Thumri

Thumrī (Devanagari: ठुमरी, Nastaliq: ٹھمری, Bengali: ঠুমরী) is a common genre of semi-classical Indian music. The term 'thumri' is derived from the Hindi verb thumakna which means "to walk with dancing steps so as to make the ankle-bells tinkle." The form is, thus, connected with dance, dramatic gestures, mild eroticism, evocative love poetry and folk songs of Uttar Pradesh, though there are regional variations.^[1]

The text is romantic or devotional in nature, and usually revolves around a girl's love for Krishna. The lyrics are usually in Uttar Pradesh dialects of Hindi called Awadhi and Brij Bhasha. Thumri is characterized by its sensuality, and by a greater flexibility with the raag.

Thumrī is also used as a generic name for some other, even lighter, forms such as Dadra, Hori, Kajari, Saavan, Jhoola, and Chaiti, even though each of them has its own structure and content — either lyrical or musical or both — and so the exposition of these forms vary. Like Indian classical music itself, some of these forms have their origin in folk literature and music..

Structure

As in khayal, thumri too has two parts, the styayi and the antara. It favours tala-s such as Deepchandi, Roopak, Addha, and Punjabi. These tala-s are characterized by a special lilt, nearly absent in the tala-s used in khayal. Thumri compositions are mostly in raga-s such as Kafi, Khamaj, Jogiya, Bhairavi, Pilu and Phadi. A common feature of these and other such raga-s is the free movement they allow the artist, since they do not depend for their identity on rigidly formulated tonal sequences, irrespective of the compositions involved. In fact, one may say that they have a built-in provision for mixing raga-s or for moving out of the raga actually presented in order to add colour to the proceedings.^[2] The compositions are usually set to kaherava taal of 8 beats, addha tal of 16 beats, dipchandi of 14 beats or jat of 16 beats and in "dadra' tal of 6 beats.

Origins

Thumri is one of the most important forms of North Indian music after khayal. Its exact origins are not very clear, given that there are no historical references to such a form until the 15th century. First appearance of Thumri go back to 19th century, this has link with the classical dance form Kathak. This was the bandish ki thumri or bol-baant and it evolved mostly in Lucknow in the court of nawab Wajid Ali Shah. At that time, it was a song sung by twaifs or courtesans. According to historical records, a new version of Thumri arose in the late 19th century, which was independent of dance, and much more slow-paced. This form was called bol-banav and it evolved in Varanasi.

Thumri and Khayal

Unlike the khayal, which pays meticulous attention to unfolding a raga, thumri restricts itself to expressing the countless hues of shringar by combining melody and words. The contours of a khayal are most definitely broader and fluid. Thus, a khayal singer is capable of encompassing and expressing a wide range of complex emotions. A thumri singer goes straight to the emotional core of a composition and evokes each yarn of amorous feeling, each strand of sensuous sentiment, with great discretion. Khayal aims at achieving poise and splendour; thumri is quicksilver in tone and ardently romantic in spirit. It needs a delicate heart, and a supple and soulful voice capable of expressing several shadings and colours of tones to bring out its beauty. To draw an analogy from the world of painting, khayal is closer, in form and spirit, to the unrestrained and energetic world of Renaissance masters like Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian - forcefully executed brush strokes are seen on a broad canvas; whereas thumri, with its affinity for finer points and shades of feeling, emotion and mood, is closer to the finely-detailed still-life paintings of the Dutch masters of the 17th century.

Noted Thumri artists

Purab Ang

Famous artists of the 'Purab Ang' thumri' of the Benaras gharana or Banaras gayaki are Badi Motibai, Rasoolan Bai, Siddheshwari Devi, Girija Devi and Pandit Channulal Mishra.^[3] In contemporary times, Pandit Mahadev Mishra was known as "Thumri Samrat" or "King of Thumri" for his gentle, lyrical and vivid style of singing thumris. Girija Devi is regarded as the "Queen of Thumri" or "Thumri Samraggi" of this era. She has worked on lyrical demonstration of Thumri. She has researched on the medium of expression according to the lyrics, that has given Thumri a different dimension.

Other famous singers of thumri are Gauhar Jan, Begum Akhtar, Shobha Gurtu, Noor Jehan and Prabha Atre. The bol banao style has a slow tempo and is concluded by a laggi, a faster phase where the tabla player has some freedom of improvisation.

Another stalwart in the genre of thumri was Naina Devi, who was married to a royal family but later devoted her life to the singing of the song of Tawaifs. For a member of the royal family to take such a step in those days meant fighting countless social stigmas that had enough power to totally alienate someone from the society, but she had the support of her husband.^[4]

Classical Thumri

Some khyal singers took an interest in thumrī and sang it their own way, as in the case of Abdul Karim Khan, Nazakat-Salamat Ali Khan, Barkat Ali Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Bhimsen Joshi, Prabha Atre.^[5]

Today thumrī is sometimes sung at the end of khyal concerts as a concluding item. Besides the tabla and the tanpura, other typical instruments in thumri are sarangi and swarmandal.

Lyrics

Thumrī singers pay considerable attention to the lyrics, though they may be difficult to follow in the ornamented enunciation. This is especially where the focus is on love, and many lyrics deal with separation or viraha. Krishna's ras leela or love play with Radha and other gopis of Vrindavan appear frequently. As an example, here are the lyrics of a thumrī composed by the medieval poet Lalan, celebrating Krishna's flute - how its tunes are driving Radha mad. Braj or Vrindavan is where Krishna is indulging in this love play; Radha is the "girl of Braj".

References

Further reading

• Dance in Thumri, by Projesh Banerji. Published by Abhinav Publications, 1986. ISBN 81-7017-212-8.
• Thumri in Historical and Stylistic Perspectives, by Peter Lamarche Manuel. Published by Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1989. ISBN 81-208-0673-5.
• Thumri, Tradition & Trends, by Ramanlal Chhotalal Mehta, Published by Indian Musicological Society, 1990.
• Hindi Poetry in a Musical Genre: Thumri Lyrics, by Lalita Du Perron. Published by Routledge, 2007. ISBN 0-415-39446-5.

External links

• IndoClassical.com - Classical Indian music
• Article: Semi-classical song

Bibliography

• Thumri in Historical and Stylistic Perspectives by Peter Manuel

Hindustani classical music
Concepts	Swara That Shruti Raga Sargam Tala Laya Bandish Gharana Swaralipi
Instruments	Sitar Sarod Veena Bansuri Santoor Shehnai Sarangi Tanpura Harmonium Tabla Pakhavaj
Genres	Dhrupad Dhamar Khyal Tarana Sadra
Semi-classical genres	Thumri Dadra Tappa Kajari Chaiti Sawani Hori Bhajan Abhang Natyageet Qawwali Ghazal
Thats	Bilaval Khamaj Kafi Asavari Bhairav Bhairavi Todi Purvi Marwa Kalyan
Related topics	List of Hindustani classical music festivals