Pohela Boishakh

Lore & Background

Pohela Boishakh celebrations started during the rule of Mughal empire, representing the proclamation of tax collection reforms under Akbar. During Mughal rule, land taxes were collected from Bengali people according to the Islamic Hijri calendar, a lunar calendar that did not coincide with the solar agricultural cycles. According to some sources, the festival was a tradition introduced in Bengal during the rule of Mughal Emperor Akbar to time the tax year to the harvest, and the Bangla year was therewith called Bangabda. Akbar asked the royal astronomer Fathullah Shirazi to create a new calendar by combining the lunar Islamic calendar and solar Hindu calendar already in use, known as Fasholi shan (harvest calendar).

According to some historians, this started the Bengali calendar. According to Shamsuzzaman Khan, it could be Nawab Murshid Quli Khan, a Mughal governor, who first used the tradition of Punyaho as 'a day for ceremonial land tax collection', and used Akbar's fiscal policy to start the Bangla calendar. The festive celebrations of the Bengali New Year can be traced back to the Bengali Muslim fishmonger community of Mahifarash in Old Dhaka. During the Mughal period, the Mahifarash were known for organising feasts and banquets at their Azimpur grounds to mark the beginning of the cultivation harvest season.

This day-long feast served as a precursor to what would later be evolved into the traditional Pohela Boishakh celebration. Some historians attribute the Bengali calendar to the 7th-century Gauda king Shashanka. The term Bangabda (Bangla year) is found too in two Shiva temples many centuries older than Akbar era, suggesting that Bengali calendar existed before Akbar's time. The traditional greeting for Bengalis in the new year is শুভ নববর্ষ (Shubho Noboborsho) which is literally 'Happy New Year'.

Reader's Guide

Pohela Boishakh is celebrated with processions, fairs and family time. The festive Mangal Shobhajatra is organised in Bangladesh. In 2016, UNESCO recognised this festivity organised by the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Dhaka, as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The celebration of Bengali new year Pahela Baishakh begins at dawn arranged by the cultural organisation Chhayanaut welcoming the year at Ramna Batamul under the banyan tree in the Ramna Park in Bangladesh.

Red-white attire

On this occasion, males are seen wearing red or white Kurta with traditional designs on them, imprinted or embroidered. Women and young ladies wear red and white saree with blouses and put on flower crowns on their heads. It is thought that it is because the traditional ledgers used in Haal Khata had a red cover with white pages. Haal Khata is a festival celebrated on the occasion of Pohela Boishakh in order to complete all the account reckonings of the last year and open a new ledger.

Baishakhi meal

It is observed by the Bengali businessmen, shopkeepers and traders. In recent times, claiming it to be traditional, Bengalis eat Panta Bhat or poitabhat, which is a rice-based dish prepared by soaking rice, generally leftovers, in water overnight. It is popularly eaten with Hilsa Fish and other curries. But many argue that it is not an age-old tradition and merely a trend.

Contemporary usage

To stop overfishing and to repopulate the dwindling Hilsa population, around this time, fishing is banned. In Bangladesh, the old Bengali calendar was modified in 1966 by a committee headed by Muhammad Shahidullah, making the first five months 31 days long, rest 30 days each, with the month of Falgun adjusted to 31 days in every leap year. This was officially adopted by Bangladesh in 1987. Since then, the national calendar starts with and the new year festival always falls on 14 April in Bangladesh.

The Bengali calendar in India remains tied to the Hindu calendar system and is used to set the various Bengali Hindu festivals. For Bengalis of West Bengal and other Indian states, the festival falls either on 14 or 15 April every year. The current Bengali calendar in use in the Indian states is based on the Sanskrit text Surya Siddhanta. It retains the historic Sanskrit names of the months, with the first month as Baishakh.