A Dulcet Evening in Udaipur

We went for a stroll around the city of lakes and were struck by some melodious tunes of Rajasthani music. We thought just to enjoy it while waking by. Suddenly we saw some lights at the end of the lake and we were mesmerized by what we saw.

It was a Rajasthani cultural dance event happening at the famous Gangaur Ghat of Udaipur. Music and surreal view along lake side of udaipur made a velvety evening for us.

Photo of A Dulcet Evening in Udaipur 2/4 by Nitin Bothra

A thumri was performed by some of the artist as a part of a cultural event. Being curious we enjoyed the evening like royals enjoying an ancient dialect performed in the form of dance.

Thumri:

Thumri is a common genre of semi-classical Indian music.The text is romantic or devotional in nature, and usually revolves around a girl's love for Krishna. 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 raga.

Thumri is one of the most important forms of North Indian music after khayal. Its exact origins are not very clear, given that there are no historical references to such a form until the 15th century.

Thumri expresses the countless hues of shringar by combining melody and words.A thumri singer goes straight to the emotional core of a composition and evokes each yarn of amorous feeling, each strand of sensuous sentiment, with great discretion.

I took the liberty to take some shots to see how the artists uses facial and body movements to express the tone of the dialect.