Thumri's leading lady

While the Krishna and Vrindavan frolic remains deeply etched in the Indian psyche and reams of literature has been devoted to it, the Radha consciousness dominates Hindustani classical music’s lyrical ode to the love lore of the eternal couple of Radha and Krishna. Radha is the leitmotif that imbues the lyrical texts that have spawned the Braj Bhasha, Awadhi and Khadi Boli literature, and much of the vernacular poetry, with hues of passionate and carnal devotion.

In the semi-classical genre of thumri, this adulation of Radha assumes mammoth proportions, thus creating timeless lyrics depicting Radha, in her myriad moods as a nayika or protagonist, is consumed by amour and seeped in rati (erotic love). Radha as nayika is the central character of thumri texts as much as her consort Krishna is, and embodies the ashta-nayika (eight heroine types), as elaborated by Bharat in his Natya Shastra. Both Bharat, and later Abhinavgupta, have laid out elaborate preconditions of rasa, a key concept of Indian aesthetics.

As Radha traipses the flora and caresses the fauna of Mathura and Vrindavan, she also becomes an embodiment of shringara (love). She experiences the full range of emotions and is a vehicle of rasa, as well as the recipient of its relish, as delineated by Abhinavagupta in his take on rasa.

Abhinavagupta’s choice of Abhinavabharati, for his stupendous commentary on 36 chapters of Bharata’s treatise on dramaturgy, the Natya Shastra, reflects his characteristic play on words. Abhinava establishes his own synthesis on aesthetics which was a culmination in Kashmir around the late 11th century, of convergent developments in Indian aesthetics and spirituality. Other-worldly alaukika, emotional enjoyment of rasa, is a concept of this theory. Abhinav’s thrust on the suggested or implied meaning, and not the obvious, and the subtlety of the meaning, is central to aesthetics in his opinion.

Emotional appeal

Radha’s rapture in Krishna’s love and longing lingers in our consciousness and ignites a similar state of bliss in those who visit Vrindavan and surrender to the ecstasy of the Radha/Krishna bhakti. This happens because they are willing to “willfully suspend disbelief”. Abhinavagupta asserted that the “willful suspension of disbelief” was a prerequisite to experiencing rasa and enjoying an art form.

Radha is the epitome of Bharat’s nayika in throes of passion experiencing the pain and pleasure, love and longing, union and separation from her beloved Krishna. 

Coming to the history of thumris, most traditional thumris were written expressly to accompany kathak. Thumri, as a genre of Hindustani classical music, was centrestage and gained more importance than even khayal as a genre in the Awadh court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah who was its ardent patron. The Nawab’s court had three luminaries — Bhaiya Saheb Ganpat Rao, the renowned harmonium player and thumri writer who wrote under the pen name of ‘Sughar Piya’, Ustad Moizudden Khan of Banaras, and Pt Bindadeen Maharaj, the kathak exponent.

The Nawab himself had learnt dance and written thumris under the pen name of ‘Akhtar Piya’. Thumris were written and composed during the day and performed every evening at Wajid Ali Shah’s soirees. Thus the art of thumri which Hazrat Amir Khusrau had brought to India became the most preferred music genre in the Awadh court and among the royalty of Lucknow, Banaras and Bihar.In the last 200 years, thumri has constituted an integral element of north Indian music by synthesising, in different ways, the folk and classical music, and has developed to a degree of exquisite refinement the technique of elaborating text through melody.

‘Suggestion’ is the soul of poetry according to Abhinavagupta, and the thumri lyrics are subtle and suggestive. He believed that a real work of art needs to have a strong sense of suggestion and be capable of producing various meanings.

A subtle and suggestive thumri that is attributed to Khursheed Ali Khan, and was sung by the late Ustad Barkat Ali Khan of the Patiala Gharana is:Tum Radhe Bano ShyamSab Dekhenge Brij Baam...

(Come to me dressed as Radha, Dear Krishna// All the women will be watching...)Finally, thumri was primarily a courtesan art, and the suggestiveness of poetry as well as gesture tantalised the aesthete attending soirees or mehfils of these courtesans. It’s interesting to see that the relishing of rasa was a collective exercise.Thus there was no sense of stigma attached to the collective enjoyment of a courtesan’s performance as she sang and did abhinaya set to thumri lyrics. This was the tehzeeb at the Awadh courts and those of Banaras and Darbhanga.

What runs through as a common thread in each of these nayikas is that the abhisarika nayika seeks her lover and goes to him rather than wait for him. Radha was Krishna’s consort and openly expresses her love defying all social norms. Radha was the epitome of empowerment and she sets an example of an independent woman who is comfortable in her skin, who expresses her love in complete abandon. Radaha is the ultimate nayika, one who is complete and independent.