kahani

Kahani is a Hindustani noun meaning "story" or "tale." It is widely used in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, and other languages of the Indian subcontinent to refer to narratives of various lengths and genres, from folktales and anecdotes to literary fiction.

Etymology and scripts: Kahani derives from Sanskrit kathā, meaning "story" or "tale." The word is written as कहानी in Devanagari (used for Hindi and related languages), as کہانی in the Perso-Arabic script used for Urdu, and as কাহিনি in Bengali. In transliteration it appears as kahānī, often rendered as kahani or kahaani.

Usage and nuance: In contemporary Hindustani, kahani frequently denotes a short story or narrative within a larger work, though Urdu literature also uses afsāna for certain types of tale with particular connotations. In everyday speech, a personal anecdote may be described as a kahani. The term appears in titles of literary, film, and media works to emphasize narrative content and storytelling.

Cultural context: Kahani is tied to both oral and literate traditions, serving to convey morals, history, humor, and cultural values. It functions as a basic unit of storytelling in education, journalism, entertainment, and community life, and it continues to evolve with modern media and digital storytelling while retaining its core meaning of a narrative.