Meaning ‘scattered,’ but also ‘mixed,’ Rekhta was the Hindustani language that contained Persian and Hindvi/Hindi, as its dialect shifted to the Khari Boli dialect of Delhi. Urdu developed from this local dialect called Dehalvi, spoken in and around Delhi, which incorporated words from Turkish, Arabic and Persian in the 13th and 14th century. Hindavi, Dehalvi, Gujri ,Dakhini, Rekhta were the names given to the language which evolved from Hindustani to today’s Urdu. The first writer to popularise Hindavi, which he referred to as Dehalvi, was the prolific Amir Khusrau, credited as the father of Hindi and Urdu. As late as 18th century Mir Taqi Mir referred to the spoken language as Rekhta or Hindi.

Hindi was exchangeable with Rekhta till the 19th century as a name for the spoken language.

Woh kare baat toh har lafz se khushboo aaye,
Aisi boli wohi bole jise Rekhta aaye.
Every word they speak is fragrant,
Every time they speak, every word is fragrant,
These are the people who speak the Rekhta language.