ভাবসাধকদের চর্যাপদের গানের পুনর্জাগরণের একযুগপূর্তি উপলক্ষ্যে চর্যাপদ পুনর্জাগরণ উৎসব ২০২৫ On the occasion of the a decade anniversary of the revival of the Charyapada songs of the Bhavasadhaks:Charyapad Revival Festival 2025

Abstract

This report documents the Charyapad Revival Festival 2025, organized to mark a decade of sustained efforts toward the revival of Charyapada songs among the Bhāvasādhaks of Bangladesh. Charyapada, the earliest extant corpus of Bengali lyric poetry, has historically been approached primarily through philological and literary scholarship since its discovery in Nepal in 1907 and publication in 1916 by Haraprasad Shastri. Over the past decade, however, the Bhabanagar Foundation has sought to restore Charyapada as a living musical and spiritual practice, reconnecting it with vernacular sādhanā traditions, particularly within Baul–Fakir lineages.

Held from 9–11 July 2025 at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, the festival brought together nearly one hundred Baul and Fakir practitioners from across Bangladesh, alongside scholars and cultural workers. Artists associated with the historic Paharpur Buddhist Monastery region—widely regarded as a formative cultural landscape of Charyapada—played a central role, highlighting regional continuity and community-based transmission. The inaugural session featured collective performances of Charyapada songs and included the ceremonial unveiling of the festival souvenir Sahajananda as well as the festival edition cover of Bhabanagar: International Journal of Bengal Studies, underscoring the integration of practice-based revival with scholarly documentation.

The opening ceremony was graced by the France-based Lalon-inspired spiritual guide Fakir Deborah Jannat as Chief Guest, whose reflections and musical presentation emphasized bodily discipline, surrender, and pluralistic spirituality as key to understanding Charyapada today. A major intellectual and performative highlight was the music-seminar keynote by Professor Dr. Keith E. Cantú of Harvard University, who traced historical and philosophical continuities linking Charyapada with Atiśa Dīpaṅkara Śrījñāna, Sahajiyā traditions, Islamic Sufi thought, and the songs of Lalon Sai.

Through large-scale collective performances, practitioner-led discussions, and hands-on training workshops, the festival reaffirmed Charyapada as living intangible cultural heritage. It demonstrated how community-centered revival initiatives can reanimate early literary traditions as contemporary cultural practices, contributing meaningfully to heritage safeguarding at both national and international levels.