The Indo-Aryan (`Arya`) family of languages is one of the most significant language families of India, as also the world. These languages are direct descendants of Sanskrit, all of them employing the primeval Devanagari script. This family form a subgroup of the Indo Iranian languages, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages.

The various Indo-Aryan languages are classified into 3 chronological categories:

Ancient/Old Indo-Aryan languages, constituting Sanskrit.

Intermediate Indo-Aryan languages or Bibhasas - This family comprises Uttari (Northern) Bibhasa, Madhyi (Central) Bibhasa and Dakshini (Southern) Bibhasa.

Modern Indo-Aryan languages or Prakrits - These largely comprise the modern languages of India.

Of these, languages in the first two categories have gone extinct, whereas, Sanskrit has been preserved as the revered language of the Vedas and other scriptures hallowed to the Aryan Vishnuite religion.

The Prakrits are in turn classified into geographical categories of:

Madhyi Prakrits or Central Indo-Aryan or Aryavartan languages

Purbi Prakrits or Eastern Indo-Aryan languages

Deccani Prakrits or Southern Aryan languages

An additional category, the Uttari Prakrits, has vanished into oblivion. These sub-language families in India in turn, possess earlier and later stages. Hence, for instance, Old Oriya is known as Odri, Old Marathi as Maharashtri, Old Gujarati as Saurashtri etc.

According to a research accomplished in 2005, there exists approximately 209 varieties of Indo-Aryan languages. The largest spoken languages in this group comprise Hindustani, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Nepali, Oriya and Sindhi, with 900 million native speakers. The earliest evidence of Indo-Aryan language is found in Vedic Sanskritic verses, the language used to pen ancient texts of India. Spanning from 7th century to 5th century, Sanskrit language was codified and standardised by the well-known and now-legendary grammarian Panini. In course of time, Prakrits seized the place of Sanskrit. With a continuing passage of time, precisely somewhere in the medieval period, Prakrits got divided into many branches with Middle Indic dialects.

`Apabhramsa` was the term that was coined for transitional dialects, linking up Middle Indic with early Modern Indic, commencing from the 6th to the 13th centuries. The languages that were formed from Apabhramsa were Bengali and Hindi. Other languages, which are a part of this category, include Gujarati, Oriya, Marathi and Punjabi. A major breakthrough came in the form of Muslim invasion in India. With the advent of Mughal rule, Persian became the most substantial language in Islamic courts. However, Urdu was soon to replace Persian. In this manner, the highly enigmatic Indo-Aryan language family began spreading its wings with each passing century. Urdu was the ultimate amalgamation of Persian and Arabic, accompanied by the grammar of local dialects.

The main form of Indo-Aryan language in the Hindi speaking areas was Braj-Bhasha, whose traces can still be found today. However in 19th century, Braj-Bhasa was replaced by the Khari Boli dialect. Towards the mid 20th century, when India attained Independence, Hindustani, a mishmash of Urdu and Hindi, was replaced by Hindi itself. The modern Hindi vocabulary, which is derived from Perso- Arabic, became the official language of India. However, in present times, there can be seen a continuation of Hindi-Urdu, with heavily Persianised Urdu and Sanskritised Hindi with the rules of grammar remaining the same. The Indian populace speak somewhere in between, i.e. Hindustani.

History and Development of Indo-Aryan Languages
The Bibhasa stage elucidates about the gradual development of this significant Indian language family. The Brahmana texts mention that by 700 B.C.

The following languages had germinated from Aryan:

Udicya or Northern in NW Punjab.

Madhyadesiya eastern Punjab and West Uttar Pradesh.

Pracya or Eastern Oudh eastern Uttar Pradesh Bihar and probably a fourth.

Daksinatyi or Southern: Southern Rajputana and Malwa towards Deccan.

These languages had further developed into Prakrits by the first millennium A.D. Prakrits and Apabrahmsas include Avanti (Malwa), Takki (Northern Punjab) Kekaya (Western Punjab), Vracada (Sind), Gaudi (North Bengal) and Audri (Orissa) etc.

Linguistic Characteristics of Indo-Aryan Languages

Grammar - Grammar of these Indian language family pretty intimately pursues Sanskrit. Most languages further possess eight grammatical cases like Sanskrit.

Writing Systems - The writing system is essentially Devanagari, just like the script for Sanskrit.

Vocabulary - The overmastering preponderance of words are wholly received from Sanskrit. The fractional division in general goes past 80 percent, often reaching 90 percent.