Rekhta

This style evolved in both the Perso-Arabic and Devanagari scripts and is considered an early form of Modern Standard Urdu and Modern Standard Hindi. According to the Pakistani linguist and historian Tariq Rehman, Rekhta was a highly Persianized register of Hindustani, exclusively used by poets. It was not only the vocabulary that was Persianized, but also the poetic metaphors, inspired by Indian landscapes and seasons, were abandoned in favor of the Persian ones i.e. bahaar (spring) replacing barsaat (rainy season).

Rekhta
The poem of Ghalib, the notable poet of the 'Rekhta' dialect
Region	Around Delhi
Era	13th-18th centuries
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Central Zone Western Hindi Hindustani Rekhta
Writing system	Perso-Arabic (Urdu alphabet) Devanagari
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	rekh1239

The 13th century Indo-Persian Muslim poet Amir Khusrau used the term "Hindavi" (Persian: ھندوی, lit. 'of Hind or India') for the 'Rekhta' dialect (the ancestor of Modern Urdu), the Persianized offshoot of the Apabharamsa vernacular Old Hindi, towards its emergence during the era of Delhi Sultanate, and gave shape to it in the Islamic literature, thus called "the father of Urdu literature". Other early Muslim poets, includes Baba Farid, who contributed in the development of the language. Later from the 18th century, the dialect became the literary language and was further developed by the poets Mir and Ghalib in the late Mughal period, and the term eventually fallen out and came to be known as "Urdu", by the end of the century.

Rekhtā (from Persian verb ریختن [ɾeːxˈtan]) means "scattered" but also "mixed". The name was given to an early form of courtly literature in Delhi, where poems were made by combining Persian and early Hindustani (referred to as Hindavi or Dehlavi). Sometimes this was done by writing some lines of the poem in Persian, and others in Hindavi. Alternatively, both Persian and Hindavi could feature in a single line.

 

As Hindavi began to evolve into a literary language in the 18th century, the term Rekhta carried over to describe this new form. It denoted the Persianized, "high" form of Hindavi used in poetry, as opposed to the speech of the common population. The word was used alongside names like Urdu and Hindi. Its usage in this sense lasted into the 19th century, as evidenced by a sher of Mirza Ghalib:

ريختہ کے تُم ہی اُستاد نہیں ہو غالِبؔ
کہتے ہیں اگلے زمانے میں کوئی مِیرؔ بھی تھا

[ɾeːxt̪eː keː t̪ʊm hiː ʊst̪aːd nəɦĩː ɦoː ɣaːlɪb]

[kɛht̪eː hɛ̃ː əɡleː zəmaneː mẽː koiː miːɾ bʰiː t̪ʰaː]

By the eighteenth century however, the term Rekhta had largely fallen out of use and terms like Hindi, Hindustani and Urdu were favored.

Zehal-e-Miskin

Zehal-e-Miskin is the first ghazal in Urdu literature, written by Amir Khusrau, through combining the Old Hindi language Braj Bhasha (Hindavi) and Persian. This Persianised combination was later known as Rekhta (the ancestor of Modern Standard Urdu). The poem effectively conveys the agony experienced due to the distance from the beloved. This sentiment is skillfully portrayed through a remarkable fusion of both languages, resulting in a harmonious blend that enhances the overall impact of the poem.

• Dobhashi
• Persian and Urdu
• Rekhti
• Urdu poetry
• [[Rekhta Kultur & Kunskap Projekt / Rekhta Culture & Knowledge Project]]