The Vaishnava Bauls of Bengal have been around for thousands of years since the start of the story. They are the oldest group of Vaishnavism in Bengal. They have been singing the Hare Krishna Mahamantra for thousands of years before Sri Nityananda in the 1500's started the revival of Vaishnavism along with his best friend Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabu. Nityananda was a Baul and his "oral" tradition of singing and dancing as spiritual messengers from village to village were easily passed onto his best friend Sri Chaitanya.
In my research I have read Bauls originate from Persia?? This is not true, perhaps something else originated from Persia (today called Iran) but not the Bauls. Baul is a sanskrit word and they originate from India.They are sanskrit scholars, poets, Indian philosophers, perhaps the new Baul singers are not but the Bauls were for thousands or years previous to this. I have heard they originate from Uzbekistan??? I won't even comment on that one.. and I have heard Bauls are from Bangladesh, which also is wrong, why because Babukishan and family traveled to Bangladesh in the early 70's and there were no Bauls there, perhaps a few but all they were singing was Lalon Fakir songs. Babukishan's mother Manju Dasi being from Bangladesh was the first person to start to preserve Lalon Fakir songs before this no one cared, today preserving Lalon Fakir songs has become multi-million dollar business of creating stories that Baul is from Bangldesh and is of sufi origins to collect money from UNESCO. ?? It is "Kali Yuga" what is real is seen as unreal and what is unreal is seen as real for the sake of money. Please do not destroy the history of the Vaishnava Bauls for the sake of fame or money, the Bauls are ancient and deserve to have their lineage preserved as acurately as possible.
It was Nabani Das Baul who had a long and lasting association with Rabindranath Tagore and Nabani Das Khyappa Baul was Allen Ginsberg's Guru, he may have written a song about Lalon Fakir but he never met Lalon Fakir. It was Nabani Das Khyeppa Baul who was associated with Allen Ginsberg, Rabindranath Tagore along with other poets, authors ect.. It was Nabani Das Khyappa Baul who was Indira Gandhi's dance teacher at Vishwabharti University. It was Nabani Das Baul who taught at Vishwabharti... and it was Indira's father Nehru who aske Nabani Das Baul to sing at all the inagural ceremonies of India.