Gour Khepa, "madman"

Gour Khepa
14 x 11 inches, oil on canvas, 2019

Sometimes referred to as madman or wild man, Khepa is not a name but a Bengali title more properly translated as "wise man." Gour Kyapa (as Khepa is now spelled) was a storied Baul philosopher and musician. The Bauls are an ethnic Bengali sect of wandering minstrels traveling through Bangladesh and eastern India. Their musical tradition goes back to at least the eighteenth century and was orally transmitted only (until sound recordings and subsequent transcriptions were made.) The Bauls are ascetics, renouncing material belongings and marriage. They subsist on gifts or alms in exchange for (musical) recitals that use only very basic language, including many profanities. Many documentary films have been made about the Baul, including a ninety-minute treatise on Gour Khepa, books written, and songs recorded. The LP Bengale: Chants des "fous" (Chants du Monde, 1990) is an excellent compilation. Tu n'as pu conserver le nectar d'amour by Gour Khepa is the song listed in the top 100 2019/19. Gour Khepa was born in 1947 and died after a traffic accident in 2013.