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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 Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
of the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
. 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 India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...
of
West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
,
Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...
and
Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
. The
New Year New Year is the time or day currently at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner. In the Gregorian calendar, the most widely used calendar system to ...
in the Bengali calendar is known as ''
Pohela Boishakh Pohela Boishakh ( bn, পহেলা বৈশাখ) is the first day of the Bengali calendar which is also the official calendar of Bangladesh. This festival is celebrated on 14 April in Bangladesh and 15 April in the Indian states of We ...
''. 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 The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
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 India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, the traditional
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n 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 Shashanka (IAST: Śaśāṃka) was the first independent king of a unified polity in the Bengal region, called the Gauda Kingdom and is a major figure in Bengali history. He reigned in the 7th century, some historians place his rule between circ ...
, 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
Vedanga The Vedanga ( sa, वेदाङ्ग ', "limbs of the Veda") are six auxiliary disciplines of Hinduism that developed in ancient times and have been connected with the study of the Vedas:James Lochtefeld (2002), "Vedanga" in The Illustrated Enc ...
s,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 Vikramaditya (IAST: ') was a legendary king who has been featured in hundreds of traditional stories including those in ''Baital Pachisi'' and ''Singhasan Battisi''. Many describe him as ruler with his capital at Ujjain (Pataliputra or Pratis ...
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 Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
. 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 Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
, 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 The Pāla Empire (r. 750-1161 CE) was an imperial power during the post-classical period in the Indian subcontinent, which originated in the region of Bengal. It is named after its ruling dynasty, whose rulers bore names ending with the suffi ...
era mention "Vikrama" and the months such as
Ashvin Ashvin or Ashwin or Ashwan (; bn, আশ্বিন; hi, आश्विन; or, ଆଶ୍ୱିନ; Malay/Indonesian: ''Aswin''; Thai: ''Asawin''), also known as Aswayuja, is the seventh month of the lunisolar Hindu calendar, the solar Tam ...
, 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 Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
, such as the 5th century ''Aryabhatiya'' by
Aryabhata Aryabhata (ISO: ) or Aryabhata I (476–550 CE) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer of the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. He flourished in the Gupta Era and produced works such as the ''Aryabhatiya'' (which ...
, 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 West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
,
Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...
,
Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
and
Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...
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 Ala-ud-din Husain Shah ( bn, আলাউদ্দিন হোসেন শাহ (1494–1519)Majumdar, R.C. (ed.) (2006). ''The Delhi Sultanate'', Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, pp.215-20 was an independent late medieval Sultan of Bengal, who ...
(reign 1494–1519), a Hussain Shahi sultan of Bengal by combining the lunar
Islamic calendar The Hijri calendar ( ar, ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, translit=al-taqwīm al-hijrī), also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or ...
(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 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 Sayyed Mīr Fathullāh Shīrāzī Namazi ( fa, ; died 15 August 1589) was a Persian Sufi polymath - an Islamic jurist, mechanical engineer, mathematician, astronomer, physician and philosopher—who worked for Akbar, ruler of the Mughal Empi ...
to create a new calendar by combining the lunar
Islamic calendar The Hijri calendar ( ar, ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, translit=al-taqwīm al-hijrī), also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or ...
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 Murshid Quli Khan ( fa, , bn, মুর্শিদকুলি খান; 1660 – 30 June 1727), also known as Zamin Ali Quli and born as Surya Narayan Mishra, was the first Nawab of Bengal, serving from 1717 to 1727. Born a Hindu in the D ...
, 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 Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, econom ...
, 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 The Indian national calendar, sometimes called the Saka calendar, is a solar calendar that is used alongside the Gregorian calendar by ''The Gazette of India'', in news broadcasts by All India Radio, and in calendars and official communications i ...
. This calendar is the foundation of the calendar that has been in use by the people of
Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
.


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 Meghnad Saha (6 October 1893 – 16 February 1956) was an Indian astrophysicist who developed the Saha ionization equation, used to describe chemical and physical conditions in stars. His work allowed astronomers to accurately relate the sp ...
led the first revision in the 1950s (
Indian national calendar The Indian national calendar, sometimes called the Saka calendar, is a solar calendar that is used alongside the Gregorian calendar by ''The Gazette of India'', in news broadcasts by All India Radio, and in calendars and official communications i ...
) and Dr Muhammad Shahidullah in 1963.


Days

The Bengali Calendar incorporates the seven-day
week A week is a unit of time equal to seven days. It is the standard time period used for short cycles of days in most parts of the world. The days are often used to indicate common work days and rest days, as well as days of worship. Weeks are ofte ...
as used by many other calendars. The names of the days of the week in the Bengali Calendar are based on the
Navagraha Navagraha are nine heavenly bodies and deities that influence human life on Earth according to Hinduism and Hindu astrology. The term is derived from ''nava'' ( sa, नव "nine") and ''graha'' ( sa, ग्रह "planet, seizing, laying hold of, ...
( 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 The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
, 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 Muhammad Shahidullah ( bn, মুহম্মদ শহীদুল্লাহ; 10 July 1885 – 13 July 1969) was a Bengali linguist, philologist, educationist, and writer. In 2004, he was ranked number 16 in BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengal ...
, 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 The Hijri calendar ( ar, ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, translit=al-taqwīm al-hijrī), also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or ...
*
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