Hindustani, presently represented by the official languages of India and Pakistan, Standard Hindi and Urdu, originated during the Mughal Empire, when the Persian court language exerted a strong influence on the Indo-Aryan dialects of central India, creating Rekhta or "mixed" speech. It is this which came to be known as Hindustani, was elevated to a literary language, and is the basis for modern standard Hindi and Urdu. Although these official languages are distinct registers in their formal aspects, such as modern technical vocabulary, they continue to be all but indistinguishable in their vernacular forms.
Most of the grammar and basic vocabulary of Hindustani descends directly from the medieval language of central India, known as Sauraseni. After the tenth century, several Sauraseni dialects were elevated to literary languages, or khari boli ("standing dialects"), including Braj Bhasha, Awadhi, and the language of Delhi; the latter still goes by the name Khari Boli in the rural areas outside the city of Delhi itself. During the reigns of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire, which used Persian as their official language and established their capital in Delhi, the imperial court and concomitant immigration infused the Delhi dialect with large numbers of Persian, Arabic, and Turkic words from the court, primarily nouns, for cultural, legal, and political concepts. The new court language developed simultaneously in Delhi and Lucknow, which is in an Awadhi-speaking area; thus modern Hindustani, though based primarily on Khari Boli, has a noticeable Awadhi influence.
Timeline of Hindi Evolution
Antiquity (Old Indo-Aryan)
600 BCE: late Vedic Sanskrit.
500 BCE: Prakrit texts of Buddhists and Jains originate (Eastern India)
400 BCE: Pāṇini composes his formal Sanskrit grammar (Gandhara), reflecting transition from Vedic to formal Pāṇinian (Classical) Sanskrit
322 BCE: Brahmi script inscriptions by Mauryas in Prakrit (Pali)
250 BCE: first records of Classical Sanskrit. [Vidhyanath Rao]
100 BCE-100 CE: Sanskrit gradually replaces Prakrit in inscriptions
320: The Gupta or Siddha-matrika script emerges.
Middle Ages
400: Apabhramsha in Kalidas's Vikramuurvashiiya
550: Dharasena of Valabhi's inscription mentions Apabhramsha literature
779: Regional languages mentioned by Udyotan Suri in "Kuvalayamala"
769: Siddha Sarahpa composes Dohakosh, considered the first Hindi poet
800: Bulk of the Sanskrit literature after this time is commentaries. [Vidhyanath Rao]
933: Shravakachar of Devasena, considered the first Hindi book.[citation needed]
1100: Modern Devanagari script emerges
1145-1229: Hemachandra writes on Apabhramsha grammar
Islamic empires
Islamic empires in India in the late Medieval to Early Modern period.
1283: Amir Khusro's pahelis and mukaris. Uses term "Hindavi"
1398-1518: Kabir's works mark origin of "Nirguna-Bhakti" period
1370-: Love-story period originated by "Hansavali" of Asahat
1400-1479: Raighu: last of the great Apabhramsha poets
1450: "Saguna Bhakti" period starts with Ramananda
1580: Early Dakkhini work "Kalmitul-hakayat" of Burhanuddin Janam
1585: "Bhaktamal" of Nabhadas: an account of Hindi Bhakta-poets
1601: "Ardha-Kathanak" by Banarasidas, first autobiography in Hindi
1604: "Adi Granth" a compilation of works of many poets by Guru Arjan Dev.
1532-1623: Tulsidas, author of "Ramacharita Manasa".
1623: "Gora-badal ki katha" of Jatmal, first book in Khari Boli dialect (now the standard dialect)
1643: "Reeti" poetry tradition commences according to Ramchandra Shukla
1645: Shahjahan builds Delhi fort, language in the locality starts to be termed Urdu.
1667-1707: Vali's compositions become popular, Urdu starts replacing Persian among Delhi nobility. It is often called "Hindi" by Sauda, Meer etc.
1600-1825: Poets (Bihari to Padmakar) supported by rulers of Orchha and other domains.
Colonial period
Modern Hindi literature emerges during the Colonial period.
1796: Earliest type-based Devanagari printing (John Borthwick Gilchrist, Grammar of the Hindoostanee Language, Calcutta) [Dick Plukker]
1805: Lalloo Lal's Premsagar published for Fort William College, Calcutta [Daisy Rockwell]
1813-46: Maharaja Swati Tirunal Rama Varma (Travancore) composed verses in Hindi along with South Indian languages.
1826: "Udanta Martanda" Hindi weekly from Calcutta
1837: Shardha Ram Phillauri, author of "Om Jai Jagdish Hare" born
1839,1847: "History of Hindi Literature" by Garcin de Tassy in French [Daisy Rockwell]
1833-86: Gujarati Poet Narmad proposed Hindi as India's national language
1850: The term "Hindi" no longer used for what is now called "Urdu".
1854: "Samachar Sudhavarshan" Hindi daily from Calcutta
1873: Mahendra Bhattachary's "Padarth-vigyan" (Chemistry) in Hindi
1877: Novel Bhagyavati by Shardha Ram Phillauri
1886: "Bharatendu period" of modern Hindi literature starts
1893 Founding of the Nagari Pracharini Sabha in Benares [Daisy Rockwell]
1900: "Dvivedi period" starts. Nationalist writings
1900: "Indumati" story by Kishorilal Goswami in "Sarasvati"
1918-1938: "Chhayavad period"
1918: "Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachara Sabha" founded by Mahatma Gandhi.
1929: "History of Hindi Literature" by Acharya Ram Chandra Shukla
1931: "Alam Ara" first Hindi talking movie
1930's: Hindi typewriters ("Nagari lekhan Yantra") [Shailendra Mehta]
1936: Kamayani, the most celebrated Hindi epic poem, written by Jaishankar Prasad
Post-Partition
The 1947 partition of India sees the separation of Hindustani (Khariboli) into two standardized dialects, Urdu and Standard Hindi.
1949: Official Language Act makes the use of Hindi in Central Government Offices mandatory
1949-50: Hindi accepted as the "official language of the Union" in the constitution. Debates a, b, c.
1952: The Basic Principles Committee of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan recommends that Urdu be the state language.
1958: definition of Modern Standard Hindi by the Central Hindi Directorate
1965: Opposition to "Blind Hindi-imposition by Congress" in Tamil Nadu, where Tamil- the predominant Dravidian language, lives brings Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to power. Congress lost its base.
1975: English medium private schools start asserting themselves socially, politically, financially [Peter Hook].
1985-6: Devanagari word processor, Devyani DTP software, both from Dataflow.
1987-88: Frans Velthuis creates Devanagari metafont. [Shailendra Mehta]
1990: According to World Almanac and Book of Facts Hindi-Urdu has passed English (and Spanish) to become the second most widely spoken language in the world [Peter Hook].
1991: ITRANS encoding scheme developed by Avinash Chopde allows Hindi documents in Roman and Devanagari on the Internet.
1997: Prime Minister Deve Gowda emphasises promotion of Hindi and the regional languages, having himself learned Hindi recently.
1997: Hindi Newspaper Nai Dunia on the web (January) (Or was Milap first?)
1998: Thiru Karunanidhi, the DMK leader, recites a Hindi verse during a political campaign, indicating a change in views.