আমি সত্য: লালন ও হাল্লাজ | I am the Truth: Lalon and Hallaj

Abstract

This article, adapted and expanded from the author's MA thesis, treats the mention of Mansur al-Hallaj's name and story of declaring "I am the Truth" (ami satya) in the songs of Fakir Lalon Sai (d. 1899). The article starts with a survey of some of the principle scholarship on Hallaj in English and French, and then builds on this scholarship to also analyze the way Mansur al-Hallaj's life and legend of martyrdom was integrated into a Bengali folk tradition like the Baul Fakirs of Bengal. Translations of two of Lalon's songs, one translation by Carol Salomon and one by Keith Cantú, are included alongside the original text, and special attention is given to privileging of esoteric (batin) hermeneutics in Lalon's songs. The article closes with some brief consideration of the way Lalon's interpretation of Hallaj's story also resonates with an embodied understanding of Tantric alchemy.