Dakhni: It is a dialect spoken by a community of people in the Deccan region, with a strong literary background. You would have experienced it while walking the bustling streets of Hyderabad, Bangalore, or Mumbai, where amidst the cacophony of modern life, you would have heard the melodious tones of Dakhni - a dialect as rich and diverse as the land it calls home.
This dialect, born from the union of Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu/Persian influences, is not only a means of communication, but is a living archive of Deccan's history. It carries within its words and phrases, the echoes of past empires and the resilience of the communities present today. From the courts of the Delhi Sultanate, to the chai stalls of today's urban landscapes, Dakhni has been a prominent voice of poets, philosophers, and people.
Dakhni often goes unnoticed and overshadowed by its more prominent linguistic cousins, despite its contemporary relevance and historic significance. This exploration of mine seeks to change that narrative. I invite you to discover the nuances of Dakhni's evolution, to appreciate its the cultural tapestry and to understand why its preservation is crucial for India's linguistic heritage.
Problem statement: Most of the muslim communities in the deccan region speak Dakhni but, they themselves don’t know about it due to lack of awareness and hence, they just term it as Urdu or Hyderabadi Urdu/Hindi.
Introduction
Dakhni literally means the Deccan and hence, the people who speak Dakhni are termed as Dakhnis or Decannis in english. It is predominant in the Deccan region - Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and a few parts of Kerala. Dakhni is often confused with Urdu or Hyderabadi urdu, but it’s not so. It has its roots back from the time of emergence of the Delhi sultanates. Dakhni is a language of the Deccan, speakers don’t usually write it and people who speak consider it as a form of Urdu. But then its had its own history and evolution in the Deccan region of India.
Dakhni History
This dates back to late 1200’s to 1300’s where Alauddin Khilji wins over the Yadava Kings and gains the kingdom.It all started with Mohammed-Bin-Tughlaq, the then Delhi sultanate when they had conquered and expanded their rule to the deccan for the first time. Under Tughlaq, the reach expanded and they reached all the way till Madurai, Tamil Nadu covering other states such as karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Bengal. So Tughlaq after conquering wanted to consolidate and hence, he thought Daulatabd in Maharashtra would best fit as the capital for his entire rule. Because, Daulatabad was a region at the centre and he could govern more efficiently.
During this time, vernacular languages were just emerging and literature work had started. According to records, Dakhni originated from a language widely spoken in the then Delhi, that is Old Dehlavi and this language wasn’t a literary language then. It was basically spoken by the common people. The speech of Delhi slowly transmuted to the deccan now - Daultabad, near Aurangabad. After a few years, Tughlaq moved back the capital to Delhi but still people in Daulatabd had the essence and presence of the language was established.
Another phase of historic moment, Timur invades Delhi and other parts of India. Hence, to escape from him, many Delhi people moved to Daulatabad and they spoke the same language and thereby, increasing the north indian base in the deccan region.
Eventually as history always takes its own turn, Delhi sultanates lost control of the Daulatabad region, due to its distance from Delhi and other political powers. Then the local nobles in Daualtabad declared independence and re-establised their own kingdom which came to be known as the Bahmani sultanate. This formation took place due to the internal revolts in 1347.
The first coronation of the Bahmani sultan was at Daulatabad but then they felt that it was relatively to north and not south, so they moved it to Gulbarga which was a major city in the Kalyani Chalukyas. Then again, it was moved to Bidar which became the new capital.
Even after so much happened, this language had not developed a literary form but, spoken by a large number. I have been mentioning it as ‘this language’ since sometime so now as it has been well established we can call it - DAKHNI.
A medieval Deccani Muslim horseman
The Language
Dakhni is a mix of many languages such as Persian, Urdu, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil and Old Dehlavi. This language came into existence around the 14th century and has been evolving and spoken by many Muslims of the Deccan in the 21st century. The grammar of Dakhni includes Dravidian languages as the region always brings a connect with the language established and has many influences. Hence, Dakhni is a mixture of languages.
