The Bengali Calendar or Bangla Calendar ( bn, বঙ্গাব্দ , , Baṅgābda), colloquially ( bn, বাংলা সন, Baṅgla Śon), is a
solar calendar
A solar calendar is a calendar whose dates indicate the season or almost equivalently the apparent position of the Sun relative to the stars. The Gregorian calendar, widely accepted as a standard in the world, is an example of a solar calendar.
T ...
used in the
Bengal region of the
Indian subcontinent. A revised version of the calendar is the national and official calendar in Bangladesh and an earlier version of the calendar is followed in the
Indian states of
West Bengal,
Tripura and
Assam. The
New Year in the Bengali calendar is known as ''
Pohela Boishakh''.
The Bengali era is called ''Bengali Sambat'' (BS) or the ''Bengali year'' ( ''Bangla Sôn'', ''Bangla sal'', or ''Bangabda'')
has a zero year that starts in 593/594 CE. It is 594 less than the
AD or
CE year in the
Gregorian calendar if it is before ''Pôhela Bôishakh'', or 593 less if after ''Pôhela Bôishakh''.
The revised version of the Bengali calendar was officially adopted in Bangladesh in 1987.
[ Among the Bengali community in India, the traditional Indian Hindu calendar continues to be in use, and it sets the Hindu festivals.]
History
Buddhist/Hindu influence
Some historians attribute the Bengali calendar to the 7th century Bengali king Shashanka, whose reign covered the Bengali era of 594 CE. The term ''Bangabda'' (Bangla year) is found too in two Shiva temples many centuries older than Akbar
Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...
era, suggesting that a Bengali calendar existed long before Akbar's time.
Hindus developed a calendar system in ancient times. ''Jyotisha'', one of the six ancient Vedangas,[James Lochtefeld (2002), "Jyotisha" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 1: A–M, Rosen Publishing, , pages 326–327] was the Vedic era field of tracking and predicting the movements of astronomical bodies in order to keep time. The ancient Indian culture developed a sophisticated time keeping methodology and calendars for Vedic rituals.
The Hindu Vikrami calendar is named after king Vikramaditya and starts in 57 BC. In rural Bengali communities of India, the Bengali calendar is credited to "Bikromaditto", like many other parts of India and Nepal. However, unlike these regions where it starts in 57 BC, the Bengali calendar starts from 593 suggesting that the starting reference year was adjusted at some point.
Various dynasties whose territories extended into Bengal, prior to the 13th-century, used the Vikrami calendar
Vikram Samvat ( IAST: ''Vikrama Samvat''; abbreviated VS) or Bikram Sambat B.S. and also known as the Vikrami calendar, is a Hindu calendar historically used in the Indian subcontinent. Vikram Samvat is generally 57 years ahead of Gregorian Calen ...
. For example, Buddhist texts and inscriptions created in the Pala Empire era mention "Vikrama" and the months such as Ashvin, a system found in Sanskrit texts elsewhere in ancient and medieval Indian subcontinent.
Hindu scholars attempted to keep time by observing and calculating the cycles of sun (Surya
Surya (; sa, सूर्य, ) is the sun as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchayatana puja and a m ...
), moon and the planets. These calculations about the sun appears in various Sanskrit astronomical texts in Sanskrit, such as the 5th century ''Aryabhatiya'' by Aryabhata, the 6th century ''Romaka'' by Latadeva and ''Panca Siddhantika'' by Varahamihira, the 7th century ''Khandakhadyaka'' by Brahmagupta and the 8th century ''Sisyadhivrddida'' by Lalla. These texts present Surya and various planets and estimate the characteristics of the respective planetary motion. Other texts such as ''Surya Siddhanta'' dated to have been complete sometime between the 5th century and 10th century.
The current Bengali calendar in use by Bengali people in the Indian states such as West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and Jharkhand is based on the Sanskrit text ''Surya Siddhanta''. It retains the historic Sanskrit names of the months, with the first month as Baishakh.[ Their calendar remains tied to the Hindu calendar system and is used to set the various Bengali Hindu festivals.][
]
Influence of Islamic Calendar
Another theory is that the calendar was first developed by Alauddin Husain Shah (reign 1494–1519), a Hussain Shahi sultan of Bengal by combining the lunar Islamic calendar (Hijri) with the solar calendar, prevalent in Bengal. Yet another theory states that the Sasanka calendar was adopted by Alauddin Husain Shah when he witnessed the difficulty with collecting land revenue by the Hijri calendar.
During the Mughal
Mughal or Moghul may refer to:
Related to the Mughal Empire
* Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries
* Mughal dynasty
* Mughal emperors
* Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia
* Mughal architecture
* Mug ...
rule, land taxes were collected from Bengali people according to the Islamic Hijri calendar. This calendar was a lunar calendar, and its new year did not coincide with the solar agricultural cycles. According to some sources, the current Bengali calendar owes its origin in Bengal to the rule of Mughal Emperor Akbar
Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...
who adopted it to time the tax year to the harvest. The Bangla year was therewith called ''Bangabda''. Akbar asked the royal astronomer Fathullah Shirazi to create a new calendar by combining the lunar Islamic calendar and solar Hindu calendar
The Hindu calendar, Panchanga () or Panjika is one of various lunisolar calendars that are traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with further regional variations for social and Hindu religious purposes. They adopt a s ...
already in use, and this was known as ''Fasholi shan'' (harvest calendar). According to some historians, this started the Bengali calendar. According to Shamsuzzaman Khan, it could be Nawab Murshid Quli Khan, a Mughal governor, who first used the tradition of ''Punyaho'' as "a day for ceremonial land tax collection", and used Akbar's fiscal policy to start the Bangla calendar.
