Old Hindi

During the Muslim rule in India, Old Hindi began acquiring loanwords from the Persian language, which led to the development of Hindustani.

[3][4] It is attested in only a handful of works of literature, including some works by the Indo-Persian Muslim poet Amir Khusrau, verses by the Vaishnava Hindu poet Namdev, and some verses by the Sufi Muslim Baba Farid in the Adi Granth.

[5][6] The works of Bhakti Hindu poet Kabir also may be included, as he used a Khariboli-like dialect.

[7] Some scholars include Apabhraṃśa poetry as early as 769 AD (Dohakosh by Siddha Sarahapad[8][9]) within Old Hindi,[10] but this is not generally accepted.

The term Hindi literally means Indian in Classical Persian, and was also called Hindustani to denote that it was the language of Hindustan's capital during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire.