Urdu is also referred to as:

Urdu is often called "Lashkari Zaban", meaning the "language of the army camp". The word "Urdu" itself comes from the Turkish word "ordu", meaning an army or camp (the same root as the English word "horde"). The language developed from about the 12th-13th century onwards in the military camps and markets of North India under the Delhi Sultanate and later the Mughals, where soldiers and traders who spoke Persian, Arabic, Turkish and local dialects mixed together.

Urdu grew from the local Khari Boli dialect spoken around Delhi, with a large vocabulary borrowed from Persian, Arabic and Turkish. Its other historical names include:

Hindavi or Hindvi: used by Amir Khusrau.

Rekhta (meaning "scattered" or "mixed"): used especially for Urdu poetry.

Zaban-e-Urdu-e-Mualla: "the language of the exalted camp", referring to the Mughal court at Delhi.

Dakhni: a southern form that developed in the Deccan sultanates.

Facts about Urdu:

It is an Indo-Aryan language, closely related to Hindi. In everyday speech, Hindi and Urdu are very similar, and together they are sometimes called "Hindustani". The main differences are in script and in the vocabulary used for formal and literary purposes.

It is written in the Perso-Arabic script, in a style called Nastaliq, from right to left.

It is in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, and is an official or additional official language in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana and Jammu and Kashmir. It is the national language of Pakistan.

Famous Urdu poets include Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Ghalib, Muhammad Iqbal and Faiz Ahmad Faiz. Wali Dakhani is often called the father of Urdu poetry.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Dev Bhasha (language of the gods) is a name for Sanskrit.
• ✗Brajbhasha was the language of Surdas's Krishna poetry.
• ✗Pali is the language of the Theravada Buddhist scriptures.