Many sentences or words spoken in Hyderabad or Bengaluru can be translated word by word into a Dravidian language with total sense. For example, ek paanch (5) minute, the same thing in kannada will be - ondhu eidu (5) nimusha. And words like nakko, manjhe are Marathi influenced words and as Marathi has some Persina influence therefore, Dakhni can be said to have Persina influence as well but not as much as dravidian languages.
The language that Hyderabadi’s speak or commonly known as Hyderabadi Urdu/Hindi is actually Dakhni but, people actually don’t know about it due to lack of awareness.
Dakhni has had its own evolution in the Deccan and hence, it is a product of the Deccan.
“Dakhni is an Indo-Aryan language, which was transplanted in the Deccan region following Mohammed bin Tughlaq’s decision to move the capital of the Delhi Sultanate to Daulatabad in 1937.”
Dakhni Poems and Literature
Dakhni actually emerged as a literary language with an amazing poem - Kadam Rao Padam Rao, written by Fakhruddin Nizami in the late 15th century at Bidar, capital of the Bahmani Sultanate.
“This picture is the earliest available manuscript in Dakhini masnavi that has 4000 lines, written during 1421-1434 AD.”
'Khavarnamah', Bijapur, ca 1649 depicting Jamshid Shah with his consort and followers.
‘Credit: British Library IO Islamic 834, f 70’
The shrine or Bijapur dargah is not just a place of religious worship and it goes beyong that. In its entrance there are 15 couplets written in an incredible calligraphic hand, its content is mostly spiritual and talks about the Sufi idea of achieving union with god and his wisdom.
According to a report by the Archaeological Survey of India, this is “perhaps the largest single inscription to be found on a Muslim tomb in India, and indeed, even on other buildings, too.”
Surprisingly, these verses are not written in Persian or Arabic as most of us might think, but in Dakhni, the mother tongue of most of the Muslims in the Deccan region.
Dakhni poetry consistently incorporated local place names, seasonal references, plants, animals, and even Hindu deities and festivals. It favored Sanskrit and indigenous Dakhni terms over Persian and Arabic, and it often celebrated the Deccan region with great enthusiasm. These characteristics in the verse expressed the profound sense of belonging experienced by the people of the Deccan.
The narrative of literary Dakhni took a poignantly tragic turn, following the fall of Bijapur and Golconda to Aurangzeb’s forces. In less than a decade after the inscription was issued, the Dakhni literary tradition was nearly eradicated. The decline of the region's elites led to the loss of both their voice and their verse. Over time, this tradition slipped from the collective memory of the Deccan. MN Sayeed, former head of the Urdu department at Bangalore University and a scholar of Dakhni literature, notes that today, literary Dakhni is largely known only to specialists. He remarked, “Most Dakhni speakers are unaware that epic poetry was once composed in their language.”
This makes Dakhni as the community’s low variety, and Standard Urdu its high variety. The courtly Dakhni literature tradition came to a stop with the defeat of the Deccan Sultanates. This language moved down to homes and streets, a position or rank that has not been recovered yet. In today’s world, the speakers of this language use a north indian based Standard Urdu for literary purposes whereas, Dakhni is commonly spoken by people and not used for formal work. This linguistic state is called diglossia, in which a low variety is used by speakers and a high variety for formal texts only. Thereby, making Dakhni as the people’s low variety and Standard Urdu as its high variety.
As Dakhni is only widely spoken and not a written language with a combo of dialects of a written language, it goes through a lot of pressure from Standard Urdu, which is based on the dialect of Delhi and hence, very different from the Deccan variant.
Zabiulla, an assistant professor of Urdu at Bengaluru’s Maharani College from Bidar, has contributed significantly in preserving Dakhni’s rich oral tradition. He was worried by the decline of usage of Dakhni proverbs and the loss of its unique vocabulary. The only solution to preserve them was to write down and document them, otherwise this language will die out. These documented proverbs will help the future generations, especially children to read and understand them from records.
