Braj bhasha

Braj Bhasha (also Braj Bhāṣā) is the Indo-Aryan language of the Braj region centred on Mathura and Vrindavan — the cultural homeland of Krishna in Hindu tradition. From the 15th to the 19th centuries it was the dominant literary language of northern India for poetry, particularly in the bhakti (devotional) movement: Surdas, Nandadas, Bihari, and Tulsidas all wrote major works in Braj. Modern speaker numbers are smaller because urban speakers have shifted to Standard Hindi, but Braj remains a vibrant living language in its rural heartland and an important register in Krishna-devotional music (kirtan, bhajan, dhrupad).