The Charyapada are a collection of mystical poems, songs of realization in the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism from the tantric tradition in Assam, Bengal, Bihar and Odisha.[1][2]
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It was written between the 8th and 12th centuries in late Apabhraṃśa or various Abahattas and represents formative period of the new Indo-Aryan languages.[3][4][5] Many Bengali scholars, including Suniti Kumar Chatterji, argue that the Caryāpada hymns were written in Old Bengali. Some Maithili scholars claim that the Caryāpada hymns are also written in some form of Old Maithili. Some scholars also include other Eastern IA languages such as Early Assamese and Old Odia as well.[6][7][8] A palm-leaf manuscript of the Charyāpada was rediscovered in the early 20th century by Haraprasad Shastri at the Nepal Royal Court Library.[9] The Charyapada was also preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist canon.[10]
The language of the Caryas is late Apabhramsa, and represents the formative period of the NIA languages including Asamiya.
Muhammad Shahidullah described the branch of Prakrit prevelant in the Bengal region as 'Gauri Prakrit'. This Prakrit gradually evolved into apabhramsa, and then into abahatta, which is, more or less, the language of the Charyapada.
This is clearly evident, for instance, in the case of the celebrated Buddhist hymns called the Caryapada, composed in eastern India roughly between AD 1000 and 1200. Though the language of these hymns is Old Bengali, there are reference works on Assamese, Oriya and even Maithili that treat the same hymns as the earliest specimens of each of these languages and their literatures.
Around 1000 AD, when Bengali, Oriya and Assamese not yet distinguishable as separate languages, the remarkable, mystical Buddhist Charyapada songs were composed. They were discovered in a manuscript at Kathmandu and first published in 1916. They are claimed as the foundation of the literary tradition of all three languages.