Thumri and Social Change

This essay was originally submitted as part of the coursework for my M.Mus in Ethnomusicology at SOAS University of London

Gauhar Jaan, a famous courtesan and one of the earliest recording artists in pre-Independence India

Thumri is a semi-classical genre of Hindustani vocal music, associated primarily with the emotional expression of romantic longing.  It is said to have originated in the 18th century from a mixture of folk and art music.  The genre reached its height in the 19th century at the court of Wajid Ali Shah, the last nawab of Avadh, who was an enthusiastic patron and even composed several thumris.

Since the 19th century, thumri repertoire and performance style have undergone several changes.  These include the de-linking of the genre from the courtesan tradition, the separation of music and dance, and a re-interpretation of lyrics in a devotional, rather than erotic, framework.  These changes were linked to the impact of British colonialism, particularly social reform movements such as the Anti-Nautch Campaign. In addition, the shift in patronage from royal courts to concert halls led to the emergence of non-hereditary female performers.  In order for performing thumri to be considered acceptable for “respectable” women and to avoid offending the new middle-class audience, the genre was de-eroticized and reinterpreted in a spiritual fashion. This often entailed the sanitization of lyrics. 

Thumri was traditionally associated with tawayafs, a Persian word which appears in Hindi/Urdu around the middle of the 19th century. Although currently associated with prostitution, the word originally denoted high class courtesans who were highly-skilled singers and dancers trained in the arts of poetry and conversation. Aristocrats would send their sons to tawayafs to be trained in manners and etiquette (Du Perron 2007: 1-2).  Prior to colonial rule, courtesans were associated with royal courts.  With the decline of these courts, courtesans increasingly began to entertain in their own private salons. They were often wealthy and, because of their unmarried status, were able to move around freely (2).  Thumri was one of the principal genres of courtesan performance.  The texts often express female desire, usually in the form of love-in-separation (viraha). The heroine either curses the day her lover left her or pleads with him not to abandon her. These themes made thumri ideal for courtesan performance as the performer could act out the anguish and desire experienced by the song’s heroine (3).

 Courtesan performances included a combination of music and dance, with the performer demonstrating her skill in both art forms. The type of thumri generally performed is referred to as bandis ki thumri. This style included little room for melodic elaboration and improvisations were generally rhythmic and suitable for dance. The texts were usually narrative, and the performer would illustrate the words through gesture (Du Perron 2002: 178).  This connection with dance became problematic in the second half of the 19th century, when increasing colonial influence led many Indians to associate dance with debauchery, particularly in the context of the courtesan’s salon. These attitudes culminated in the Anti-Nautch Campaign at the end of the century (178). As a result of these changing attitudes, many courtesans ceased dancing in public and restricted themselves to singing.  In her article “Professional Women in Indian Music: The Death of the Courtesan Tradition”, Jennifer Post argues that this rejection of dance can be interpreted as an effort to gain respect by appearing to be more modest (Post 1989: 104).  The bandis ki thumri was replaced with the bol banav thumri, which was much slower and emphasized emotional expression. In this style of thumri, short phrases are repeated many times, emphasizing a different emotional shade with each repetition. The texts usually have strong emotional qualities and provide the singer with scope for melodic elaboration. Bol banav thumri emerged in an atmosphere that encouraged the reconstruction of the arts to conform to the notion of the “great Indian cultural heritage” (Du Perron 2002: 178).  

The rise of Indian nationalism and the shift in patronage from royal courts to the concert stage led to efforts by reformers such as Pandit Bhatkhande and Pandit Paluskar to make music more acceptable to the middle classes. The suffix “bai”, commonly used for tawayafs was replaced with “devi” (goddess).  The “bourgeoisisation” of their art led courtesans to lose both their status and their income (Du Perron 2007: 2).   Courtesan singers began to be replaced with non-hereditary female singers, which led to changes in thumri style.  In his book Thumri in Historical and Stylistic Perspectives, Peter Manuel describes how as the genre became more dependent on bourgeois patronage, it “lost much of its seductive function and became instead a pure, abstract art form whose techniques and goals were primarily aesthetic” (Manuel 1989:81). 

