First sarg (sa) has been taken from the cry of peacock; second, rekhya (re) taken from the cry of skylark (Papiha), third, gandhar (ga) from the sound of goat; fourth, madhyam (ma) has been copied from the voice of heron (Kulang); fifth, pancham (pa) from the melody of nightingale (Kokil), sixth, dhyot (dha) from the neighing of horse; and seventh nishad (ni) has been taken from elephant’s trumpet.
~ Pandit Raja Ram Kaul ‘Tota’, Ragamala
Probable origin: "Saṅgītaratnākara, the greatest Sanskrit music treatise of the second millennium CE, which the Kashmiri pandit Śārṅgadeva wrote for the Yadava king Siṅghaṇa (r.1210-47) at his court of Devagiri, now Daulatabad, in the Deccan." See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/asian-and-african/2014/10/indian-music-in-the-persian-collections-the-javahir-al-musiqat-i-muhammadi-or12857-part-1.html#sthash.Kl19opDv.dpuf