For instance, why did a Sant write in Nagari Rekhta? Why did a Persian poet or an Avadhi Sufi mix Hindavi and Persian? Whatever their motivations, all these cases speak of an awareness of multiple literary models. Various factors that would lead one to consider a broader range of texts and tastes that lay before poets and writers in those times are examined. Its aim is to move away from the received historical narratives of Hindi and Urdu, and look afresh at the textual material available in order to attempt a more complex picture of the north Indian literary culture that is more attuned to the nuances of register, accent, language choice, genre and audiences. The essays in this volume reassess the definition and identity of language in the light of this. Historically the divisions between Hindi and Urdu were not as sharp as we imagine them today. Yet, pre-colonial India was a deeply multilingual society with multiple traditions of knowledge and literary production.

Today, Hindi and Urdu are considered two separate languages, each with its own script, history, literary canon and cultural orientation. Based on a workshop on 'Intermediary Genres in Hindi and Urdu', Before the Hindi and Urdu Literary Culture is an attempt to rethink aspects of the literary histories of these two languages.

Out Of This Earth by Felix Padel