It seems remarkable that the Urdu language became popular initially in the South. In 1327, Muhammad Tughlaq conquered Deccan, establishing Daultabad as his capital. Allauddin Hasan Bahmani, who revolted against the Tughlaq monarch and established a Bahmani empire, helped popularise Urdu in the Deccan.
In Deccan, the Urdu language came into touch with the native languages of Marathi, Telugu, and Kanarese. Prof. S.R. Sharma explains why Urdu grew in the Deccan: “Especially after the rise of the Bahmani kingdom, the native Muslims of the South wished to be as separate as possible from the imperial capital in the North, and they developed a local patriotism with a desire to emphasise their own life and modes of thought, and finally they began to suspect and dislike outsiders. This led in the development of Urdu as opposed to Persian, the language of the Emperor’s Court. This new dialect was known as Deccan, and it was heavily affected by Gujarati and Marathi.
Khwaja Banda Nawas Gesu Daraz wrote one of the earliest Urdu or Rekhta treatises in the South, Mirat ul-Ashiqin. This book, however written in Persian script, makes extensive use of the Hindi language. Following the dissolution of the Bahmani Kingdom, the Muslim Sultans of Golconda and Bijapur continued to patronise the Urdu.
The Qutb Shahi Sultans of Golkcoda not only supported Urdu intellectuals, but also wrote several poetry in the language. Wajahi and Ghawasi, two prominent poets from Golconda, are highly regarded by researchers of poetical romances and prose masters alike.
The Sultans of Bijapur were also avid supporters of Urdu poets. Ibrahim Adil Shah II established Deccani Urdu as the court language in lieu of Persian. Some of the renowned Deccani Urdu academics who lived in Bijapur are Shah Miranji Shams-ul-Ushahaq and Burhan-ud-Din Janun, who wrote beautiful poetry.
Shah Miran, a Sufi saint, composed Khushnama and Khushnagaz. He also authored one of the longest poems, Shahai-ul-Haqiqat, in clear and simple language, avoiding the usage of Arabic and Persian terminology. Muhammad Nusrat authored Gulshane-Ishaq, Alinama, and Tarikh-i-Skandari, all of which are works of tremendous inventiveness and lucidity.
Adil Shah immensely loved these works and respected the author. Syed Miran Hashmi penned Yusuf Zulekha, while Shah Aminuddin Ala wrote Muhiba Nama and Rumuz-us-Satikin, both of which address God’s spiritual love and oneness.
Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah of the Qutb Shah family was a well-known Urdu writer. He wrote ghazals, qasida, masnavi, and morthiah, in which he dealt with everyday incidents in a basic and straightforward manner.
Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah also supported the renowned Urdu poet Wajahi, the author of Qutb Mushtri. Another significant piece by Wajahi was Sabras. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah’s successors were likewise enthusiastic supporters of Deccani-style Urdu.
While Abdullah Qutb Shah created poetry in the Persian-Deccani language, Tana Shah, the final Qutb Shahi emperor, supported intellectuals such as Faiz, the renowned author of Ruzwane Shah o-Ruhafza, a thought-provoking masnavi.
Sheikh Qutb Alam and Sheikh Ahmad Khattu are credited with popularising the Hindawi language in Gujarat. Following Timur’s conquest of India in 1398, these Sufi thinkers went to Gujarat. Over time, a group of followers collected around these two professors, and an Indian school of literary style emerged, known as the Gujarat style.
Some prominent Gujarati academics were Shah Ali Muhammad Jiv, author of the Jawaharu’l Aarar, Khub Muhammad Chisti, author of Khub Tarang, and Amin, author of Yusuf Zulekha. Khub Muhammad Chisti was Gujarat’s most prominent mystic writer.
In addition to Khub Tarang, he penned other Sufi treatises. Another notable book by this author is Chand Chandan, which discusses Hindawi and Persian prosody.
Although Urdu did not advance much during the early Mughal monarchs, notable intellectuals such as Nuri Azampuri, Hazrat Kamaluddin Makhadum, Shaikh Sadi, and Mohammed Afzali lived during the reign of Akbar the Great.
Similarly, Nasir Afzali Allahabadi and Pandit Chandrabhan were well-known Urdu poets during the reign of Shah Jahan. Urdu was encouraged by subsequent Mughal monarchs. Emperor Muhammad Shah asked the renowned Deccani poet Shams-ud-Din Wali to read his works at his court.
One of the early effects of the visit was that Wali began using Delhi idioms instead of Deccani idioms in his writings.
As a consequence of this shift, Urdu became quite distinct from Hindi. Other academics followed in Wali’s footsteps, writing Urdu poetry that used many Persian and Arabic terms. Thus, Urdu was totally isolated from Hindi.
Urdu poets have used Persian patterns and ideas into their writings. Efforts were also made to cleanse the language by removing strange Deccani phrases and idioms.
As a result, we can see that the Urdu language evolved from generation to generation, adopting new methods and customs. Without a sure, the issue of language modifications created countless tensions and strains at first, but it eventually evolved into a method of cultural expression and mutual understanding.
In fact, Yusuf Husain asserts that the “Urdu language…bears throughout indubitable marks of that process of absorption, compromise and accommodation which is the keystone of mediaeval Indian thought and history.”
Anilchandra Banerjee observed:
“Almost every work in Indo-Persian literature has many terms of Indian origin, and thousands of Persian words have been naturalised in every Indian vernacular language. The mixing of Persian, Arabic, and Turkish words and ideas with Sanskrit languages and thoughts is particularly intriguing from a philological standpoint, and this coordination of the unknown culminated in the formation of the exquisite Urdu language. That language symbolised the synthesis of two formerly incompatible and mutually antagonistic civilizations, Hinduism and Islam.
Just History 