Jivari

Javari can refer to the acoustic phenomenon itself, or to the meticulously carved bone, ivory or wooden bridges that support the strings on the sounding board and produce this particular effect.

A similar sort of bridge is used on traditional Ethiopian lyres, as well as on the ancient Greek kithara, and the "bray pins" of some early European harps operated on the same principle.

Under the strings of tanpuras, which are unfretted (unstopped), and occasionally under those bass drone strings of sitars and surbahars which are seldom fretted, cotton threads are placed on the javari bridge to control the exact position of the node and its height above the curved surface, in order to more precisely refine the sound of javari.

Then a skilled, experienced craftsman needs to redress and polish the surface, which is called "doing the javari" ("'Javārī Sāf Karnā' or "Cleaning the Javārī'"[1]).

In this gradual process, the string, moving up and down according to its frequency, will make a periodic grazing contact with the curved surface of the bridge.

The exact grazing-spot will gradually shift up the sloping surface, as a function of the decreasing amplitude, finally dissolving into the rest-position of the open string.

In this complex dynamic sonation process, the shifting grazing will touch upon micro-nodes on the string, exciting a wide range of harmonics in a sweeping mode.

"The voice of an artist which is marked by a rich sound resembling that produced by two consonants played together, is often loosely known to have Javārī in it, although such use is arbitrary.