The emergence in eighteenth-century India of literary compositions that used the elite registers of what was, at the time, called ‘Rekhtah’, and later defined as Urdu, is poorly understood. Conventionally, after an initial infatuation in Delhi with the works of Vali Dakhani,1 a mid-century break is assumed, exemplified by the revision of Zuhur ud-Din Hatim’s Divan as Divanzadah in the 1750s. Scholars have viewed this as a radical intervention in the creation of Urdu, which excised old vernacular models and embraced further Persianization. This article re-examines the evidence, combining methodologies from literary and historical studies. It points to the continuities present in Hatim’s revision, including sustained engagement with Vali, even as Hatim attempted to appeal to new audiences, incorporating new trends alongside older literary models. Foregrounding literary networks and arenas of poetic practice shows the limited impact of the proscriptions and literary criticisms voiced by Hatim’s critics. In studying the contested space of literary aesthetics and linguistic shifts against self-fashioning within changing networks, this article demonstrates that the relationship between the Persianate and vernacular sphere continued to be generative, rather than oppositional or hierarchical.

18 世纪印度出现了使用当时称为“Rekhtah”（后来被定义为乌尔都语）的精英语域的文学作品，人们对此知之甚少。按照惯例，在德里最初迷恋 Vali Dakhani 的作品后，1世纪中叶出现了中断，例如将 Zuhur ud-Din Hatim 的Divan修订为Divanzadah在1750年代。学者们将此视为对乌尔都语创建的激进干预，乌尔都语删除了旧的白话模型并接受了进一步的波斯化。本文重新审视证据，结合文学和历史研究的方法。它指出了 Hatim 修订版中存在的连续性，包括与 Vali 的持续接触，即使 Hatim 试图吸引新观众，将新趋势与旧文学模型结合起来。突出文学网络和诗歌实践的舞台显示了哈蒂姆的批评者所表达的禁令和文学批评的有限影响。在研究文学美学和语言转变与不断变化的网络中自我塑造的竞争空间时，