Context: The campaign for the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana, particularly in Hyderabad, was marked by exchange of comments and comebacks in the Dakhni language.
About Dakhni Language:
Introduction:
- Dakhni shares the Persian-Arabic script with Urdu.
- Dakhni people and speakers are spread across the Deccan region and speak variants of the language in Telangana, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.
- The language is seen as the Hyderabadi, but what Hyderabadis speak is only a variant of Dakhni.
- It is a predecessor of Modern Hindustani.
- Since the medieval period, it has been a language of the common man.
- This was the reason why the Sufis such as those belonging to Chishti order, who arrived in the Deccan chose to use Dakhni as a literary medium.
History
- It has its origins in the dialect spoken around Delhi then known as Dehlavi. In the early 14th century, this dialect was introduced in the Deccan region through the military exploits of Alauddin Khilji.
- In 1327, Muhammad bin Tughluq shifted his Sultanate's capital from Delhi to Daulatabad (Maharashtra), causing a mass migration of governors, soldiers and common people who brought the dialect with them.
- When Bahmani Sultanate was formed in 1347, the dialect had acquired the name Dakhni, from the name of the region itself (Deccani) and had become a lingua franca for people of the region.
- The Bahmani sultans promoted Persian, and did not give much patronage to Dakhni.
- However, during their rule, local Dakhni literary culture outside the court developed.
- The Sufis were important promoters. as they used it in their preachings since regional languages were more accessible (than Persian) to the general population.
- During this period, the earliest available manuscript of the language, ‘Masnavi Kadam Rao Padam Rao’ by Fakhruddin Nizami was produced.
- In the early 16th century, the Bahmani Sultanate was divided into the Deccan Sultanates.
- These were also Persianate in culture, but also patronised regional languages.
- They are largely responsible for the development of the Dakhni literary tradition and culture, centred at Golconda and Bijapur.
- The rulers themselves participated in these cultural developments. Ibrahim Adil Shah II of the Bijapur Sultanate produced Kitab-e-Navras (Book of the Nine Rasas), a work of musical poetry written entirely in Dakhni.
- However, the Sultanates did not use Dakhni for official purposes or as a court language, they preferred Persian as well as regional languages like Marathi, Kannada, and Telugu.
- The Mughal conquest of the Deccan by Aurangzeb in the 17th century connected the southern regions of the subcontinent to the north.
- The Deccani poetry, as literary patronage in the region decreased.
- The literary centres of the Deccan had been replaced by the capital of the Mughals, so poets migrated to Delhi for better opportunities.
- A notable example is that of Wali Deccani (1667–1707), who adapted his Deccani sensibilities to the northern style.
- However, the historical form of Deccani sparked the development of Urdu literature during the late-Mughal period.