Q: What is Jawari?

A: The characteristic buzzing sound of a sitar or tanpura is produced by the string vibrating on a flat bridge with a gently curved surface. "Jawari" literally means "glimmering" or "jewel-like". The art of jawari is the shape, the angle, and the curve of the angle at which the bridge is filed. How much of the string rests on the bridge, and how steep are the curves in the back and front of that area of contact all affect how much buzz there is and how clear the sound is.

We usually think of there being three kinds of jawari.. There is the "open" jawari sound of Ravi Shankar, which is the most "buzzy". There is the more closed sound of Nikhil Banerjee, which is less "buzzy". And there is the very closed sound of Vilayat Khan, which is the least "buzzy". As you play, you wear grooves in the bridge and start to loose whatever original jawari sound you had. This is the biggest bugaboo of sitar players. The ratio of sitar players to artisans capable of doing jawari is thousands to one. Ravi Shankar used to bring Nodu Molluck on tour with him to do jawari. Some sitarists try to get around this by having several grooves on their Ma string, one for practice and one for playing. Hardcore practicers put something (plastic, film negative) under their bridge when practicing scales to save their jawari. The point is that the jawari of a sitar can radically affect the sound. A mediocre sitar with an excellent jawari can sound good. An excellent sitar with a worn or badly done jawari can sound bad or uninspiring.