Ragas and Raginis: A Pictorial and Iconographic Study of Indian Musical Modes Based on Original Sources c6.80

c6.80

(1) On the basis of a reference to Mātrgupta, a contemporary of Śilāditya partāpśila of Mālava (A. D. 550-600), Mr. M. R. Telang the Editor of Saṅgīta-Makaranda by Nārada (Gaekwad's Oriental Series, No. XVI), ascribes this text to a period between seventh and the eleventh centuries. Mr. Telang in discussing the date omits to consider the bearing of the word Turuska, as the melody Turuska-tundī (=Turuska-Todī?) is twice mentioned (p. 16, 18), suggesting a contact with Mussulman music which is believed to have taken place about the time of Āmīr Khusru, the court-poet of Sultan Alau-d-dīn Khiliji (1290-1360). The connotation of the word Turṣka as such would not necessarily imply the Moslem invaders of the eleventh century. For, Kalhana (11th century) in his Rāja-taraṅginī uses the word to refer to the Kuṣāna Kings who came from Central Asia (Turkestan=Turuska-deśa). It is doubtful if the word could have been applied to the Hunas, the nomad hordes, from Central Asia which poured into India in 455 A. D. 'The land of the Turuskas' is actually referred to in seventh century. (Bāṇa's Harṣa-carita, Cowell & Thomas' Translation, London, 1897, p. 290). So that the name Turuska-Todī, would not, necessarily, imply a contact with the Mussulmans, and may stand for a Kuṣāna melody like the Śaka-rāga.