Mymensingh Correspondent:
Recognized Baul and folk singer Sunil Karmakar (67) is no more. He breathed his last at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital around 4:30 am on Friday (February 6) while undergoing treatment. He had been admitted to the hospital after falling ill for several days.
Mymensingh District Baul Samity General Secretary Rezaul Karim (Aslam) confirmed the matter and said that Baul devotee Sunil Karmakar had been suffering from various complex diseases including lung diseases for a long time. His body has been kept at the city’s Atharobari. The body will be kept at the Mymensingh Town Hall ground for paying tributes at noon. Later, his last rites will be performed in the Kaltapara area of Gouripur upazila of the district.
Sunil Karmakar was born on January 15, 1959, to Dinesh Karmakar and Kamala Karmakar in Bernal village of Kendua upazila of Netrokona. He got involved in music at the age of just seven. Despite losing his eyesight due to typhoid in his childhood, music became his life and pursuit.
This artist used to enthrall Baul audiences with his rich and emotional voice. He was adept at playing multiple musical instruments including violin, dotara, tabla and harmonium. He gave tunes and vocals to numerous songs by Ustad Jalal Uddin Khan. In addition, he has written more than two hundred of his own songs.
In recognition of his special contribution to Baul, Maljora, Mahajani songs and folk music, he received the Shilpakala Padak of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in 2022.
Nazrul Islam, General Secretary of the Mymensingh Divisional Baul Association, said, “Sunil Karmakar was not just an artist, he was a living keeper of the folk heritage of rural Bengal. Through Baul and folk music, he conveyed the message of spiritual consciousness to the hearts of people.”
The death of Sunil Karmakar has cast a shadow of deep grief over the Baul and folk music scene.