CHAPTER 6—URDU* GENERAL INTRODUCTION. OF THE THREE LANGUAGES ARABIC, PERSIAN AND URDU, Arabic, though not in any way connected with any branch of the linguistic families spoken in the country has been used by hundreds of its inhabitants in expressing their views on Islam and things concerning Islam. Arabic belongs to the Semitic group. It is a well-known fact that the Semitic nations in general and the Arabs in particular had their commercial and cultural relations with India from the very dawn of human, civilization. The very name Hind for this Sub-continent is a gift from the Arabs. They regarded this country as their father land. Their traditions say that when Adam was thrown out of the paradise the land which his feet touched first was that of Ceylon which they believe, was the southernmost part of India. These commercial and cultural relations resulted in the absorption of many Indian words in Arabic languages such as kafur, misk, sandal, hail (cardamom), zanjabil (ginger), Narjil (cocoanut), etc. Sometimes the word ' Hindi' was used to show the place of origin of a commodity such as 'ud-i- Hindi, tamr-i-Hindi (tamarind), etc. Names of different kinds of cloths were also borrowed. This process was not confined only to articles of every day use. With the rise of Islam and its cultural expansion it extended to the various branches of science and literature. Many books on Astronomy, Mathematics, Medicine, Philosophy and those of fables and stories were translated from Sanskrit into Arabic. Persian is a sister language to Sanskrit. Not only a large number of the words are the same but even sentences in the religious books of the Parsis and the Hindus are similar. Another point to be remembered in this connection is that, though after the Arab conquest, Arabic has become the language of culture and politics, it soon had to make room for Persian in Non-Arabic countries. Even during the Ghaznavi period it had attained the position of a State language, and was so much studied in Persia that even the Moghals were forced to leave it at its position. Hindus had started learning Persian even during the days of Mahmud of Ghazni and by the end of the Lodi dynasty it had begun to be regarded as an emblem of * The General Introduction is contributed by Prof. N. A. Nadvi, whereas the rest of the Chapter is contributed by Dr. Z. H. Madani, M.A., Ph.D. 436 MAHARASHTRA STATE GAZETTEER culture and intellectual superiority. The royal patronage given to the language soon drew a large number of eminent scholars, poets and prose writers from Persia and Central Asia. Soon Indians began to write in that language. Some of them became an object of envy even to the Persians themselves. A variety of books on different subjects were written in Persian. The honour of translating the Quran into Persian goes to this country. Long story books in Persian were also written in India. Mystic writers and Sufi Poets had contributed their generous quota. But above all it is the Histories of India and other countries written in Persian which open a new avenue to the writers of chronicles on scientific basis. With Persian came all the forms of prose and poetry of that language. Prose had been changing according to the subject-matter of the book, but under the influence of the Mongol rule, Persian literature became very ornate and unrealistic. This tendency did not remain confined to the kingdom of Mongols or their successors but it spread throughout the Islamic States. Turkish and Urdu were both affected by this. As far as this State is concerned Persian was in much greater demand here. Not that it was the official language of the Government but the majority of the poets and writers who came to India either remained in the Sultanate of Gujarat or went to the courts of the Deccani kings to seek their fortune. Again the Parsis who had permanently settled in this State still wanted to study the language of their country, their culture and their ancestors. This made Persian very popular throughout the State. Even when the Maratha State was established and Marathi became the court language the majority of the legal terms and forms were unhesitatingly taken from Persian official language. This free use of Persian also gave an opportunity to the local languages of the State not only to absorb many useful and cultural words and expressions in Arabic and Persian, but also it enriched the common language or the lingua franca of India of that time. The third and the last, Urdu, is a purely Aryan and Indian language. It is admitted that there always existed in India for about a thousand years a language which was more or less intelligible and spoken throughout the country. This language which descended from the Apabhransh form and which now presents a happy combination of the various Aryan and non-Aryan languages of this sub-continent has been generally known as Hindi. When an early Arab or Persian writer uses this term he uses it in a wider perspective. By that expression he means any language of the country including Sanskrit. But later on the term Hindi came to be applied to that form of language which was spoken in or around Delhi and Mathura and which had not only spread throughout the country during the centruies of religious, commercial and political intercourse, but had begun to take a literary form in the regions far beyond its original home. When the Muslims came to India first as traders and then as rulers they began to write this language in their own scripts. This very dressing of the common LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 437 Indian language in Arabic alphabets is the beginning of Urdu language. We may say that Urdu, Hindwi, Hindi, Hindustani, Rekhata, Deccani, Gurjori or Gujarati, by whatever name it may be called is the common language of India which was more or less intelligible throughout the country and was written in Arabic script, with additional letters to represent the sounds which were not to be found in Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages. It is a strange phenomenon that though the common language of India is said to have originated near Delhi and Mathura, its earliest literary forms developed initially in Gujarat, Deccan, Panjab and Bihar. In Gujarat it began to be called Gujri, Gurjari and Boli Gujarat; in Deccan, it became known as Dakani. It was the Gujarati poet Wali who inspired the poets of North India to compose poems in their own language. He is regarded as the Chaucer of Urdu poetry. All India owes a great amount of gratitude to Gujarat and Deccan for nourishing the language and making it rich and strong. If the truth be told it will have to be said that the very word ' Urdu' is a misnomer for the language. The Moghals used to call their residences as ' Urdu ' which in Turkish means camp and when the king lived at that camp, the camp became Urdu-i-Mualla (exalted camp). This exalted camp contained the court of the ruler also and used to have a large number of learned people whose verdicts as far as the language and literature was concerned used to be final. Therefore, in order to show that a man was writing in the most authentic and chaste language he used to say that he was writing in " Zaban--i-Urdu-i-Mualla" i.e., language of the exalted camp (This is equivalent to king's English). Later for brevity's sake the people began to say that they were writing in Urdu. Another reason for adopting this name was that at the Fort William College this common language began to be written in Devanagri script and was named Hindi, Hindwi or Hindi and thus to make a distinction, this Hindi language written in Arabic script adopted the name of Urdu. It is interesting to know that Urdu up to the later half of the 19th century continued to be called Hindi. Ghalib, the great poet of Urdu, mentions his poetic work as ' Mera Hindi ka Diwan ' (my collections of Hindi poems). Adoption of the Arabic script for this common language of the country was not forced by the rulers whose official language to the last days of their government remained Persian. It was adopted on the principle of cultural unity with the countries with whom India was closely connected. Adoption of the same policy on the same ground in recent days is to be seen in Mustafa Kamal's adoption of the Latin script for the Turkish language. Urdu poetry in the beginning followed local metres, forms, thoughts and expression, but with the evergrowing and expanding Persian influence through court and society, it began to adopt Persian metres and forms. However, it must be said to the credit of this poetry that the national and patriotic poems written in this language far exceed in quality and quantity those of any other language of the country. 438 MAHARASHTRA STATE GAZETTEER Urdu still holds a great sway in this State and educational institutions imparting instruction through the medium of this language are a living testimony to its popularity. A large number of libraries and reading-rooms are to be found in this State. The only research Institute in Urdu is also located in this State. In Bombay today as far as Urdu language is concerned, literary activities flourish very encouragingly. A large number of Urdu newspapers are printed in Bombay and literary figures of repute in Urdu are attracted to this centre of learning.