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Bangladeshi national calendar

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The Bangladeshi national calendar, known as Bengali calendar (Bengali: বঙ্গাব্দ, romanized: Bôṅgābdô) officially and commonly, is a civil calendar used in Bangladesh, alongside the Gregorian calendar. With roots in the ancient calendars of the region,[1][2][3] it is based on Tarikh-e-Elahi (Divine Era),[4] introduced by the Mughal Emperor Akbar on 10/11 March 1584. The calendar is generally 593 years behind the Gregorian calendar, meaning the year zero in the calendar is 593 CE.[5][6][7][8]

The calendar is important for Bangladeshi agriculture, as well as festivals and traditional record keeping for revenue and taxation. Bangladeshi land revenues are still collected by the government in line with this calendar.[9] The calendar's new year day, Pohela Boishakh, is a national holiday.

The government and newspapers of Bangladesh widely use the abbreviation B.S. (Bangla Son, or Bangla Sal, or Bangla Sombat) for Bangladeshi calendar era. For example, the last paragraph in the preamble of the Constitution of Bangladesh reads "In our Constituent Assembly, this eighteenth day of Kartick, 1379 B.S., corresponding to the fourth day of November, 1972 A.D., do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution."[10]

History

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Origins

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The Saka Era was the widely used in Bengal, prior to the arrival of Muslim rule in the region, according to various epigraphical evidence.[11][12] The Bikrami calendar was in use by the Bengali people of the region. This calendar was named after king Vikramaditya with a zero date of 57 BCE.[13] In rural Bengali communities, the Bengali calendar is credited to "Bikromaditto", like many other parts of India and Nepal. However, unlike these regions where it starts in 57 BCE, the modern Bangladeshi and Bengali calendar starts from 593 CE suggesting that the starting reference year was adjusted at some point.[6][7]

Akbar's influence

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Crop cycle's depended on solar calendars. The Islamic lunar calendar of the Mughal government, before Akbar's era caused problems in tax collection since the lunar year was shorter than the solar year by about eleven days per year.[14][15] Akbar commissioned his astronomer Fathullah Shirazi to develop a new syncretic calendar to allow land tax and crop tax collection according to the harvest cycles. In 1584, Emperor Akbar commissioned a new calendar as part of tax collection reforms.[2][3][14]

Shirazi's new calendar was known as the Tarikh-e-Ilahi (God's Era).[5][14][16] It used 1556 as the zero year, the year of Akbar's ascension to the throne.[5][14] The Tarikh-e-Ilahi calendar were one of the syncretic reforms Akbar introduced, along with a new religion called Din-ilahi, a syncretic faith that integrated Islam and Indian religious ideas.[17] However, Akbar's ideas were almost entirely abandoned after his death, and only traces of the Tarikh-e-Ilahi calendar survive in the modern Bengali calendar, according to Amartya Sen.[5]

Shamsuzzaman Khan believed that Nawab Murshid Quli Khan was responsible for widely implementing the tax collection according to the Bengali calendar throughout Bengal. Khan promoted celebrations of the Punyaha, a ceremonial collection of land taxes.[18] The calendar year became known as the Bangla san in Arabic and Bangla sal in Persian; both terms mean the Bangla Year.[19]

Modern revisions and adoption

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In 1966, a committee headed by Muhammad Shahidullah was appointed in Bangladesh to reform the traditional Bengali calendar. It proposed the first five months 31 days long, rest 30 days each, with the month of Falgun adjusted to 31 days in every leap year.[3] This was officially adopted by Bangladesh in 1987.[3][20]

In 2018, the Bangladesh government planned to modify the Bangladeshi calendar again.[21] The changes were done to match national days with West.[citation needed] As a result of the modification, Kartik started on Thursday (17 October 2019) and the dry season was delayed by a day as the revised calendar went into effect from Wednesday (16 October 2019).[22]

Months and seasons

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The calendar has 12 months and 6 seasons, which are illustrated in the table below.[14] The bolded dates indicate the 2018 revision of the calendar.

Bengali months Days Start date (from 2019) Seasons
Bengali name Romanization 1966/1987–2018 2019–present
বৈশাখ Bôiśākh 31 31 14 April Summer
(Grīṣmôkāl)
জ্যৈষ্ঠ Jyôiṣṭhô 31 31 15 May
আষাঢ় Āṣāṛh 31 31 15 June Monsoon
(Bôrṣākāl)
শ্রাবণ Śrābôṇ 31 31 16 July
ভাদ্র Bhādrô 31 31 16 August Autumn
(Śôrôtkāl)
আশ্বিন Āśbin 30 31 16 September
কার্তিক Kārtik 30 30 17 October Dry season
(Hēmôntôkāl)
অগ্রহায়ণ Ôgrôhāẏôṇ 30 30 16 November
পৌষ Pôuṣ 30 30 16 December Winter
(Śītkāl)
মাঘ Māgh 30 30 16 January
ফাল্গুন Phālgun 30 / 31 (leap year) 29 / 30 (leap year) 14/15 February Spring
(Bôsôntôkāl)
চৈত্র Côitrô 30 30 15 March

Weeks and days

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The following illustrates the 7-day Bengali week.[14] Bengali weekdays are named after deities of celestial bodies in the Surya Siddhanta, an ancient treatise on Indian astronomy. Bolded days indicate weekends.