In order to make thumri performance acceptable for “respectable” women, the genre had to be re-interpreted in a devotional, rather than erotic framework.  Du Perron notes that: “Whereas the desire expressed by thumri’s lyrical heroine could readily be enacted by the tawayaf in relationship to her prospective clients, the same desire easily lent itself to a devotional interpretation when the context demanded it. The distinction between eroticism and devotion in North Indian art is traditionally and famously indeterminate, and thumri’s ambiguous position was therefore easily incorporated into the existing framework” (179).  This re-interpretation sometimes entailed the adaptation of lyrics. For example, the phrase “suni sejariya” (my bed is empty) is altered to “suni nagariya” (the town is empty). This change replaces the intimate nature of the text with a much more general sense that the whole town is missing the hero, consolidating the devotional element by implying that the man in question is Krishna and the town Brindaban (190). Another example is the replacement of the vocative “raja” (king) with “syama” (an epithet of Krishna’s) (191). 

 In the public setting of the modern concert hall, the most viable interpretation of thumri’s romantic lyrics is on an impersonal level. Rather than expressing the devotion and desire of one woman for one man, the lyrics are perceived as articulating the love of the female devotee for her god—albeit in a romantic idiom (190).  Du Perron goes on to argue that: “The devotional interpretation allows a public face to be put on something which is an anomaly in modern middle-class culture: women expressing longing in public and consequently, passion being stirred by a woman performing for men” (191).  In order to exist in the modern world, thumri has to be presented and understood in a sanitized way. 

The transition of thumri from the courtesan’s salon to the concert hall has led to the sanitization and classicization of the genre. Manuel writes: “On the one hand, as the art became more abstract and its goals purely aesthetic, the sensuous, intimate passionate style of thumri lost much of its raison d’etre and largely disappeared. On the other hand, in becoming more pure, the genre gained the attention of all major khayaliyas and achieved a depth and classical sophistication which it had probably never enjoyed previously” (Manuel 1989: 96). The classicization of thumri is reflected by the fact that increasing numbers of prominent male singers began performing the genre. Among them, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan became particularly well-known for his thumri renditions. Thus, over time the genre ceased to be overtly associated with courtesans and became a light-classical genre that was often performed after the more serious khayal. 

It is also important to note the effect of Partition on thumri in Pakistan. Due to the increasingly religious nature of the State, thumri has been almost completely replaced by the ghazal. This is despite the fact that the ghazal’s themes of romantic love are very similar to those of thumri. Perhaps the most important difference is that the ghazal is a poetic genre in its own right. It is also written from the male perspective and thus is not so completely associated with the figure of the courtesan. 

Over the past hundred years, there have been concerted attempts to minimize thumri’s associations with courtesans and make it suitable for the concert hall.   This has had several effects on the genre including the separation of music and dance, the shift from bandis ki thumri to bol banav thumri and the reinterpretation of erotic lyrics in a devotional framework.  While the genre has had to evolve with the times, it is important to remember the contributions of courtesans to its creation and preservation.

References 

Du Perron, Lalita. 2002. “‘Thumrī’: A Discussion of the Female Voice of Hindustani Music.” Modern Asian Studies 36 (1): 173–93. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0026749x02001051.

———. 2007. “Tawayaf.” In Keywords in South Asian Studies, 1–5.

Manuel, Peter. 1989. Thumri in Historical and Stylistic Perspective. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

Post, Jennifer. 1989. “Professional Women in Indian Music: The Death of the Courtesan Tradition.” In Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective, 97–109. University of Illinois Press.

Below is a performance of a thumri entitled “Yaad Piya ki Aaye” ( I recall my beloved) by Kaushiki Chakravarthy of the Patiala gharana