By Admin 
Today is Hindi Day. In such a situation, the question becomes interesting whether the Mughals knew Hindi or not? Actually, when Mughal came to India, he came with his mother tongue, but over time he also had a deep connection with local languages and culture.
After defeating Ibrahim Lodi in the first battle of Panipat in 1526, Babur laid the foundation of the Mughal Empire in India. Babur came from the Fargana Valley (today’s Uzbekistan) and brought with him Türkiye and Chagatai languages. The mother tongue of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, was Chagatai, whose clear proof is his autobiography Babarnama, which was written in this language.
What was the official language of administration?
With the passage of time, the Mughal emperors started to connect deeply to Indian art, culture and local languages. Despite this, the official language of the administration and the court remained Persian, while he kept Turkey as his family and mother tongue.
The mother tongue of Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty, was Chagatai and Türkiye. But due to the deep impact of Persian in Central Asia and political relations, the Mughals created their official language Persian.
- Babarnama of Babur was written in Chagatai.
- Akbar’s court historian Abul Fazal wrote in Akbarnama and Ain-e-Akbari Persian.
- Jahangir’s autobiography Jahangiranama is also in Persian.
- Dara Shikoh translated the Persian of the Upanishads and the Gita.
Connection with Hindi and Hindustani
As the empire increased in India, the Mughal contact with the local people and culture deepened. The need for dialogue pulled him towards the Indian language.
- Hindustani was a mixture of Sanskritist Hindi, local dialects, Persian and Türkiye.
- In military camps, this language and development started to be called Urdu.
- At that time, Hindustani and Urdu were considered almost the same, the difference was only of the script- in Hindustani Devanagari, Urdu was written in Arabic-Persian script.
Protection of Hindi literature
The Mughals may use Persian for administrative work, but also gave protection to Hindi literature and poets. In this period, the devotional movement was at its peak. Tulsidas gave direction to both devotion and society by writing Ramcharitmanas. Surdas composed Krishna devotional literature and remained associated with Akbar’s court. Kabir hurt the evils of society from couplets and positions.
Bahadur Shah Zafar and Hindustani Literature
The last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar himself was a good poet. Some people consider him to be Urdu poet, while some Indian poets. Overall, he was the creator of the language that grew up on the land of India.
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