If you have spotted a Bengali and English calendar at home, have you noticed the stark difference between the years in the two of them? Ever noticed how 2026 in the Gregorian / English calendar is 1433 in the Bengali calendar, which is almost 600 years behind? This difference is the outcome of the purpose and the formation of the two calendars.
To answer this question, one has to understand that the Gregorian calendar began from Jesus Christ’s birth year, however the Bengali Calendar is said to have started from the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar. Moreover, while the former was introduced to genuinely mark dates and days across the world, the latter, also used to mark dates, had a very specific purpose – to mark harvesting dates. While one became an international standard of measuring the year, the other was adopted by people on a more local basis and eventually grew into an event of celebration.
How did Akbar introduce the Bengali Calendar?
While much has already been spoken and written about the inception of the Gregorian calendar, which we commonly use, the Bengali calendar has an interesting story of inception too. Did you know that it is popularly believed that Mughal Emperor Akbar may have had a hand in making the popularly accepted Bengali calendar? It is said that in the 16th century, when Akbar sat in the throne of the Delhi sultanate, they used the Islamic calendar for ticking off tax collections. However, this calendar unsteadily shifted by 10 or 11 days every year making it difficult to mark specific dates. This hampered with tax collections and noting harvesting seasons.
Hence, Akbar with the help of experts like Todar Mal deduced a calendar which fused the Islamic calendar and the indigenous agricultural cycle, ensuring that the taxes were collected around the same time each year. This came to be known as the Bangabda or the Bengali calendar which was adopted by farmers and merchants. It later evolved into the celebration of ringing in the Bengali New Year of the Poila Baisakh and fused into the cultural identity of every Bengali.
Another theory suggests that the local agricultural cycle which was fused with the Islmaic Calendar already followed the principles of solar calendar which grew out of astronomical deductions. This was concluded from the sun’s position and shift, harvest cycle and more. So technically, Akbar’s reign only consolidated two different calendars to bring about uniformity.
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