Jugalbandi

A jugalbandi or jugalbandhi (Kannada: ಜುಗಲ್‌ಬಂದಿ, Devanagari: जुगलबंदी, Urdu: جگلندئ‍) (Bengali: যুগলবন্ধী) is a performance in Indian classical music, especially the Hindustani classical music, that features a duet of two solo musicians. The word jugalbandi means, literally, "entwined twins." The duet can be either vocal or instrumental.

Often, the musicians will play different instruments, as for example the famous duets between sitarist Ravi Shankar and sarod player Ali Akbar Khan, who played the format since the 1940s. More rarely, the musicians (either vocalists or instrumentalists) may be from different traditions (i.e. Carnatic and Hindustani). What defines jugalbandi is that the two soloists be on an equal footing. While any Indian music performance may feature two musicians, a performance can only be deemed a jugalbandi if neither is clearly the soloist and nor clearly the accompanist. In jugalbandi, both musicians act as lead players, and a playful competition exists between the two performers.

Hindustani-Carnatic Jugalbandi

Jugalbandi of Hindustani and Carnatic styles has evolved into a relatively common pattern that has the Hindustani artist accompanied by a tabla artist, and the Carnatic artist accompanied by a mridangam artist, and possibly also accompanied by tambura. The main artists from each tradition present a composition in their own style and then together collaborate and present a common piece. The common piece is usually in a raga that is common to both traditions, such as Yaman-Kalyani, Bhairavi-Sindhubhairavi, Keeravani.