It is for this reason that historian and author Nile Green, in The Persianate World (2019), describes Persian as a transregional contact language. Story continues below this adBeyond administration, Persian shaped the vocabularies of music and games: tabla, sitar, rubab, shahnai, nagara, sarod; and shatrank, tash, patang, caugan (polo), kushti, and pahalvani. The birth of UrduAccording to Bahri, the most significant Persian influence on Hindi lay in the rise of the Urdu language and literature. By the nineteenth century, India was producing more Persian dictionaries than Iran. The turning point came in 1832–37, when the Company replaced Persian with Urdu (and later other vernaculars) in administration.

Source: Indian Express March 26, 2026 19:52 UTC