The saga of Bangla calendar
As we celebrate the Bangla New Year, let us look back at the history of how the very calendar came to be in its current form
Abul Fateh Jalal Uddin Muhammad Akbar (1542-1705), the third Mughal emperor of Delhi, had nine ministers in his imperial cabinet, known in history as the Navaratna.
Among them, Abul Fazl was the Grand Minister; Raja Todar Mall was the Minister of Finance; Raja Birbal alias Mahesh Das was an adviser on Hindu affairs as well as the Chief General; Abu al-Faiz ibn Mubarak alias Faizi was the titleholder of Malik uShu'ara or Sabhakabi (Poet Laureate), Raja Mansingh-1 was Akbar's General, Mia Tansen was a musician, Mollah Dopiyaja was a witty adviser, Fakir Azio Ao Deen was the minister of religion and Abdul Rahim Khan e Khanan was a poet and Akbar's mentor.
The members of the Navaratna contributed greatly - with their knowledge and wisdom - to Akbar's pursuit of great military power, expansion of the state and consolidation of administrative power, religion, money and revenue.
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One such contribution was to introduce the crop year that is still remembered by the people of Subah Bangla (present-day Bangladesh). The crop calendar season introduced by him is the only one that is still alive today as Bangla San (Bangla year). But why introduce a new calendar?
The Bangla year originated for the convenience of revenue collection. Before this, government rents used to be collected on a lunar year basis. Back then, the southeast coastal region known as Subah Bangla (the State of Bengal), was an agricultural economy and land tax and harvest rent were collected based on periodical payments for crop production.
For revenue collection purposes, the Hijri fiscal year was followed for calculation. But since the Hijri fiscal year was based on lunar months it often did not coincide and correspond to a crop season. Lunar years were 11 days shorter in duration and a predetermined month for payments often did not match with the agricultural seasons.
For example, farmers usually market their crops in Baishakh. After the farmers had consumed their share of the produce, the government would come to collect the rent. If their calendars did not match the season, there would be no crops in people's hands (because either they came too early or too late), and no money as well. As a result, it could create great inconvenience for the revenue department in preserving the accounts in the collection of revenue or rent.
One day some representatives from the Hindu community of the state went to Emperor Akbar. They persuaded the emperor to consider a specific year. Shortly afterwards, dissatisfaction arose again among the emperor's revenue department officials. In their plea to the Emperor, they argued that it was not possible to fix the period of revenue collection based on the Hijri calendar system and urged the government to introduce a science-based new year with a combination of Hijri and solar years.
Akbar discussed this matter with his Grand Minister Abul Fazl and Finance Minister Raja Todar Mall. On their advice, the emperor entrusted the task to Mir Fatehullah Siraji, a prominent scientist and astronomer.
Syed Mir Fateh Ullah Siraj, a Sufi of the Safavid dynasty of Persia, was a mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, physicist, mechanical engineer and Islamic jurist. He was a disciple of Ghias al-Din Mansur (1461-1542), a renowned philosopher and scholar of the Qur'an and Hadith. They were also well-known as makers of gunpowder weapons. In this capacity, Fateh Ullah Siraji joined Emperor Akbar's court in 1556 as a foreign specialist to create cannons. He was conferred with the title of 'Ayudaduddaula' or the Arm of Emperor Akbar, the Great.
Astronomer Amir Fateh Ullah Siraji, who was entrusted with the task of inventing the new calendar, studied the lunar and solar eclipses of different regions of India. He reviewed and examined all the calendars prevalent at that time to develop the new Bangla calendar.
Siraji derived the Hijri year 963 AH to be the year of Akbar's ascension to the throne. In 1585, Akbar ordered the computation of the Bangla calendar to initiate from that point, i.e., 963 AH or 1556 AD.
The Muharram month in the Hijri calendar in 963 AH was Baishakh in the Bangla calendar. From that point on, 365 days count as a new year in the Bangla calendar, and its relationship with the season was established. This year was known in the royal court as Elahi year, Fasli year, etc.
Following Siraji's innovative calendar, a decree was issued by the Mughal court declaring that the land revenue or usury would be paid in Baishakh.
This way, the month of Baishakh became the first month of the Bangla year. The 'Bangla Year' is undoubtedly considered very practical and scientific. This is because it is an inheritor of the lunar and solar systems simultaneously. As a result, the 'Bangla Year' is in harmony with the universally recognised English and Gregorian calendars.
Interestingly, the first Baishakh of 1556 AD/ 963 AH was on 11 April and in the current 1428 Bengali year, it falls on 14th April. In other words, in the 465 years that have passed since its initiation, there has been a difference of only three days. And in the future, it is very unlikely that there will be more differences than this.
In designing the Bangla calendar, Siraji followed the tradition of Shakabda, one of the oldest calendars still being followed in India, for the naming of days and months in the Bangla calendar. The names of weekdays are taken from the solar system: Robi (Sun), Mongol (Mars), Shoni (Saturn) etc.
Experts believe that the names of the months in the Sun Nakshatraki rules are derived from the names of the constellations in the Nakshatraki rules: Sravan to Sravan, Bhadrapada to Bhadra, Ashwani to Ashwani, Rkatki to Rkatki, Agrahayan to Agrahayan, Padhesa to Padhesa, Magha to Magh, Falguni to Falgun.
But there were certain problems with the calendar as well. For example, it did not account for the leap year. In 1963, at the initiative of the Bangla Academy, a committee was formed under the leadership of Dr Muhammad Shahidullah (1885-1989) to reform the Bangla year.
The research committee submitted its final report on February 16, 1966. In the light of this, the following decisions were taken by correcting the irregularities of days and dates with the provision of leap year in 1986:
(1) The year has to start from the Bangabda, introduced during the Mughal period, during the reign of Emperor Akbar.
(2) For the convenience of calculating the Bangla month, Baishakh to Bhadra will be 31 days per month and Ashwin to Chaitra will be 30 days.
The recommendation further states that the year, which is divisible by four, would be considered a leap year. On that basis, the present Bangla calendar was reformed and became effective from 1986 onwards.
The author is a former Secretary to the Government and former Chairman, NBR. Email: mazid.muhammad@gmail.com
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.
