WESTERN

HINDI  , the Indo-Aryan language of the middle and upper Gangetic Doab, and of the country to the north and south . It is the vernacular of over 40,000,000 people . Its standard dialect' is Braj Bhasha, spoken near Muttra, which has a considerable literature mainly devoted to the religion founded on devotion to Krishna . Another dialect spoken near Delhi and in the upper Gangetic Doab is the original from which Hindostani, the great lingua franca of India, has developed (see HINDOSTANI) . Western Hindi, like Punjabi, its neighbour to the west, is descended from the Apabhramsa form of Sauraseni Prakrit (see PRAKRIT), and represents the language of the Madhyadesa or Midland, as distinct from the intermediate and outer Indo-Aryan languages .