The Hindi language is a direct descendant of Sanskrit and dates back to 769 AD. The language gained prominence over time, known initially as Old Hindi and spoken in the areas around Delhi. It is the earliest stage of the Delhi dialect, serving as the ancestor both for Modern Hindi and Urdu. This first version of the language was written in the Devanagari script.

Between the 8th and 10th centuries (during the time of Islamic invasions and the formation of Muslim control in Northern India), the Afghans, Persians, and Turks adopted Old Hindi as a shared tongue of interaction with the local populace around Delhi. With time, the language evolved and adopted loanwords from Arabic and Persian. They account for around 25% of Hindi vocabulary today!

Speaking and learning Hindi as a first language was popular in the 13th and 15th centuries, around the same time that early Hindi writing in literature surfaced. Examples of famous literature written in the Hindi language include Prithviraj Raso and the works of Amir Khusrow. This version of the language went by several different names over the years, including Hindi, Hindustani, Dahlavi, and Hindavi, or –more simply – the language of India.