Hathrasi Rasiya: An Intermediate Song Genre of North India

Hathrasi rasiya is a traditional song genre of North India’s Braj region, performed by semi-professional members of music clubs (akhāṛās) and informed by a complex set of prosodic schemes, with secondary melodic aspects. As these schemes involve, however tangentially, a kind of music theory, and the genre is patronized by local elites and enjoyed by connoisseurs, it constitutes a member of the “intermediate sphere” of regional genres that share features of both classical and folk musics. Although currently in a state of decline, Hathrasi rasiya flourished vigorously in the twentieth century. This article surveys its formal features and its place in Braj music culture and in the broader category of North Indian intermediary genres.