Kanha or Kanhapad was one of the poets of Charjapad, the earliest known example of bangla literature. He was a tantric buddhist and his poems in Charjapad are written in a code, whereby 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.
Kanha is also a leading contemporary Bangla magazine of poetry and poetry-related essays named after the Charjapad poet.
Originally, Kanha meant Krishna.