It is unclear whether it was adopted by Hussain Shah or Akbar. The tradition to use the Bengali calendar may have been started by Hussain Shah before Akbar. According to Amartya Sen, Akbar's official calendar "Tarikh-ilahi" with the zero year of 1556 was a blend of pre-existing Hindu and Islamic calendars. It was not used much in India outside of Akbar's Mughal court, and after his death the calendar he launched was abandoned. However, adds Sen, there are traces of the "Tarikh-ilahi" that survive in the Bengali calendar. Regardless of who adopted the Bengali calendar and the new year, states Sen, it helped collect land taxes after the spring harvest based on traditional Bengali calendar, because the Islamic Hijri calendar created administrative difficulties in setting the collection date.
Shamsuzzaman states, "it is called Bangla san or saal, which are Arabic and Parsee words respectively, suggests that it was introduced by a Muslim king or sultan."[ In contrast, according to Sen, its traditional name is ''Bangabda''.] In the era of the Akbar, the calendar was called as '' Tarikh-e-Elahi'' (). In the "Tarikh-e-Elahi" version of the calendar, each day of the month had a separate name, and the months had different names from what they have now. According to Banglapedia, Akbar's grandson Shah Jahan
Shihab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), better known by his regnal name Shah Jahan I (; ), was the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658. Under his emperorship, the Mugha ...
reformed the calendar to use a seven-day week that begins on Sunday, and the names of the months were changed at an unknown time to match the month names of the existing Saka calendar.[ This calendar is the foundation of the calendar that has been in use by the people of Bangladesh.]
Bengali calendar
The Bengali calendar is a solar calendar
A solar calendar is a calendar whose dates indicate the season or almost equivalently the apparent position of the Sun relative to the stars. The Gregorian calendar, widely accepted as a standard in the world, is an example of a solar calendar.
T ...
.[
]
Months
2018 Revision
In Bangladesh, the government planned to modify the old Bengali calendar again after 2018. The new changes to match national days with West. As a result of the modification (see table), Kartik will start on Thursday (17-10-2019) and the season of Hemanta is delayed by a day as the revised calendar went into effect from Wednesday (16-10-2019).
The year 1426 is under way in line with the Bengali calendar.
The Language Martyrs' Day of 21 February, Independence Day of 26 March and Victory Day of 16 December will fall on Falgun 8, Chaitra 12, and Poush 1, respectively of the Bengali calendar for next 100 years now as they did in the Gregorian calendar years 1952 and 1971, according to new rules. In the old Bengali calendar, 21 February fell on Falgun 9 earlier this year. After the change 16 December will fall on Poush 1, not on the second day of the month.
Bengali New Year will also fall on 14 April, Rabindra Joyanti of Baishakh 25 on 8 May and Nazrul Joyanti of Jaishthha 11 on 25 May.
The Bengali calendar had been revised twice earlier (see below). Astrophysicist Dr Meghnad Saha led the first revision in the 1950s ( Indian national calendar) and Dr Muhammad Shahidullah in 1963.
Days
The Bengali Calendar incorporates the seven-day week as used by many other calendars. The names of the days of the week in the Bengali Calendar are based on the Navagraha ( bn, নবগ্রহ ''nôbôgrôhô''). The day begins and ends at sunrise in the Bengali calendar, unlike in the Gregorian calendar, where the day starts at midnight.
According to some scholars, in the calendar originally introduced by Akbar
Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...
in the year 1584 AD, each day of the month had a different name, but this was cumbersome, and his grandson Shah Jahan
Shihab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), better known by his regnal name Shah Jahan I (; ), was the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658. Under his emperorship, the Mugha ...
changed this to a 7-day week as in the Gregorian calendar, with the week also starting on a Sunday.[
]
Traditional and revised versions
Differences
The current Bengali calendar in use in the Indian states is based on the Sanskrit text ''Surya Siddhanta''. It retains the historic Sanskrit names of the months, with the first month as Baishakh.[ Their calendar remains tied to the ]Hindu calendar
The Hindu calendar, Panchanga () or Panjika is one of various lunisolar calendars that are traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with further regional variations for social and Hindu religious purposes. They adopt a s ...
system and is used to set the various Bengali Hindu festivals.[
In Bangladesh, however, the old Bengali calendar was modified in 1966 by a committee headed by Muhammad Shahidullah, making the first five months 31 days long, the rest 30 days each, with the month of Falgun adjusted to 31 days in every leap year.][ This was officially adopted by Bangladesh in 1987.]
See also
* Hindu calendar
The Hindu calendar, Panchanga () or Panjika is one of various lunisolar calendars that are traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with further regional variations for social and Hindu religious purposes. They adopt a s ...
* Islamic calendar
* Malla calendar
Mallabhum (The Country originally known as Mallabhoom or Mallabani bn, মল্লভূম or Bishnupur kingdom ) was the kingdom ruled by the Malla kings of Bishnupur, primarily in the present Bankura district in Indian state of West Bengal ...
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Bengali Calendar
Official Bengali Calendar
Bengali Calendars
Official Bengali Calendars
Bengali calendar or বাংলা ক্যালেন্ডার with daily Ponjika
* ttp://www.ponjika.com Bangla Panjikasaccording to Surya Siddhanta
Bangla Date Converter
Official Bangla Calendar of Bangladesh for 1425
Bangla Calendar
Official Bangla Calendar
{{West Bengal topics
Solar calendars
Calendar eras
Calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...
Calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...
Time in India
Time in Bangladesh