Charyapada

Discovery

The credit of discovering Charyapad goes to Haraprasad Shastri,a 19th century sanskrit scholar and historian of Bengali literature who during his third visit to Nepal in 1907 chanced upon 47 verses at the Royal library of the Nepalese kings. Written in a language, often referred to as Sandhya Bhasa or Twilight Language, a semantic predecessor of today's Bengali, the collection which are essentially Buddhist mystical songs came to be called Charyapada' and also Chayagiti by some. Haraprasad Shastri at that time was a librarian of Asiatic Society, Calcutta and was engaged in a self-assigned mission to trace and track ancient Bengali Manuscripts. His first and second trip to Nepal in 1897 and 1898 partly met with success as he could only collect a good number of folklore written in Pali and Sanskrit. However after he discovered the treasure manuscripts in 1907, all written on trimmed palm leaves having the size of 12.8x0.9 inches, Shastri published this collections in a single volume in 1916. According to a section of historians the original numbers of verses, in all probability, were not less than 51 that were lost due to absence of proper preservation. (approx.).

Manuscripts

The original palm-leaf manuscript of the Charyapada, or Caryācaryāviniścaya, spreading 47 padas (verses) along with a Sanskrit commentary was edited by Shastri and published from Bangiya Sahitya Parishad as a part of his Hajar Bacharer Purano Bangala Bhasay Bauddhagan O Doha (Thousands years of The Buddhist Songs and Couplets in Bengali Language) in 1916 under the name of Charyacharyavinishchayah. This manuscript is presently preserved at the National Archives of Nepal. Later Prabodhchandra Bagchi published a manuscript of a Tibetan translation containing 50 verses.

The Tibetan translation provided additional information like the Sanskrit commentary in the manuscript known as Charyagiti-koshavrttiwas written by Munidatta. It also mentions that the original text was translated by Shilachari and its commentary by Munidatta was translated by Chandrakirti or Kirtichandra.

Poets

The manuscript of the Charyapada discovered by Haraprasad Shastri from Nepal consists 47 padas (verses). The title-page, the colophon-page,the pages 36, 37, 38, 39 and 66 containing the padas (verses) 24, 25 and 48 and their commentaries were missing in this manuscript. The 47 verses of this manuscript were written by 22 Mahasiddhas, or Siddhacharyas, whose names are mentioned at the beginning of each pada (except the first Pada). In the Tibetan Buddhist Canon version of the text and its commentary 50 padas are found, which include the padas 24, 25 and 48 and the complete form of the pada 23. Pada 25 was written by the Siddhacharya poet Tantripāda, who work was not found earlier. In his commentary on pada 10, Munidatta mentioned the name of another Siddhacharya poet, Ladidombipāda, but no pada written by him has been discovered so far.

The names of the Siddhacharyas in Sanskrit (or its Tibetan language equivalent) are mentioned prior to each pada. Probably, the Sanskrit names of the Siddhacharya poets were assigned to each pada by the commentator Munidatta. Modern scholars doubt whether these assignments are proper on the basis of the internal evidences and other literary sources. Controversies also exist amongst the scholars as to the original names of the Siddhacharyas.

The poets and their works as mentioned in the text are as follows:

Nature

The language of Charyapada is rather symbolic in nature. So in many cases the literal meaning of a word does not make any sense. As a result, every poem has a descriptive or narrative surface meaning but also encodes tantric Buddhist teachings. Some experts believe this was to conceal sacred knowledge from the uninitiated, while others hold that it was to avoid religious persecution. An attempt was made to decipher the secret tantric inheritance of Charyapada.

Period

Haraprasad Shastri, who discovered a few Charyapada, considered that it was written during the 10th century. However, according to Suniti Kumar Chatterji, Charyapada was composed between 10th and 12th century. Prabodh Chandra Bagchi upholds this view. Sukumar Sen while supporting this view maintained that Charyapada could have been written between 11th and 14th century. However, Muhammad Shahidullah was of the opinion that Charyapada dates back to earlier time. He maintained that it was likely to have been composed between 7th and 11th century. Rahul Sankrityayan thought that Charyapada was probably written between 8th and 11th century.

Controversies

There is controversy about meaning of some words. Different linguists have diverse opinion about the real meaning of certain words.

It has been said that Charyapada was written in early form of Bengali Scholars of other languages claimed that it was written in Assamese, Gujarati, Hindi, Maithili, Nepalese and Odia. Some scholars believe its words are more similar to Bishnupriya Manipuri rather than Bengali. It is claimed that Charyapada is the oldest record of Bishnupriya Manipuri literature.

Language

Haraprasad Shastri in his introduction to the Charyacharya-vinishchaya referred to the enigmatic language of its verses as "twilight language" (Sanskrit: Sandhya-bhasha), or Alo-andhari (half expressed and half concealed) based on the Sanskrit commentary of Munidatta. But later Vidhushekhara Shastri on the basis of evidences from a number of Buddhist texts referred to this language as 'Intentional Language' (Sanskrit: Sandha-bhasha).

