ठुमरी

The tradition & historical record

Thumri (Bhojpuri: [ˈʈʰʊmɾiː]) is a vocal genre or style of Indian music. The term derives from the Sanskrit-rooted thumak, which describes a rhythmic, dancing walk that makes ankle-bells jingle. The form is thus connected with dance, dramatic gestures, mild eroticism, and evocative love poetry and folk songs (specially from the Bhojpuri, Awadh and Braj regions of Indian subcontinent. The texts range from the romantic to the devotional, often layering both, with lyrics typically composed in Awadhi, Bhojpuri, or Brij Bhasha. Thumri is defined by this sensuality, and a melodic flexibility that allows the performer to venture beyond the raga’s strict structure to heighten emotional expression (rasa). Thumri is also used as a generic name for stylized regional lyrical forms such as Dadra, Hori, Kajari, Sawani, Jhoola, and Chaiti, even though each of them has their 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. Thumri stands apart from the austere dhrupad and structured khayal styles of Hindustani music. While it flourished in the 19th-century court of Wajid Ali Shah, the genre shares a direct functional lineage with the dhruvas described in Bharata's Natyasastra.

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Thumri”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.

Thumri is semi-classical genres in Hindustani classical music, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ¹

The source record links this tradition to 5 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ¹