Thumri Ang, Raga Khamaj

Thumri in Raga Khamaj

Thumrī 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 especially from Uttar Pradesh, though there are regional variations.

The text is romantic or devotional in nature, 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..