The Charyapadas were written by poets from different regions, and it is natural that they would display linguistic affinities from these regions. Different scholars claimed the affinities of the language of Charyapada with Assamese, Bengali and Maithili.

Affinities with Assamese

Luipa was from Kamarupa and wrote two charyas. Sarahapa, another poet, is said to have been from Rani, a place close to present-day Guwahati. Some of the affinities with Assamese are:

Negatives – the negative particle in Assamese comes ahead of the verb: na jãi (No. 2, 15, 20, 29); na jivami (No. 4); na chadaa, na jani, na disaa (No. 6). Charya 15 has 9 such forms.
Present participles – the suffix -ante is used as in Assamese of the Vaishnava period: jvante (while living, No. 22); sunante (while listening, No. 30) etc.
Incomplete verb forms – suffixes -i and -iya used in modern and old Assamese respectively: kari (3, 38); cumbi (4); maria (11); laia (28) etc.
Present indefinite verb forms – -ai: bhanai (1); tarai (5); pivai (6).
Future – the -iva suffix: haiba (5); kariba (7).
Nominative case ending – case ending in e: kumbhire khaa, core nila (2).
Instrumental case ending – case ending -e and -era: uju bate gela (15); kuthare chijaa (45).

The vocabulary of the Charyapadas includes non-tatsama words which are typically Assamese, such as dala (1), thira kari (3, 38), tai (4), uju (15), caka (14) etc.

Affinities with Bengali

A number of Siddhacharyas who wrote the verses of Charyapada were from Bengal. Shabarpa, Kukkuripa and Bhusukupa were born in different parts of Bengal. Some of the affinities with Bengali can be found from Genitive in -era, -ara;
Dative in –re;
Locative in –ta;
Post-positional words like majha, antara, sanga;
Past and future bases in –il-, -ib-;
Present participle in –anta;
Conjunctive indeclinable in –ia;
Conjunctive conditional in –ite;
Passive in –ia-
Substantive roots ach and thak.

Affinities with Odia

The beginnings of Odia poetry coincide with the development of Charya Sahitya, the literature thus started by Mahayana Buddhist poets. This literature was written in a specific metaphor named “Sandhya Bhasha” and the poets like Luipa, Kanhupa are from the territory of Odisha. The language of Charya was considered as Prakrta. In his book (Ascharya Charyachaya) Karunakar Kar has mentioned that Odisha is the origin of Charyapada as the Vajrayana school of Buddhism evolved there and started female worship in Buddhism. Worship of Matri Dakini and the practice of "Kaya sadhana" are the outcome of such new culture. Buddhist scholars like Lakshminkara and Padmasambhava were born in Odisha. The ideas and experience of Kaya sadhana and Shaki upasana (worshiping female principle) which were created by Adi siddhas and have poetic expressions are found in the lyrics of Charyapada. These were the first ever found literary documentation of Prakrit and Apabhramsa which are the primitive form of languages of eastern Indian origin. The poets of Charyapada prominently are from this region and their thought and writing style has influenced to the poems in early Odia literature which is evidently prominent in the 16th century Odia poetry written majorly in Panchasakha period.

The language of Kanhupa's poetry bears a very strong resemblance to Odia. For example, :

Ekasa paduma chowshathi pakhudi
Tahin chadhi nachaa dombi bapudi

Paduma (Padma:Lotus), Chausathi (64), Pakhudi (petals) Tahin (there), Chadhi (climb/rise), nachaa (to dance), Dombi (an Odia female belonging to scheduled caste), Bapudi ( a very colloquial Odia language to apply as 'poor fellow' ) or

Hali Dombi, Tote puchhami sadbhabe.
Isisi jasi dombi kahari nabe.

Your hut stands outside the city
Oh, untouchable maid
The bald Brahmin passes sneaking close by
Oh, my maid, I would make you my companion
Kanha is a kapali, a yogi
He is naked and has no disgust
There is a lotus with sixty-four petals
Upon that the maid will climb with this poor self and dance.

some of the writing in Jayadeva's Gitagovinda have "Ardhamagadhi padashrita giti" (poetry in Ardhamagadhi) that is influenced by Charyagiti.

Melodies

From the mention of the name of the Rāga (melody) for the each Pada at the beginning of it in the manuscript, it seems that these Padas were actually sung. All 50 Padas were set to the tunes of different Rāgas. The most common Rāga for Charyapada songs was Patamanjari.

While, some of these Rāgas are extinct, the names of some of these Rāgas may be actually the variants of the names of the popular Rāgas as we know them today.

Glimpses of social life

Many poems provide a realistic picture of early medieval society in eastern India by describing different occupations of people such as hunters, boatmen, and potters. The geographical locations, namely Banga and Kamarupa, are referred to in the poems. Names of the two rivers that occur are the Ganga and Yamuna. River Padma has been referred to as a canal. No reference to agriculture is available. References to female prostitution occur as well. The boat was the main mode of transport. Some description of wedding ceremony is also available.

Translations

Produced below is English translation of the first verse of Charyapada. It was composed by Buddhist Siddhacharya poet Luipa.

This piece has been rendered into English by Hasna Jasimuddin Moudud.