Sham Chaurasia gharana
Sham Chaurasi Gharana is a vocal gharana (a family's style of singing) in Hindustani classical music known for the singing of vocal duets. It is also known as the cradle of drupad. It is one of the four singing gharanas of Punjab; the other three are: Patiala, Talwandi and Kapurthala. It is most notably represented in modern times by the brothers Nazakat and Salamat Ali Khan. History The gharana is believed to have been founded in the 16th century by Chand Khan and Suraj Khan who were contemporaries of Tansen at the court of Mughal emperor Akbar. Successive generations of musicians in the gharana specialised in the dhrupad form of singing and evolved a tradition of duet vocal (jugalbandi) performances. Meer Baksh and Khairdeen, Karam Elahi Khan, Vilayat Ali and Hadayat Khan, Ghulam Shabir Khan and Ghulam Jafar Khan, Nazakat Ali and Salamat Ali are noted practitioners of jugalbandi from this gharana. The gharana is centred at Shamchaurasi in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, India; alternate spellings include Shamchurasi. An explanation of the name is that sham is taken from the name of the Sufi saint, Sant Shami Shah and (chaurasi =84) was named after a cluster of 84 villages