These tala-s are characterized by a special lilt, nearly absent in the tala-s used in khayal. It favours tala-s such as Deepchandi, Roopak, Addha, and Punjabi. Like Indian classical music itself, some of these forms have their origin in folk literature and music.Īs in khayal, thumri has two parts, the sthayi and the antara.
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 have their own structure and content-either lyrical or musical or both-and so the exposition of these forms vary. Thumri is characterized by its sensuality, and by a greater flexibility with the raga. The text is romantic or devotional in nature, the lyrics are usually in Uttar Pradesh dialects of Hindi called Awadhi and Brij Bhasha. The term "thumri" is derived from the Hindi verb thumakna ( ठुमकना), 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 especially from Uttar Pradesh, though there are regional variations. Thumri ( Hindi: ठुमरी) is a vocal genre or style of Indian music.