So he started his research into how Dakhni originated and evolved including its works from the Delhi Sultanate period of Mullah Wajhi’s Sabras written in Golconda and Nizami’s Kadam Rao Padam Rao that was written in Bidar. Zabiulla also got some help from a bus conductor named
Zakir from BMTC - Karnataka state government transport corporation. Zakir as a conductor came in contact with many Dakhni speaking folks and he noted down whatever the people said and sent it to Zabiualla.
With all these information gathered, Zabiulla compiled, analysed and recorded a collection of Dakhni sayings that were published in Urdu under the title “Daknī Kahāvatẽ (Dakhni sayings).” These saying present the readers with a wide-range and variety of proverbs that were used by speakers across the Deccan region. The various sayings are categorised by eleven themes that are indexed alphabetically. Dakhni Kahavate also has an introduction to the history of Dakhni literature. Each of these proverbs are followed by an explanation in Standard Urdu that makes the book accessible beyond the Deccan itself.
With the splintering of the Bahmani Sultanate, Bijapur and Golconda rose to become centres of political power in the region, eventually also evolving into cultural loci for the production of courtly literature in Dakhni. The Dakhnis were perpetually in conflict with the Afaqis, or westerners, who were primarily immigrants from Persia. While the Dakhnis represented local elites, the Afaqis were part of transregional, cultural and commercial networks that linked myriad polities within the Persian cultural cosmopolis. Each faction was associated with its own mode of cultural production, shaped by these same allegiances and orientations.
The patterns of cultural production in the Deccan sultanates responded to the needs of both the Dakhnis and the Afaqis, indicating “a process of localization while maintaining old trans-regional affiliations and identities,” Roy Fischel, a researcher of Deccan history at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, argues in a 2015 paper.
Qawwali is a form of Sufi music predominantly sung in dargahs.
Dakhni Art & Painting
Dakhni or deccani art is a painting form that represents Indian miniature painting which was produced in the Deccan region of Central India. Primarily these were various muslim capitals of the deccan sultanates that emerged after the Bahmani sultanate was split in the year 1520. Mostly the Deccan paintings focussed on subjects such as leisure and were laidback in nature.
There are three different and distinct schools of paintings reported rom the Deccan sultanates viz., Bijapur, Golconda and Ahmednagar.
The Bijapur school: This School of paintings were mostly developed during the rule of Ali Adil Shah and his successor Ibrahim 2. This style has influences from the Persian culture, which inturn has majorly contributed to the Hindu culture. The paintings in the Bijapur style are defined by rich jewelry, prominent personalities wearing long muslin attires and pointed turbans.
Ahmednagar school: This is a rare school when compared to other styles because Ahmednagar was independent only for a short period of time. These paintings mostly represent “gentle emotions and brilliant colours” that had inspiration from Italian paintings of the 14th-century. Both of these school of paintings have plain gold backgrounds. These paintings are depicting the influences of ‘Indian Humanism, an interest in the mass and rhythms of the human body’. Some of these early paintings are a collection of 12 illustrations that attribute to the reign of Hussain Nizam Shah I. It was titled as “Taarif-i-Husain Shahi” and written by Aftabi. One of the unusual characteristics of this series was the representation of Women in the paintings. For eg. 6 out of the 12 illustrations had the portrayal of the queen.
“Painting of Ikhlas Khan who was the chief minister of Mohammed Adil Shah and the then Sultan of Bijapur.”
Golconda School: The Golconda Style is a mixed style that had inspiration from the miniatures of Ottoman, Mughal and Persian paintings along with the style used by Bijapur schools. Very few paintings from this school are now available because most of the Royal collections were totally destroyed during the conquest by the Mughals. The Bijapur schools represent poignant romanticism versus refined dignity representations of the Ahmednagar schools. The Golconda style have a strong rhythm and represent the Indian Classical dance forms that are heavily carved on temple facades. These paintings illustrate the influence of both the Persian and Hindu Culture. One of such paintings is the ‘Kulliyat of Muhammed Quli’s Poetry’ that is available at the Museum of Salar Jung at Hyderabad.
