THE performances that take place on New Year’s Day not only reveal the way contemporary Bengalis imagine Bengaliness but also the contested aspects of this very identity. The Bengali/Bangla New Year, Nababarsha — Nababarsha is also addressed as Pahela Baishakh, the first day of the month of Baishakh — is for many Bengalis the most important celebration of the year observed in urban and rural areas by the people of all religious faiths.
However, some may look at it as a festival of non-Muslim origin. Whether or not to celebrate, Nababarsha embodies the aspiration of Bengalis regarding their Bangladeshi, social, and cultural identities. Bangladesh is an agricultural society; therefore many traditional festivities revolve around the seasons. The Bengali calendar marks six seasons: summer, monsoon, autumn, late autumn, winter and spring.
Bangla calendar
THERE is no doubt that the Bangla calendar followed today was introduced into the Indian subcontinent by the Muslims operating from Delhi, the capital of the Mughals.
The Bangla year or calendar was introduced through an ordinance promulgated by the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great (ruled 1556–1605) on March 10 or 11, 1584, Hegira 993. From the very beginning of his reign, Akbar felt the need for a uniform scientific, workable calendar. With this end in sight, he commissioned Amir Fathullah Shirazi, a distinguished scientist and the most famous astronomer of the day, to recommend a reformed calendar. Abul Fazal, the renowned scholar and a minister of Akbar, in his scholarly work Akbar Namah, gives details of the events leading to the new era under the royal forman (promulgation) of Akbar.
Abul Fazal explains that the previous Hegira Era lunar calendar reckoned from 622 CE was unfair to the peasants. According to the Hegira calendar, farmers had to pay taxes based on lunar years. However, their farming followed the solar year. The lunar year consists of 354 days, while the solar year has 365 or 366 days. Because 31 lunar years were equal to 30 solar years, the farmers paid 31 annual revenues for 30 harvests. Also, before Akbar, the Mughals’ agricultural taxes in Bengal were due on the lunar New Year. But this resulted in a mismatch because the New Year on the Hegira lunar calendar was always shifting and did not necessarily coincide with the start of harvest season.
As a result, farmers were hard pressed to pay taxes when the Hegira New Year occurred out of season. Emperor Akbar recognised the difficulty and set out to rectify it.
Tarikh-e-Elahi, the divine era, was conceived and introduced on March 10 or 11 of the 29th year of Akbar’s reign, through a royal decree. These dates commemorated the emperor’s ascension to the throne of Delhi and determined that his administration collected the land taxes at a fixed time. Shirazi combined the Shakabda calendar, which was introduced in 78 CE, with the Hegira calendar and some less significant calendars of the time. He calculated the lengths of the months based on the solar cycle. In 963 of the Islamic calendar, he made Boishakh the first month of the Bengali year (according to the present-day Bengali calendar) because that year Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, coincided with Baishakh.
During Akbar’s reign, the months had different names from the ones in use today. Akbar’s months were Karwadin, Ardi, Vihisu, Khordad, Teer, Amardad, Shahriar, Aban, Azur, Dai, Baham, and Iskander Miz. Each day of the week also had a different name. Akbar’s grandson prince Mirza Shihab-ud-Din Muhammed Khurram, also known as Emperor Shah Jahan (ruled 1628–1658), changed the names of the days. He called the days rabi for Sun, som for Moon, mangal for Mars, budh for Mercury, brihaspati for Jupiter, shukra for Venus, and shani for Saturn. It is unknown how and when the people of Bengal and the rest of India renamed the months as Boishakh, Jyashtho, etc.
Yet it is presumed that these months, based on the names of the stars, came from the Shakabda calendar and had their origin in one of the many Indian treatises on astronomy, known as Siddhantas, particularly the Surya Siddhanata. The star-based names of the months were: Baishakh from Vishaka (Libra); Jyashtha from Jaishtha (Scorpion); Asharh from Ashadha (Sagittarius); Shraban from Shravana (Aquila); Bhadra from Bhadrapada (Pegasus); Ashwin from Ashvini (Arietis); Kartik from Krittika (Taurus); Agrahayan from Agraihani (Aldebaran); Paush from Pushya (Cancer); Maagh from Magha (Regulus); Phalgun from Phalguni (Leonis); and Chaitra from Chitra (Virginis).
The custom of celebrating the New Year was also introduced by emperor Akbar. After proclaiming Tarikh-e-Elahi, he abolished many traditional Muslim festivals and replaced them with 14 new festivals, one of which was nawroze, the celebration of the New Year. It was in one such celebration, in a meena bazaar (a bazaar for women), prince Selim, later emperor Jahangir, met and fell in love with Mehr-un-Nissa, known as Nur Jahan. It was also at a nawroz festival that the prince Khurram (emperor Shah Jahan) first met Mumtaz Mahal, whom he immortalised through the great ‘poetry in marble’, the Taj Mahal. The Bengali version of nawroz is Nababarsha.
Nababarsha celebrations
THE present-day celebration of Nababarsha in Bangladesh is secular while at the same time reflecting the local culture which religious conservatives, who oppose Bengaliness, associate with the Bengali Hindu culture. For the non-conservative Bengali Muslims of Bangladesh, their way of life is both Bengali and Muslim, which overlap but usually do not create tension. Language, eating habits and costumes are generally identified as local and do not create conflict, although there are a few exceptions. Before the language movement, the celebration of Nababarsha was confined to peasants and traders in small towns.
