[1] Urdū is a Turkish word meaning a camp or army with its followers, and is the origin of the European word horde. Rēkhta means “scattered, strewn,” referring to the way in which Persian words are intermixed with those of Indian origin; it is used chiefly for the literary form of Urdū.
[2] The only known exceptions are a work in Hindī called the Chaurāsī Vārtā (mentioned below) and a few commentaries on poems; the latter can scarcely be called literature.
[3] A fresh critical edition of the text by Paṇḍit Mōhan Lāl Vishnu Lāl Paṇḍia at Benares, under the auspices of the Nāgarī Prachārinī Sabhā, had reached canto xxiv. in 1907.
[4] See J.A.S.B. (1886), pp. 6 sqq.
[5] Annals and Antiquities, ii. 452 n. and 472 n.
[6] Worshippers of the energic power—Śaktī—of Śiva, represented by his consort Pārvatī or Bhawāní.
[7] Quoted from G. A. Grierson, chapter on “Literature,” in the India Gazetteer (ed. 1907).
[8] The worship of Krishna is as old as Megasthenes (about 300 B.C.), who calls him Herakles, and was then, as now, located at Mathurā on the Jumna river. That of Rāma is probably still more ancient; the name occurs in stories of the Buddha.
[9] Religious Sects of the Hindus, p. 40.