HINDUSTANI LANGUAGE AND LIT ERATURE. Hindustani is the name given to the current vernacular of northern India. In structure it is based originally on a branch of the ancient Sanskrit, descended from a sister dialect and strongly modified by the various forms of Prakrit during the Middle Ages. The name Hindustani itself is derived from mod ern Persian —Hindi (Indian). Hindustani is split up, however, into some 60 subdialects, and these, while all strongly resembling each other, are shading off one into the other according to geographical boundaries, so that in the east ern region they rather tend toward Bengali and in the southern and western toward Mara thi and Gujerati. The territory within which Hindustani is spoken in its various types is the most densely populated in India, for on but 248,000 square miles it is inhabited by 100, 000,000 souls. The dialect of Hindustani en joying a sort of pre-eminence is the Braj Bhasha, which prevails in the region of Delhi, Agra and Muttra. Hindustani contains also in varying degree a strong admixture of Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Tartar, as well as many words of Dravidian and Kolarian. When the latter is considerable, Hindustani is termed Urdu, meaning in Turkish °camp," "army? and the term itself as well as the facts it stands for go back to the Mongolian and Turanian invasions of the 12th and subsequent centuries. It was Urdu which became the accepted court dialect at Delhi, but a literary form of Urdu, richer in Persian elements, came to be known as Rekhta. During the last hundred years, however, by dint of strenuous efforts of gram marians and teachers, Hindustani has been greatly purified and purged of elements not cognate. Upon this purified Hindustani again has been conferred the appellation of Hindi, or High Hindustani.
As for its makeup Hindustani is an analyt ical tongue. Like modern Persian and also like other dialects of India it has had its grammar greatly simplified. Tenses, cases, etc., are indicated by means of prepositions, auxiliary verbs, etc. However, there are at least two genders, two numbers, two voices and nine tenses. Many of its constructions resemble analogous English ones closely, as *I am going to seen main dekhtingar "I am seeing,' mass dekhto Min,. etc. Hindi and Hindustani are
both written with the characters of the Devanagari alphabet, as are Sanskrit and Marathi. But Urdu, faithful to its mixed origin, uses the Perso-Arabic script, with three additional characters to represent specifically Indian sounds.
Hindustani literature is very abundant, al though with few exceptions of mediocre qual ity. Its oldest achievement is the epic of Chand Bardai, the Risaii? dating some 700 years back, in which the long sad story of the last Hindu ruler at Delhi is told. Deo? by Sarangdhar, about 1363 describes the heroic fight made against the Sultan Aladdin Khilji, in 1300. The same author also wrote the allammir Kivya? and the aliammir Rims? similar warlike tales in epic form.
uChattra-Pralcits? by Lil Kabi, is a long chronicle reciting the deeds of Rajah Chattarstil, who was killed in the battle of Dholpitr, won by Aurangzeb, in 1658. °Padmisvatl another epic, written in 1540, had a Mohammedan, Malik Mohammed, for its author. The poem, written in the purest dialect of Avanti, is based on the loss of his throne of Delhi by Humayin. The literature of the Bhagats, worshippers of Vishnu and adherents of a purified form of Brahmanism, is very extensive and has no doubt exercised. much influence on national Hindustani speech. The name, Bhagats, means "Children of the God.' In the line of fiction, the ("Old Stories') are notable.
Bibliography.— Catalogue of Hindustani Printed Books in the British Museum (London 1889) ; Fallon, S. W., 'New Hindustani Eng lish Dictionary) (ib. 1879) ; Green, A. 0, 'Practical Hindustani Grammar) (Oxford 1895) ; Grierson, Sir G. A., 'Modern Vernacular Literature of (Calcutta 1889) ; 'Specimens of the Eastern Hindi Languages' (ib. 1904) ; Hoernle, A. F. R., 'Comparative Grammar of the Gandian Languages) (London 1880) ; Kellogg, S. H., 'Grammar of the Hin dustani Language' (2d ed., ib. 1893) ; Palmer, E. H., 'Simplified Grammar of Hindustani) (3d ed., ib. 1890) ; Tassy, J. H. S. V. Garcin de, 'Histoire de la litterature hindoue et bin doustanie) (Paris 1870-71, 3 vols.) ; Tod, Col. James, 'Annals and Ambiguities of Rajasthan) (London 1829-32) ; Vinson, E. H. J., 'Manuel de la langue hindoustanie) (Paris 1899).