The genesis of Persian and Urdu languages and literatures in India

Islam, Arshad (2015) The genesis of Persian and Urdu languages and literatures in India. Asiatic, 9 (2). pp. 158-172. ISSN 1985-3106

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Abstract

The Indian subcontinent has contained a vast array of ethnicities, cultures, traditions and languages since the beginning of civilisation. While classical Indian civilisation was based on Sanskrit, the sacerdotal language of the Brahmins, this sacred language did not affect the general mass of people, nor literature beyond a privileged elite. The first true lingua franca that transcended caste barriers to a certain extent was Persian, which was adopted by the ruling dynasties of Muslim India (who themselves were generally Turks or indigenous Indians rather than Persians), their Hindu peers, as well as the civil servants. However, from the beginning of the seventeenth century Urdu began to form around the lower echelons of society as a pidgin common tongue to enable communication between the myriad ethnicities of the Mughal Empire, ultimately restricting Persian to a refined language of culture and courtly life in the Mughal court and becoming a vibrant and dynamic language in its own right, thus becoming the first literary language with a substantial original contribution from Indians since ancient Sanskrit. This article charts the adoption of Persian and later the emergence of Urdu as spoken and literary languages in the Indian subcontinent using original sources in those languages.

Item Type:	Article (Journal)
Additional Information:	1440/47185
Uncontrolled Keywords:	India, language, Muslims, Sanskrit, Persian, Urdu
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) P Language and Literature > PK Indo-Iranian P Language and Literature > PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences > Department of History & Civilization
Depositing User:	Dr. Arshad Islam
Date Deposited:	01 Jan 2016 15:44
Last Modified:	05 Oct 2016 18:24
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/47185

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