Iqbal Siddiquee

An exponent of ‘Maljora Pala’, baul Kofil Uddin Sarker was a close associate of great artists like Shah Abdul Karim and Durbin Shah. He had travelled widely in the remote villages in the greater Sylhet region. He was instrumental in grooming most of the folk artists of the region. A good number of his disciples are staying abroad and practicing the music.

Composer and musician of many of popular songs like; ‘amar bondhua bihoney go, sohena porane go’, ‘ami chailam jarey, pailam na tarey’, ‘ator golap, soa chandan sajailam’ ‘sajailam ful bichhana’, etc.

Kofil Uddin Sarker passed away on the 23rd of September, 2012 at a private hospital in Sylhet city – he was 82. Along with age-related complications, Sarker had been ailing from liver cancer.

Sarker composed about 10,000 songs, but has only 2 publications, ‘Ratnabhandar-I’ and ‘Ratnabhandar-II’, containing about 4,500 songs.

“With his demise, we lost an era of great artistes around Shah Abdul Karim”, a number of artists said while paying tribute to his departed soul. He was dedicated to songs of the land, mankind and mysticism. Especially he was a known face in the events of ‘Maljora Gaan’, a popular variety of folk songs of the greater Sylhet region. The 2 lead artists with Ektara or Dotara stand face-to-face and lock in debate through songs on the issues of importance. Both present sufficient arguments, in support of their own subject or topic for defeating the other. However, co-artistes with instruments join them for long hours. People from long distant places also used to enjoy these events. Hundreds, even thousands used to attend those events for hours at night.

A number of his songs are used as welcome tones or as phone ring tones – as cell phone operators provide them to the public. Besides, singers of Sylhet regularly sing his songs on the radio.

Born in Madhabpur upazila of Habiganj, Sarker settled at village Akilpur of Doarabazar in Sunamganj district after being a disciple of mystic poet Durbin Shah. He was laid to eternal rest at his village at Doarabazar.

The article was first published in Star Insight, The Daily Star on October 6, 2012