Charyapada

The Charyapada is a collection of mystical poems, songs of realization in the Vajrayāna tradition of Buddhism from the tāntric tradition in Assam, Bengal, Bihar and Odisha.

It was compiled between the c. 1000-1200 CE, in late Apabhraṃśa or various Abahaṭ‌ṭha dialects, representing the formative stage of the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages. It was written during a period when the northeastern Prākrit languages had not yet differentiated into later forms, or they were just getting differentiated. Scholars of many eastern Indo-Aryan languages, such as Assamese, Bengali, Maithili, and Odia find features of these languages in the language of this work. A palm-leaf manuscript of the Charyāpada was rediscovered in the early 20th century by Haraprasād Shāstrī at the . The Charyāpada was also preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist canon.