As an old saying goes, 'Bengalis have thirteen festivals in twelve months.’ This
experience-based adage gives an impression of a society which was
affluent, cohesive and joyful. It further reveals that the olden society
of Bengal had been characterised by an intense cultural atmosphere and
the resulting social euphoria.
The above saying actually holds
true about Hindu Bengalis. So far as culture is concerned, Bengali
Muslim life in Bengal had differed substantially from that of their
Hindu neighbours. Bengali Muslims, had, in fact, no ethnic, indigenous
or locally originated (except for a few legend, or cult-based
quasi-religious events) national, regional or group-centred secular
cultural festivals. All their broad-based, community-oriented and
family-centred festivals were religious or semi-religious in nature.
A walk through history
language movement of 1952 had, in fact, played a decisive role in
shaping and sharpening the Bengali identity of the emerging generations
of forward-looking Bengali Muslims. Besides, the shared tradition of
Bengali language and literature had always been a perennial source of
strength for the Bengali identity.
This new generation of Bengali
nationalist Muslims was searching for some lively and solid component
of their newly found secular nationalism. Bengali Era and the age-old
tradition of Poila Baisakh (first day of the first month in the Bengali
almanac) celebrations in rural Bengal provided them with a strong basis
for their new pursuit of cultural synthesis based on tolerance,
pluralistic attitude and humanism. Bengali Era and its primordial
celebrations helped them remodel and augment their new cultural
A celestial conjecture
San, recently used as Bangabda by the elites, is essentially a hybrid
era. For this reason it is a common heritage of almost all sections of
the people of Bengal. The highly acclaimed scientist and Indian almanac
reformer, Dr Meghnad Saha, while identifying the genesis of the Bengali
Era, said: "After the introduction of Tarik-i-Ilahi (1556 AD) in the
year of his accession to the throne by Emperor Akbar, the people of
Bengal began to use the Surya Siddhanta reckoning and the solar year.
For Bangla San, we take the Hijri year, elapsed in 1556, i.e., 963 AD,
and add to it the number of solar years." If we follow this rule, the
reckoning of the Bengali new year today, would be (963+2014)-1556=1421
Amalgamation of Islamic and Hindu years
Saha believed that the Bangla San derived from Tarik-i-Ilahi (1556 AD)
of Emperor Akbar. And, it is an amalgam of the Hijri lunar year and the
Indian solar year. Akbar's court astronomer, Fatehullah Shirajee created
this hybrid reckoning system. Nobel laureate Professor Amartya Sen's
comment in this regard is amusing. He wrote, "When a Bengali Hindu does
his religious ceremonies according to the local calendar, he may not be
fully aware that the dates invoked in his Hindu practice is attuned to
commemorating Mohammad's flight from Mecca to Madina, albeit in a mixed
lunar-solar representation.” (‘An Assessment of the Millennium’ –
address on August 20, 1998 in New Delhi).
The fact that, it is
called Bangla San or Sal, which are Arabic and Persian words,
respectively, suggests that it was introduced by Muslim Kings or
Sultans. Some historians suggest Mughal Emperor Akbar, as he had
reformed the Indian calendar -- with the help of his astronomer
Fatehullah Shirajee -- in line with the Iranian Nowroj or ‘new day’.
Others suggest it was the seventh century king, Sasanka.
Bangla San is a manifestation of engaging cultural integration. In
fact, the Bengali culture is a mixed culture and it encompasses the
elements of many civilizations, races and religions.
deltaic civilization of Bengal is based on agricultural economy. An
agrarian milieu produces many rituals and indigenous practices; rituals
-- even the primordial ones, are abundantly found in rural Bengal. Some
of the surviving rituals and local cults have been nicely integrated
with the later modern construction, namely the present day Bangla
Nababarsha Utsab (Bengali New Year's festival).Excerpted from Shamsuzzaman Khan’s article for
The Daily StarLead image: Queue Pro