सङ्गीतमकरन्द (देवर्षि नारद - प्राचीन भारतीय सङ्गीत, राग-रागिनी वर्गीकरण व नाद-ब्रह्म)

INTRODUCTION ix
Further, the names of writers, mentioned in this work are
Hari, Bramhâ, Matanga, Kâs'yapa, Kamalâsya, Chandî, Vyâla,
S'ârdûla, Nârada, Tumburu, Shanmukha, Bhringi, Devendra,
Kubera, Kus'ika, Mâtrigupta, Ravana, Samudra Sarasvatî, Bali,
Yaksha and Vikrama¹ Many of these names are names of deities
and Purânik personages and it is beyond our means to determine
their time But the names of Vikrama and Mâtrigupta are
historical As there have been several Vikramas, it is difficult
to say what Vikrama is meant But the mention of the name of
Mâtrigupta, who is also mentioned by Sarngadeva in his Sangîta
Ratnâkara as one of the writers on music, enables us to infer that the
present work must have been written not earlier than 7th century
A D Mâtrigupta, who was a poet and writer on poetics, is said
to have lived about the first half of the sixth century being a
contemporary of S'ilâditya Pratâpas'ila of Mâlva (A D 550-600)
My esteemed friend, T M Tripathi Esqr B. A of Bombay,
informs me that from the Nâtya Pradîpa of Sundara Mis'ra it
appears that Mâtrigupta has written a commentary on Bharata's
Nâtya S'âstra
But there is one circumstance which may help us in deciding
the priority of this work to Sangîta Ratnâkara For, Nârada
mentions the name of only Mâtrigupta among the names of the
historical personages as writers on music, and does not mention
the names of the later writers such as Rudrata, Nanya Bhûpâla,
Paramardî Somes'a, Lollata, Udbhata, S'ankuka, Abhinava Gupta
&c. If Nârada had copied the names of authors from Sangîta
Ratnâkara, he would not have omitted them It is likely that
S'ârngadeva copied the names of older authors from Nârada's book
and added these later names known at his time to the list in his
book Nârada does not seem to have borrowed any verses from
Sangîta Ratnâkara The treatment and order of the topics
observed in Sangîta Makaranda is quite different from that in the
Sangîta Ratnâkara
This view is supported by another circumstance which seems
to be a stronger proof Sarngadeva while giving the definition of
1 Vide p 13 verses 18-21