Bengali days Celestial body Gregorian equivalent
Bengali name Romanisation
শনিবার Śônibār Saturn
(Śôni)		 Saturday
রবিবার Rôbibār Sun
(Rôbi)		 Sunday
সোমবার Sōmbār Moon
(Sōm)		 Monday
মঙ্গলবার Môṅgôlbār Mars
(Môṅgôl)		 Tuesday
বুধবার Budhbār Mercury
(Budh)		 Wednesday
বৃহস্পতিবার Br̥hôspôtibār Jupiter
(Br̥hôspôti)		 Thursday
শুক্রবার Śukrôbār Venus
(Śukrô)		 Friday

National calendar dates for the national holidays of Bangladesh

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Nitish Sengupta (2001). History of the Bengali-speaking people. UBS Publishers' Distributors. pp. 76–77. ISBN 978-81-7476-355-6. Some historians attribute it [the Bengali calendar] to King Sasanka of Gaur (C 606-637) ... Whether this was started by Sasanka or whether it was a modification of the Hijra calendar ... and came to Bengal along with the Turkish conquest is difficult to answer. But clearly this is the calendar starting around AD 595, which was given recognition as the standard Bengali calendar either by Hussain Shah or by Akbar.
  2. ^ a b Guhathakurta, Meghna; Schendel, Willem van (2013). The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Duke University Press. pp. 17–18. ISBN 9780822353188.
  3. ^ a b c d Kunal Chakrabarti; Shubhra Chakrabarti (2013). Historical Dictionary of the Bengalis. Scarecrow. pp. 114–115. ISBN 978-0-8108-8024-5.
  4. ^ Nanda R. Shrestha (2002). Nepal and Bangladesh: A Global Studies Handbook. ABC-CLIO. p. 200. ISBN 978-1-57607-285-1.
  5. ^ a b c d Amartya Sen (2005). The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 319–322. ISBN 978-0-374-10583-9.
  6. ^ a b Morton Klass (1978). From Field to Factory: Community Structure and Industrialization in West Bengal. University Press of America. pp. 166–167. ISBN 978-0-7618-0420-8.
  7. ^ a b Ralph W. Nicholas (2003). Fruits of Worship: Practical Religion in Bengal. Orient Blackswan. pp. 13–23. ISBN 978-81-8028-006-1.
  8. ^ Jonathan Porter Berkey (2003). The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800. Cambridge University Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-521-58813-3.
  9. ^ "Our fiscal year should be based on Bangla calendar". The Daily Star. 17 April 2008.
  10. ^ "Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh".
  11. ^ Richard Salomon (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 148, 246–247, 346. ISBN 978-0-19-509984-3.
  12. ^ D. C. Sircar (1996) [First published 1965]. Indian Epigraphy. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 241, 272–273. ISBN 978-81-208-1166-9.
  13. ^ Eleanor Nesbitt (2016). Sikhism: a Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. pp. 122, 142. ISBN 978-0-19-874557-0.
  14. ^ a b c d e f "Bangabda - Banglapedia". En.banglapedia.org. Retrieved 2017-04-27.
  15. ^ William D. Crump (2014). Encyclopedia of New Year's Holidays Worldwide. McFarland. pp. 27–. ISBN 978-0-7864-9545-0.
  16. ^ R. Nath (1985). History of Mughal Architecture. Humanities Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-391-02681-0.
  17. ^ Manav Ratti (2013). The Postsecular Imagination: Postcolonialism, Religion, and Literature. Routledge. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-135-09689-2.
  18. ^ Amitava Kar (18 May 2013). "A Giant in Our Cultural History". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2017-04-27.
  19. ^ Shamsuzzaman Khan (14 April 2014). "Emergence of Bengali New Year and Calendar". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2017-04-27.
  20. ^ Syed Ashraf Ali (2012). "Bangabda". In Sirajul Islam; Ahmed A. Jamal (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (2nd ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  21. ^ Nandi, Deepak (14 April 2019). থমকে আছে বাংলা বর্ষপঞ্জি পরিবর্তন প্রক্রিয়া. Samakal (in Bengali). Archived from the original on 2 July 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  22. ^ বাংলা দিনপঞ্জি বদল, আজ পয়লা কার্তিক. Prothom Alo (in Bengali). 17 October 2019. Archived from the original on 4 July 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
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