in literary and cultural spheres. Many distinctly Persian forms of literature, such as ghazals and nazms, came to both influence and be affected by Indian culture, producing a distinct melding of Middle Eastern and South Asian heritages. A famous cross-over writer was Amir Khusro, whose Persian and Hindavi couplets are read to this day in the subcontinent. Persian has sometimes been termed an adopted classical language of South Asia alongside Sanskrit due to this role. See also Linguistic history of India Hindustani etymology List of Hindi-language authors List of Urdu-language writers References External links An introduction to the Hindustani language History of Hindustani Hindustani language Indo-European language histories Hindustani Hindustani Hindustani Hindustani Hindustani