Rekhta

Rekhta (Urdu: ریختہ [ˈreːxtaː]; Hindi: रेख़्ता [ˈreːxtaː] Rekhtā) was an early form of the Hindustani language. This style evolved in both the Perso-Arabic and Nagari scripts and is considered an early form of Standard Urdu and Modern Standard Hindi. According to the Pakistani linguist and historian Tariq Rehman, Rekhta was a highly Persianized variant of Hindustani, exclusively used by poets. It was not only the vocabulary that was Persianized, but also the poetic metaphors, inspired by Indian landscapes and seasons, were abandoned in favor of the Persian ones i.e. bahār (spring) replacing barsāt (rainy season).

The 13th century Indo-Persian Muslim poet Amir Khusrau used the term Hindavi (Persian: ھندوی, lit. 'of Hind (hindustān) or India') for the 'Rekhta' dialect (the ancestor of Standard Urdu), the Persianized offshoot of the Apabhramsa vernacular Old Hindi, towards its emergence during the era of Delhi Sultanate, and gave shape to it in the Muslim literature, thus called "the father of Urdu literature". Other early Muslim poets, includes Baba Farid, who contributed in the development of the language. Later from the 18th century, the dialect became a literary language and was further developed by the poets Mir and Ghalib in the late Mughal period, and the term eventually fell out of use and came to be known as Hindustani, by the end of the century.