Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa
Outside Qarshi (Karshi, Nakhshab, Naḫšab)
Title
Yogis sounding a horn at the end of their practices
Short description
At the end of their practices, Yogis sound "a sort of horn". According to the information provided by the author, these Yogis would have been located in Uzbekistan in the 14th Century. This may suggest that they belonged to the Yogi Nath tradition, in which bearing a horn became a symbolic part of their identity (see Mallison, 2013). Furthermore, it is known that Ṣūfī mingled with the Naths (see Mumtaz, 2023). The presence of such a group in the area at the time would be remarkable per se, however, the passage provides too little evidence to have historical certainty.
Text on source
وأول ما رأيت هذه الطائفة بمحلة السلطان طرمشيرين ملك تركستان، وكانوا نحو الخمسين، فحفر لهم غارًا تحت الأرض، وكانوا مقيمين به لا يخرجون إلا لقضاء حاجة، ولهم شبه القرن يضر بونه أول النهار وآخره وبعد العتمة، وشأنهم كله عجب [ص. ٣٩٢]
English translation
The first time that I saw the men of this company was in the maḥalla of Sultan Ṭarmashīrīn, king of Turkistan. There were about fifty of them for whom a cave had been dug under the earth, and they used to stay in it, never coming out except to satisfy a need. They had a sort of horn [qarn] which they used to sound at the beginning and end of the day and after the first third of the night. Everything about them is marvellous.
Folios/Pages
790-791
Date
1335 circa
Observations on the events description
The horn sounded by the Nath Yogis was called siṅgī, a wind instrument from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. It is a horn with a bamboo mouthpiece which is held with both the hands and has bells attached to the sides of the instrument.
The dots on the map indicate the places where sound and music events were described. They don't represent travel stages.
Participants
Name
Role
Notes
Edit
Delete
Khan Tarmashirin, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn
Viewer
Khān
How to quote
Pintimalli A., "Yogis sounding a horn at the end of their practices" (Event description), Echos. Sound Ecosystems in Travelogues. Published 2024 07 17.doi: 10.25430/echos.travels.130
This work is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 
