Kauravi (Hindi: कौरवी, Urdu: کَوروی), also known as Khaṛībolī, is a dialect of Hindustani descended from Shauraseni Prakrit that is mainly spoken in northwestern Uttar Pradesh, outside of Delhi.

[7][8] As the two main Hindustani dialects of Western Uttar Pradesh and the areas surrounding Delhi, Khariboli and Braj Bhasha are often compared.

One hypothesis of how Khariboli came to be described as khari (standing) asserts that it refers to the "stiff and rustic uncouthness" of the dialect compared to the "mellifluousness and soft fluency" of Braj Bhasha.

[9] On the other hand, Khariboli supporters sometimes pejoratively referred to Braj Bhasha and other dialects as Pariboli (Hindi: पड़ी बोली, Urdu: پڑی بولی, lit.

The area around Delhi has long been the center of power in northern India, and naturally, the Khari Boli dialect came to be regarded as urbane and of a higher standard than the other surrounding languages.

[14] The European administrators in India and the Christian missionaries played an important role in the creation and promotion of the Khariboli-based modern Hindustani.

John Borthwick Gilchrist, a president of that college, encouraged his professors to write in their native tongue; some of the works thus produced were in the literary form of the Khariboli dialect.

[16] Urdu, the heavily Persianised version of Khariboli, replaced Persian as the official language of local administration in North India in the early 19th century.

However, the association of the Persian script with Muslims prompted Hindus to develop their own Sanskritised version of the dialect, leading to the formation of Hindi.