African Art

Bengali calendar

The Bengali calendar or Bangla calendar (colloquially Bāṅlā Sôn or Bāṅlā Sāl, 'Bangla Year') is a solar calendar used in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent. In contrast to the traditional Indian Hindu calendar, which begins with the month Chaitra, the Bengali calendar starts with Baishakh. A revised version of the calendar is officially used in Bangladesh, while this traditional version continues to be followed in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, and Assam. The Bangladeshi national 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, it is based on Tarikh-e-Elahi (Divine Era), 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. The Bengali calendar began in 590–600 CE to commemorate the ascension of Shashanka, the first independent king in Bengal's unified polity. The first day of the Bengali year is known as Poila Boishakh (1st of Boishakh), which is a public holiday in West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. The Bengali era is called Bengali Sambat (BS) and has a zero year that starts in 593/594 CE. It is 594 less than the AD or CE year in the Gregorian calendar if it is before Pohela Boishakh, or 593 less if after Pohela Boishakh. 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. 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."

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• ▸1498
• ▸Anne Walsh
• ▸Hulme Hippodrome

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Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.