“Sultan Abdullah Qutub Shah of Golconda, enthroned with dancers and attendants, c. 1630. British Museum”
Deccan Specialty:
This is a ‘composite animal’ which represents a large animal painting within which are many small images of various animals. One such one is the composite Buraq and the elephant. Elephants have been extensively used by Deccan kings and are represented in their lives and the art of Deccan courts. Other forms of animals and flora were less common in the Deccan paintings when compared to those of the Mughal paintings. Even if they occur, they are seen to have a less realistic style complemented with a ‘fanciful palette of intense colours’. Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur was one of the most prominent patrons of this style and he was a very accomplished musician, poet and painter himself.
“Ibrahim Adil Shah II riding his favourite elephant Atash Khan, Bijapur, c. 1600.[20] Private collection.”
Deccan paintings were known to flourish in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, however they declined gradually as the Mughals conquered the Deccan around 1650’s, after which the people had adopted a sub-Mughal style.
“Visit of sufi-singer Shir Muhammad to Sultan Abul Hasan Qutb Shah. The Deccan was the cradle for Sufism, with thousands of Sufis making it their home. This painting depicts Sultan Abul Hasan Qutb Shah, the last sultan of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, with his courtiers in an outdoor setting of what appears to be a palace. Musical instruments such as Sitars can be seen. Abul Hasan Qutb Shah built the Gosha Mahal palace for his harem in 1680s, which is the last remaining palace of the Qutb Shahi dynasty.”
Dakhni Culinary Heritage:
As the kings of India were shifting sultanates, trying to find their perfect kingdom, creating shifts and rifts in communities, one such community started from the outskirts of the then Delhi and their following generations continued to travel through Maharashtra, Hyderabad, Karnataka and lastly reached Tamil Nadu. The Dakhni community carried with them the secrets of the kings, an amalgamation of culture and language of the lands they traveled through. Of all their secrets, food recipes that were never documented are the real treasure.
Dakhni recipes are unique, as they were born with the community that traveled through different lands of India, adapting dishes to the local ingredients. Today, the dishes of the Dakhni community are revered and relished by their friends during grand ceremonies like weddings. These recipes have been kept as a closed secret amongst the Dakhni people and have been handed down for many generations.
Slow-cooked gravies, with long and complicated procedures. A variety of spices and these recipes have been passed down from generations in Dakhni families by word of mouth.
Lets dive into a few Dakhni delights;
Dilkush - is a bread stuffed with coconut and tutti-fruity that originated during the colonial period. It is also known as Dilpasand by many and it was a snack made for the Britishers to enjoy during tea time.
Badam ki Jali - is a biscuit or cookie made of badam.
Kaali mirchi ka Phaal - a mutton or chicken spicy pepper gravy with unique tangy flavours. Usually eaten with parota, idly, dosa and even bread at times.
Dal Gosht - It is a unique combo of dal and mutton cooked in a masala format of onions, tomato, green chillies and various spices and herbs.
Hareera - It is a healthy drink made of milk, dry fruits such as pista, badam, dry grapes and jaggery. Some articles say that hareera keeps the body cool and fresh.
Haleem - A type of stew made up of wheat flour, mutton or chicken, onions and spices cooked very slowly and long procedures to follow while cooking.
Halwa puri - Made usually on Muharram, is a flattened puri stuffed with coconut and jaggery.
Dakhni Folks in the Contemporary Times:
As all of us use social media in this generation we will be aware of many influencers on youtube, instagram or facebook. And a few among them make a lot of comedy dakhni reels and videos.
Younus Ahned, Danish Sait, Zoha Sanoufer, Rida Tharana even Jord Indian and many others.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the preservation of Dakhni is of greatest importance. As a unique linguistic and cultural heritage of the Deccan region, Dakhni plays a vital link to the region's rich history and diverse traditions. By safeguarding and promoting Dakhni, we not only honor the legacy of our ancestors but also enrich our contemporary cultural landscape. Preserving this language encourages a deeper understanding and appreciation of our shared heritage, ensuring that future generations can connect with their roots and continue to celebrate the vibrant tapestry of Dakhni culture.
