Bengali music initially was influenced by chants of the Sanskrit language. Bengali music then had its evolution under effect of the Vishnu poetry. The next Ages saw a fusion of Hindu and Islamic trends. During this time the musical tradition was formalized under the patronage of the powerful landlord bAro bhuiyAn and the Nawabs.
Much of the early Bengali music is devotional, just like it is in the Hindu devotional songs of Ramprasad Sen, who was a devotee who used to capture the Bengali ethos in his poetic vision of the Hindu goddess of destruction and time, in her motherly incarnation - Ma Kali.
The Bauls (this word is derived from the Sanskrit word batul, which means "divinely inspired insanity") are a group of mystic Hindu minstrels from the Bengal region. They primarily sang during the 18th and 19th centuries.
The bauls are thought to have been influenced greatly by Hindu Tantrics (belonging to the Tantric sect) of the Kartabhajas .The creators of this Bengali music form are also supposed to have been influenced by Sufi philosophers. The Bauls traveled and sang as they traveled in search of the internal ideal. They called this the “Moner Manush” which means “Man of the Heart” or “the inner being”, and they also descried "superfluous" differences between religions.
Lalon Fakir, who is also known as Lalon Shah, lived in the 19th century in and around the region of Kushtia. He is considered to be the greatest Baul singer in Bengali music.