Tariq Rahman, speculating about Akbar’s proficiency in Indian dialects in Language, Ideology and Power, notes that the great Mughal used a Hindustani obscenity on at least one occasion. On Abul Fazl’s testimony, when Akbar was about to kill Adham Khan he exclaimed ‘ay gandu!’ before punching the traitor in the face. (The relevant line from Abul Fazl reads Hazrat ba zaban Hindustani farmudand ke ai kandu, or in translation, ‘My sire said in the Hindustani tongue, O catamite!’)
Dmitry Oparin interviews Vasily Kharitonov for the Russia Program: Vasily
Kharitonov is a linguist at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian
Academy o...
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Thanks for this!
The first part of the post is here.
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