Bangla calendar: Encyclopedia - Bangla calendar

Bangla calendar

The Bangla calendar also known as Bangabda in the Bengali language, is the traditional calendar used in Bangladesh and Bangla (Bengali)-speaking regions of India. The calendar is based on the solar year. New Year's Day falls between 13 April and 15 April.

Bangla calendar - History

Under the Mughals, agricultural taxes were collected according to the Hijri calendar. However, as the Hijri calendar is a lunar calendar, the agricultural year did not coincide with the fiscal year. Therefore, farmers were hard-pressed to pay taxes out of season. In order to streamline tax collection, the Mughal Emperor Akbar ordered a reform of the calendar. Accordingly, Fatehullah Shirazi, a renowned scholar and astronomer, formulated the Bangla year on the basis of the lunar Hijri and Bangla solar calendars. The new Fasli San (agricultural year) was introduced on 10/11 March 1584, but was dated from Akbar's accession to the throne in 1556. The new year subsequently became known as Bôngabdo, or Bengali year.

Bangla calendar - Months

• Boishakh
• Joishtho
• Asharh
• Srabon
• Bhadro
• Ashshin
• Kartik
• Ôgrohaeon
• Poush
• Magh
• Falgun
• Choitro

Bangla calendar - Organization

The length of a year in the Bangla 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 Bangla calendar, which was based on astronomical calculations, did not make this extra leap year adjustment. Bangla months too were of different lengths. In order to counter this discrepancy and make the Bangla calendar more precise, a committee to reform the Bangla calendar was set up on 17 February 1966 under the auspices of the Bangla Academy and under the guidance of Muhammad Shahidullah. Under the recommendations of the committee, the months from Baishakh to Bhadro were to be counted as of 31 days each, while the months from Ashwin to Chaitra were to be considered as of 30 days. The revised calendar is officially adopted in Bangladesh. However it is not followed in the neighbouring state of West Bengal, India where the old calendar continues to be followed.

Bangla calendar - Beginning of day

In the Gregorian calendar, the day starts right after 12 midnight. However, in the Bengali calendar, the day begins at sunrise.

Bangla calendar - Rule of leap year

According to the new calendar system, Choitro has 31 days every four years. To keep pace with the Gregorian calendar, the leap years are not years that are divisible by four. They are the years where the corresponding Gregorian Calendar year is leap year. (e.g., 2004 was a leap year, so the corresponding year 1410 was a leap year. (The month of February in 2004 falls in 1410 according to the Bengali Calendar.)

The first of Boishakh, Pôhela Boishakh, is the Bengali New Year's Day. In Bangladesh, it is celebrated on April 14 every year according to the reformed calendar prepared by the Bangla Academy. However, since the people of the West Bengal follow the previous non-reformed calendar (which is not fixed with respect to the Western calendar), it celebrates the Bengali New Year's Day (Pôhela Boishakh) on April 15.

Categories: Bangladeshi culture | Specific calendars

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Bangla calendar", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki