RAS question
The work 'Khaliq Bari', often attributed to Amir Khusrau, is historically significant primarily because it is:
Correct answer: (B) One of the earliest known bilingual Hindi-Persian lexicons/vocabularies.
Khaliq Bari is historically significant as an early bilingual vocabulary or lexicon associated with the Hindi-Hindavi and Persianate literary world, though its attribution to Amir Khusrau is not settled.
Explanation
Khaliq Bari matters because it is a vocabulary work, not a biography, music treatise or qawwali collection. It is a Hindi-Hindavi vocabulary linked to Persianate literary culture, and NCERT does not treat the attribution to Amir Khusrau as a settled fact. Dawn's Literary Notes supports that caution: it describes Khaliq Bari as a versified bilingual glossary and says it was used as a bilingual dictionary for educational purposes, while also noting the long scholarly debate over who wrote it. That is why option B is the best answer: the historical significance lies in the work's lexical role and language contact, not in any court biography, music theory or Sufi performance tradition.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Khaliq Bari is a vocabulary or glossary work, so calling it the first Persian biography of a Delhi Sultan changes both its genre and subject.
- (C) The work is identified with vocabulary and lexicography, whereas a treatise on Hindustani classical music theory would belong to a different scholarly genre.
- (D) A collection of Sufi qawwalis would be a musical-poetic corpus, but Khaliq Bari is discussed as a bilingual vocabulary or lexicon.
Concept
This tests medieval Indian cultural history, especially the interaction of Persianate literary culture with Hindi-Hindavi forms. RAS repeats such points because attribution, language development and genre identification often decide the correct option.