Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c7.17

c7.17

The madrasahs and maktabs were confined to Muhammadans, but by this time Hindus and Muhammadans had begun to study one another's languages. The sacred language of Islām was, of course, Arabic, but Persian was the court language of the Muhammadan conquerors of India, and a knowledge of Persian, and perhaps sometimes also of Arabic, would be necessary for Hindus who held important offices under government. The appointment of Hindus to such offices was beginning to take place. Fīrūz Shāh, for instance, gave to two Hindus very responsible posts in his administration.¹ The Muhammadans also were beginning to translate Hindu books into Persian, which involved a knowledge of the Hindu languages. In the reign of Sikandar Lodī the movement developed greatly,² and it was about that time that the study of Persian by Hindus began in earnest. The intercourse between the Muhammadans and Hindus led to the formation of a new language which came to be called Urdu.³ It is an application of Western Hindi to the common purposes of all classes. It is generally written in Persian characters and has many words of Arabic and Persian origin. The word Urdu means literally 'camp', but the Mughals of India used it only with regard to the Imperial Camp.⁴ Urdu was thus the 'camp language' in that sense.