Bangladeshi national calendar

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The Bangladeshi national calendar, known as Bengali calender (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,[1][2][3] it is based on Tarikh-e-Elahi (Divine Era),[4] 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.[5][6][7][8]

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.[9] 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."[10]

  1. ^ Nitish Sengupta (2001). History of the Bengali-speaking people. UBS Publishers' Distributors. pp. 76–77. ISBN 978-81-7476-355-6. Some historians attribute it [the Bengali calendar] to King Sasanka of Gaur (C 606-637) ... Whether this was started by Sasanka or whether it was a modification of the Hijra calendar ... and came to Bengal along with the Turkish conquest is difficult to answer. But clearly this is the calendar starting around AD 595, which was given recognition as the standard Bengali calendar either by Hussain Shah or by Akbar.
  2. ^ Guhathakurta, Meghna; Schendel, Willem van (2013). The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Duke University Press. pp. 17–18. ISBN 9780822353188.
  3. ^ Kunal Chakrabarti; Shubhra Chakrabarti (2013). Historical Dictionary of the Bengalis. Scarecrow. pp. 114–115. ISBN 978-0-8108-8024-5.
  4. ^ Nanda R. Shrestha (2002). Nepal and Bangladesh: A Global Studies Handbook. ABC-CLIO. p. 200. ISBN 978-1-57607-285-1.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference amartyasen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Klass1978p166 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nicholas2003p13 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Jonathan Porter Berkey (2003). The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800. Cambridge University Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-521-58813-3.
  9. ^ "Our fiscal year should be based on Bangla calendar". The Daily Star. 17 April 2008.
  10. ^ "Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh".