Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Charyapada" in English language version.
The Charyāpadas of Old Bengali have also been claimed for Old Assamese ... Some Oriyā scholars, like those of Assam, regard the speech of the Charyāpadas to be the oldest form of their language. The Maithils have also made the same claim.
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 prevalent 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.
The Charyāpadas of Old Bengali have also been claimed for Old Assamese ... Some Oriyā scholars, like those of Assam, regard the speech of the Charyāpadas to be the oldest form of their language. The Maithils have also made the same claim.
