Awadhi, also known as Audhi, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh in northern India and in Terai region of western Nepal. The name Awadh is connected to Ayodhya, the ancient city, which is regarded as the homeland of the Hindu god Rama. It was, along with Braj, used widely as a literary vehicle before being displaced by Hindi in the 19th century.
Queen Nagamati talks to her parrot, Padmavat, 1750 C.E.
Lovers shoot at a tiger in the jungle. From the mystical Sufi text Madhumalati.
Image: 5 Illustration from the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas (1532–1623) Jodhpur, c. 1775; 62.7 x 134.5 cm Mehrangarh Museum Trust
Image: 7 Rama's Army reaches Lanka from the Ram Charit Artist Unknown, ca. 1780, 63x 125.8cm Mehrangarh Museum Trust
The Indo-Aryan languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal. Moreover, apart from the Indian subcontinent, large immigrant and expatriate Indo-Aryan–speaking communities live in Northwestern Europe, Western Asia, North America, the Caribbean, Southeast Africa, Polynesia and Australia, along with several million speakers of Romani languages primarily concentrated in Southeastern Europe. There are over 200 known Indo-Aryan languages.
Early Indo-European migrations from the Pontic–Caspian steppe
