Bengali Calendar - History

History

The Bangabda Bangla calendar, also known as Bangla Sal, was promulgated by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1584 AD. The new calendar was initially known as Tarikh-e-Elahi and was introduced on 10 or 11 March 1584. Though the new calendar was promulgated in the twenty-ninth year of Akbar's reign, it dates from his ascension to the throne on 5 November 1556.

The purpose of Tarikh-e-Elahi was to glorify Akbar's ascent to the throne as well as to facilitate the collection of revenue. The Mughal emperors had been using the Hijri calendar for the purposes of collecting revenue. However, as Abul Fazl explains in Akbar Namah, the use of the Hijri calendar was irksome to the peasantry because there was a difference of 11 or 12 days between the lunar and the solar years, with 31 lunar years being equal to 30 solar years. Revenue was collected according to the lunar year, whereas the harvest was dependent on the solar one. From the beginning of his reign, Akbar had felt the need of introducing a uniform, scientific, and workable system of calculating days and months through a reformed calendar. With this end in view, he commissioned Amir Fathullah Shirazi, a distinguished scientist and astronomer, to make the changes.

Accordingly, the first of muharram 963 AH was also made the starting point of 963 of Tarikh-e-Elahi. Since the month of Muharram 963 AH coincided with the month of Baishakh, the month of Baisakh was made the first month of the new era instead of the month of Chaitra which was the first month of the shakabda, then being used in Bengal.

During the 400-odd years that have elapsed since the Tarikh-e-Elahi was promulgated, a difference of 14 years has arisen between the Hijri and Bengali calendars. The Islamic Hijri calendar is a lunar calendar while the Bengali calendar is a solar one. The lunar year is 11 days shorter than the solar year. Hence the difference that has arisen between the Hijri calendar and the Bengali one: 2002 is 1408 of the Bengali year but 1422 of the Hijri year. The difference between the Bengali year and the Gregorian year, both of which are solar years, has remained the same. At the time of the introduction of the Tarikhe-e-Elahi, the difference between the Gregorian and Hijri years was 1556-963=593 years, and the difference in 2002 remains the same: 2002-1409=593 years.

During the reign of Akbar, each day of the month used to have a different name. As it was cumbersome to memorise the 31 names of the days of the month, Akbar's grandson, shahjahan, brought it down to a weekly system in his fasli san (agricultural calendar). His seven days of the week are similar to the week in the western calendar, with the Bengali week also starting from Sunday. 1 Rabi for Sun (Sunday) 2 Som for Moon (Monday) 3 Mangal for Mars (Tuesday, or Tiwes Daeg, the day of Tiw, Mars, the god of war) 4 Budh for Mercury (Wednesday) 5 Brihaspati for Jupiter (Thursday) 6 Shukra for Venus (Friday) 7 Shani for Saturn (Saturday).

The names of the months of the year were also changed. The months of the year were initially known as Farwardin, Khordad, Teer, Murdad, Shahrivar, Aban, Azar, Dey, Bahman etc. It is not known why the months were given the names Baisakh, Jyaistha, etc., but it is presumed that the names were derived from the Shakabda which had been introduced in 78 AD to commemorate the reign of the Saka Dynasty. The names of the months, as derived from different stars, were as follows: 1 Baishakh from Vishakha (Librae) 2 Jyaistha from Jaistha (Scorpii) 3 Asadh from Asadha (Sagittarii) 4 Shravan from Shravana (Aquilae) 5 Bhadra from Bhadrapada (Pegasi) 6 Ashvin from Ashvini (Arietis) 7 Kartik from Krttika (Tauri) 8 Agrahayan from Agraihani (Aldebaran) 9 Paus from Pusya (Cancri) 10 Magh from Magha (Regulus) 11 Falgun from Falguni (Leonis) 12 Chaitra from Chitra (Virginis)

The length of a year in the Bengali calendar, as in the Gregorian calendar, is counted as 365 days. However, the actual time taken by the earth in its revolution around the sun is 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 47 seconds. To make up this discrepancy, the Gregorian calendar adds an extra day to the month of February every fourth year (except in century years not divisible by 400). The Bengali year did not take into account these extra hours. Bengali months too were of different lengths. In order to counter this discrepancy and make the Bengali calendar more precise, a committee to reform the Bengali calendar was set up on 17 February 1966 under the auspices of the Bengali academy and under the guidance of Muhammad shahidullah. Under the recommendations of the committee, the months from Baisakh to Bhadra were to be counted as of 31 days each, while the months from Asvin to Chaitra were to be considered as of 30 days, with Chaitra having 31 days every four years. According to the popular hypotheses about the beginning of Bengali calendar, Mughal Emperor Akbar, who ruled from 1556 CE until 1605 CE, and one of his councilors Fatehullah Shirazi are credited with introducing the new Bengali calendar for tax collection purposes. Before the introduction of the Bengali calendar, during Muslim rule in India agricultural and land taxes were collected according to the Islamic Hijri calendar. However, as the Hijri Calendar is a lunar calendar, the agricultural year did not always coincide with the fiscal year. Therefore, farmers were hard-pressed to pay taxes out of season. In order to streamline tax collection, Emperor Akbar ordered a reform of the calendar. Accordingly, Amir Fatehullah Shirazi, a renowned scholar of the time and the royal astronomer, formulated a new calendar based on the lunar Hijri and solar Hindu calendars. The resulting Bengali calendar was introduced following the harvesting season when the peasantry would be in a relatively sound financial position. In keeping with the harvesting season, this new calendar initially came to be known as the Harvest Calendar, or ফসলী সন Fôsholi Shôn. During the reign of the Mughals, the Bengali Calendar was officially implemented throughout the empire. The month-names continued to be as per Hindu-astrological nomenclature. Akbar did not start the Bengali calendar with a value 1, but instead jump-started it with the then existing value.

Another study suggests, Bengali calendar actually might have started with a value one during the reign of King Shashaanka of ancient Bengal, who ruled approximately between 590 CE and 625 CE. The king is credited with starting the Bengali era. His kingdom encompassed West Bengal, Bangladesh and parts of Bihar, Orissa and Assam. The starting point of the Bengali era is estimated to be on Monday, 12 April 593 in the Julian Calendar and Monday, 14 April 593 in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. The Bengali calendar is derived from the Hindu solar calendar, which is itself based on the Surya Siddhanta.