Panjika - Two Schools of Bengali Panjika-makers

Two Schools of Bengali Panjika-makers

There are two schools of panjika-makers in Bengal - Driksiddhanta (Bisuddhasiddhanta Panjika) and Odriksiddhanta (Gupta Press, PM Bagchi, etc.). They dictate the days on which festivals are to be held. Sometimes, they lay down different dates for particular festivals. For the Durga Puja in 2005, two different sets of dates came through. Some community pujas followed the Gupta Press Panjika, because of its popularity. It was with deference to convention, confirmed Pandit Nitai Chakraborty, president of Vaidik Pandit O Purohit Mahamilan Kendra. Belur Math adhered to Bisuddhasiddhanta Panjika. It was Swami Vijnanananda (who became Math president in 1937-38), an astrologer, who decided that Ramakrishna Mission would follow this almanac as it was more scientific.

The difference occurs because the two schools follow different calendars of luni-solar movement on which tithis are based. While Gupta Press Panjika follows 16th century Raghunandan’s work Ashtabingshatitatwa based on the 1,500-year-old astronomical treatise, Suryasiddhanta. Bisuddhasiddhanta Panjika is based on an 1890 amendment of the planetary positions given in Suryasiddhanta.