The rediscovery of the Charyapada is credited to Haraprasad Shastri, a 19th-century Sanskrit scholar and historian of Bengali literature who, during his third visit to Nepal in 1907, chanced upon 50 verses at the Royal library of the Nepalese kings. Written on trimmed palm leaves of 12.8×0.9 inches in a language often referred to as sāndhyabhāṣa or twilight language, a semantic predecessor of modern Bengali, the collection came to be called Charyapada and also Charyagiti by some. At that time, Shastri was a librarian of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, and was engaged in a self-assigned mission to trace and track ancient Bengali manuscripts. His first and second trips to Nepal in 1897 and 1898 met with some success, as he was able to collect a number of folkloric tales written in Pali and Sanskrit. However, after he rediscovered the treasure manuscripts in 1907, he published this collections in a single volume in 1916. According to some historians, there may very likely have been at least 51 original verses which were lost due to absence of proper preservation. Based on the original Tibetan translation, the book was originally called Charyagitikosh and had 100 verses. The scrolls discovered by Shastri contained selected verses.
The original palm-leaf manuscript of the Charyapada, or Caryācaryāviniścaya, spanning 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 (Buddhist Songs and Couplets) in 1916 under the name of Charyacharyavinishchayah. This manuscript is presently preserved at the National Archives of Nepal. Prabodhchandra Bagchi later published a manuscript of a Tibetan translation containing 50 verses. The Tibetan translation provided additional information, including that the Sanskrit commentary in the manuscript, known as Charyagiti-koshavrtti, was 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.
The language of the 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. Attempts have been made to decipher the secret tantric meanings of the Charyapada.
Haraprasad Shastri, who rediscovered the Charyapada, conjectured that it was written during the 10th century. However, according to Suniti Kumar Chatterji, it was composed between 10th and 12th century. Prabodh Chandra Bagchi upholds this view. Sukumar Sen, while supporting this view, also states that the Charyapada could have been written between the 11th and 14th centuries. However, Muhammad Shahidullah was of the opinion that the Charyapada dates back to an even earlier time. He maintained that it was likely to have been composed between 7th and 11th century. Rahul Sankrityayan thought that the Charyapada was probably written between 8th and 11th century.
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. Vidhushekhara Shastri, on the basis of evidence from a number of Buddhist texts, later referred to this language as 'Intentional Language' (Sanskrit: Sandha-bhasha).
The padas were written by poets from different regions, and it is natural that they would display linguistic affinities from these regions. Different scholars have noted the affinities of the language of the Charyapada with Assamese, Odia, Bengali, and Maithili.
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 are:
Genitive -era, -ara;
Locative -Te;
Nominative -Ta;
Present indefinite verb -Ai;
Post-positional words like majha, antara, sanga;
Past and future bases -il-, -ib-;
Present participle -anta;
Conjunctive indeclinable -ia;
Conjunctive conditional -ite;
Passive -ia-
Substantive roots ach and thak.
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.
Raga: Pada
Patamanjari: 1, 6, 7, 9, 11, 17, 20, 29, 31, 33, 36
Gabadā or Gaudā: 2, 3, 18
Aru: 4
Gurjari, Gunjari or Kanha-Gunjari: 5, 22, 41, 47
Devakri: 8
Deshākha: 10, 32
Kāmod: 13, 27, 37, 42
Dhanasi or Dhanashri: 14
Rāmakri: 15, 50
Balāddi or Barādi: 21, 23, 28, 34
Shabari: 26, 46
Mallāri: 30, 35, 44, 45, 49
Mālasi: 39
Mālasi-Gaburā: 40
Bangāl: 43
Bhairavi: 12, 16, 19, 38
While some of these Rāgas are extinct, the names of some of these Rāgas may actually be variant names of popular Rāgas we know today.
Many poems provide a realistic picture of early medieval society in eastern India and Assam (e.g. Kamarupa, by describing different occupations such as hunters, fishermen, boatmen, and potters). Geographical locations, namely Banga and Kamarupa, are referred to in the poems. Two rivers which are named are the Ganga and Yamuna. River Padma is also 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 ceremonies are also given.