Hindavi was the language from old times; when the Ghurids and Turks arrived [in India], Persian began to be used and every high and low person learne… - Amir Khusrau

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Hindavi was the language from old times; when the Ghurids and Turks arrived [in India], Persian began to be used and every high and low person learned it … As I belong to India, it is only fitting that I talk about it. There is a different, original language in every region of this land. Sindhi, Lahori, Kashmiri, Kibar, Dhaur Samundari, Tilangi, Gujar, Ma'bari, Gauri, the languages of Bangalah, Avadh, Delhi and its environs, all these are Hindavi, i.e., Indian languages, current since the olden days and commonly used for all kinds of speech. There is yet another language that is favoured by all the Brahmins. It is known as Sanskrit since ancient times; common people do not know it, only the Brahmins do, but one single Brahmin cannot comprehend its limits. Like Arabic, Sanskrit has a grammar, rules of syntax, and a literature … Sanskrit is a pearl; it may be inferior to Arabic but is superior to Dari … If I knew it well I would praise my sultan in it also.

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About Amir Khusrau

Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253 – 1325), better known as Amīr Khusrow Dehlavī, was a Sufi musician, poet and scholar from the Indian subcontinent.

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Alternative Names: Amir Khusrow Amir Khusrau Dihlavi Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusro Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau Amir Khushrow Dehlavi Amīr Khusraw Dihlavī Amir Khosrow
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Praise be to God!, that he (the sultan) so ordered the massacre of all the chiefs of Hindustan out of the pale of Islam, by his infidel-smiting sword, that if in this time it should by chance happen that a schismatic should claim his right, the pure Sunnis would swear in the name of this Khalifa of God, that heterodoxy has no right.

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But sometimes neither the passage of time nor indeed death could remove the [racial] barriers. The remains of the Iranian Mir Murtaza Shirazi, who was earlier buried near the Indian Amir Khusrau, were ordered by Emperor Akbar “to be removed and buried elsewhere”, on the representation of Shaikh-ul-Islam, who pleaded that the two deceased would find each other’s company a torture.

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