ABSTRACT
I n the opening chapter of this thesis, we have discussed at some length the history of the advent of Islām and its pioneers in southern India, and along with it the history of the introduction of Persian language in the Deccan. The regional language of Mahārāshtra, over which the Bahmanī Empire and its offshoots exercised their sway at a later stage was Marāṭhī in the regime of the Yādavas of Devagarh. With the arrival of a very large number of Muslim emigrants belonging to the cultured and literate classes, the necessity of a common cultural medium of expression became all the more urgent. The Persianized Muslims were new-comers and hence total strangers to the Deccan; moreover they were the standard bearers of a new faith. They came in the wake of their co-religionist conquerors and hence were no friends of the denizens of the Deccan. The vanquished natives of the soil naturally turned hostile to these unwelcome intruders and harboured deep suspicious about them. The Muslims who constituted the ruling class in the army were in a negligible minority, and the creation and development of an atmosphere of mutual trust and fellow feeling was a condition precedent to strength of the foundations of the Muslim power in the Deccan. This stabilization was only possible by methods of peaceful persuasion. The two conflicting cultures of Hinduism and Islām had therefore to discover a common meeting ground – a common path of least resistance – where they could coordinate their individual resources for the evolution of a common unified culture. But evolution of a common culture presupposed an intimate knowledge of each other. The emergence of a common dialect, known differently in different provinces, was the 347outcome of this cultural expediency in the historical process of our country.
