Rajasthani

Rajasthani is the Western Indo-Aryan language group of Rajasthan and neighboring Malwa, Gujarat and Sindh, embracing Marwari and several other varieties, with a literary standard built chiefly on Marwari. Its roots lie in the Gurjar Apabhramsha, whose grammar was described by the Jain scholar Hemachandra.

A distinct Rajasthani speech is noted in sources from the 700s, although a shared linguistic identity crystallized only in the 1700s. Old Western Rajasthani, also called Dingal, was the medium of Charan bards, who composed heroic couplets and court chronicles; Pingal blended it with the Brij Bhasha used by Krishna poets.

Long written for trade in the Mahajani script, Rajasthani later shifted to Devanagari in India and to a Perso-Arabic hand among merchants settled in Sindh.