Benaras Gharana
Benaras thumri is usually equated to the bol banav thumri. In this kind of thumri, words of the song-text are treated with musical embellishments to bring out the meaning of the text. The gharana borrows many features of folk songs of the areas adjoining Uttar Pradesh. For example, the doubling of tempo after initial elaboration and the playing of special tabla compositions known as laggi are ascribed to the impact of the folk tradition on the Benaras thumri.
The Benaras thumri is sung in tala-s, such as deepchandi, dadra, and addha, which are also commonly used by other gharana-s. However, the Benaras treatment is full of poise and restraint, and the tempo is slightly slower. The raga-s too are common to many gharana-s but the treatment in the Benaras school is more serious in keeping with the general tenor of music made.
Thumri-singers of the gharana are not inclined to include ada in their presentations. In fact, their singing does not include indications of spaces created for this kind of mildly overt eroticism through abhinaya as is done in the Lucknow gharana.
Lucknow Gharana
The gharana presents thumri-s full of delicacy and intricate embellishments. Associations of the gliarana with the art of court-dancing have certainly helped in creating a form full of the suggestion of movement, gestures, and grace. In comparison to the Benaras thumri, the Lucknow version or interpretation is more explicit in its eroticism. Possibly, the ghazal tradition as developed in the Awadh court is the source of this feature.
A very distinctive contribution of the gharana is the evolution of the bandish-ki-thumri. It is a composition-type sung usually in a fast-paced teentala and an association with the dance patterns and tabla compositions accompanying it are detectable. As the term itself suggests, a discernible compactness about the composition-type made it so attractive that khayal-singers promptly included many compositions of the type in their repertoire as chota khayal-s. As some have argued, this might have legitimized the thumri, but to my mind this act of musical preemption also harmed the type as the khayal-singers soon began treating such compositions just like any other chota khayal In the process, they deprived the form of its original special flexibility and sensuousness.
