ pāg’lā), a title denoting achievements of self-realisation and transcendance of ordinary reality. 3 Songs are performed by itinerant folk musicians who are Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jhs/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jhs/hiad026/7424424 by Institut fuer Toxikologie user on 01 December 2023