Urdu Literature in India

Urdu literature is a vast field of immense knowledge and rich literary works by famous poets and writers. Though Hindi and Urdu have the same root, they have developed and evolved on distinct lines. Urdu language literature has basically drawn much inspiration from Persian literature. Even today, Urdu has many words that belong to Persian, Arabic and Turkish languages. Hindi has drawn inspiration mainly from Sanskrit. A unique blend of all these languages can be found in the literature in Urdu language, which can be called an amalgamation of the richest languages.

The vocabulary of Urdu language has an enormous reserve of literary words that are absolutely meaningful and beautiful. The refinement and elegance of Urdu language is due to its rich vocabulary. The most noted poet who gave the first push to Urdu poetry was Amir Khusro, who is still revered today, centuries after his death. His poems are still read with much enthusiasm and compassion by poetry lovers all over the world. The strongest developmental phase of Urdu poetry was during 16th and 17th century that saw the emergence of many famous poets and writers during the Muslim reign in Deccan, Bijapur and Golconda in India.

The 18th century saw the refinement of words and many forms of writing like Ghazals, nazms, Doha etc. came into use. The start of 19th century saw the rich works of Urdu being translated into modern Urdu in the Fort William College, Calcutta. The rhyming proses of ancient period also thrived in the early 19th century. The holy book of the Muslims, Quran was translated into Urdu language in the year 1803. In the modern times, the Osmania University founded in 1918 in Hyderabad uses Urdu language as the medium of instruction of education.