It was never a national festival. But in the beginning of mid-1960s, the celebration of Nababarsha became a political issue linked to the Bengali language movement. The Pakistan government’s ban on Tagore songs gave birth to this new movement which strengthened the ongoing language movement. Banglapedia says: ‘The historical importance of Pahela Baishakh (also Boishakh) in the Bangladesh context may be dated from the observance of the day by Chhayanat in 1965. In an attempt to suppress Bengali culture, the Pakistan Government had banned Tagore songs. Protesting this move, Chhayanat opened their Pahela Baishakh celebrations at Ramna Park with Tagore’s song welcoming the month [in 1967]. The day continued to be celebrated in East Pakistan as a symbol of Bengali culture. After 1972 it became a national festival, a symbol of the Bangladesh nationalist movement and an integral part of the people’s cultural heritage.’
utside Dhaka
NABABARSHA celebrations have traditionally been more colourful in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the far southeast of Bangladesh than in other parts of the country. Several indigenous tribes celebrate the day as the New Year in their calendar. Over time, the integration of these cultures has resulted in the term Baisabi designating the New Year celebrations among the diverse ethnic minorities of the south. This region was recorded in the first known map of Bengal, dated about 1550. However, long before in the year 953 a king of Arakan occupied the present districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts and Chittagong (now Chattogram).
The ancient name of Arakan is Rakhainepray. The word Rakhaine is said to have derived from the Sanskrit Raksha and the Pali Yakkha, signifying a monster or a demon. The Arakanese rulers ruled the region till 1666. In fact, this region frequently changed hands between the rulers of Tripura and Arakan. The Mughals controlled the area from 1666 to 1760. In 1760 the area was ceded to the British East India Company. From the medieval period, Baisabi has been the prime festival of the Marma and Chakma tribal groups of Chittagong Hill Tracts.
They wear colourful traditional dresses, organise traditional sports, and cook special vegetable curry called pachan. This curry has a spiritual significance since the tribes believe that this curry acts as a protection against diseases and ill-fortune throughout the upcoming year. The Water Festival of the Marmas — a traditional ritual of dousing each other with water in order to wash away the sins of yesteryear — is held during this time. The Rakhains tribe enacts a similar ritual to mark the New Year.
While Bengali urbanites hold rallies, fairs, and cultural functions across the city to welcome the Nababarsha, in the countryside the fairs have retained their traditional feel. Cock-fights, wrestling, special cuisine, and cultural events are the centre of the celebration. The tradition of horse racing has, however, declined in the last few decades.
Beyond Bangladesh
ALTHOUGH I have discussed the Nababarsha celebrations in Dhaka and referred to the activities in the Bangladeshi countryside, similar kinds of New Year celebrations can be found throughout South Asia including Sri Lanka. The people of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos celebrate their New Year during the month of April. Even in India, especially in West Bengal, Assam, and Tripura, and from Punjab to Arunachal, irrespective of caste, custom, and culture, New Year celebrations are held at this time of the year. The Assamese call it Bihu, the Burmese call it Thingyan, and for the Thai it is Songran. The Burmese and Thai words supposedly originated from the Sanskrit word sangkranti, which signifies the passage from one zodiac sign to another.
Home beyond home
THE Bangladeshi community in North America also observes Nababarsha. New York is the centre of this celebration. In the past few years, observing Nababarsha has become one of the hallmarks of the Bangladeshi community in New York and is as important as the observance of Ekushey February. Numerous Bangladeshi organisations, small and large, present cultural events during the week of Bangla New Year, especially in the borough of Queens. Rehearsals for these events generally begin in February. Drama Circle, a pioneer cultural front in Queens, has been playing a lead role in presenting cultural shows to mark the occasion. In 2004, the New York based Biswa Sahitya Kendra, the local chapter of the parent organisation in Dhaka, organised its third annual Kendra mela to coincide with the Nababarsha celebration.
Performers arrived from Boston (Massachusetts), Rochester (New York), Paterson (New Jersey), and elsewhere. Screenings of contemporary Bengali classic films, poetry recitals and workshops, exhibitions of traditional handicrafts, and boutiques were the main attractions of the Kendra mela. Simultaneously, Muktadhara, the premier Bengali bookstore in New York, organised what it termed a ‘sahityer asar’, a concert of literature. Prominent authors and critics, both from Dhaka and Kolkata, attended and spoke about issues and trends pertinent to contemporary Bengali literature.
Such events with popular writers from home keep the Bangladeshi immigrant community abreast of contemporary literary developments.
The special traditional cuisine of Nababarsha is an important part of these events. Along with a variety of snacks, local Bangladeshi restaurants serve traditional sweets and cakes. Jackson Heights and Hillside Avenue of Queens borough are the main centres for Bengali cuisine in New York. Beside sweets and pithas, the most important item on the menu of Nababarsha meal is machh-bhat, fish and rice.
On the day of Nababarsha, people eat fish and rice at the Bangladeshi owned eateries in Queens borough of New York. For many people, these celebrations of Bengali festivities are matters both of keeping the lines open to back home and nostalgia. Those who have settled recently in the United States do not want to lose all touch with the celebrations in Bangladesh which they recently celebrated in their nation of origin. Those who have lived in the United States and later returned to Bangladesh remember their participations in the festivities celebrated in the United States. And those who have lived in America for many years nostalgically recall their homeland.
They talk about their experiences of diasporic life in the United States, and how hard it is to preserve their Bengali ethos and identity in an alien land. This alien land is now one of the main venues, outside Bangladesh, where the Bengali identity is displayed through the observance of Ekushey February and Nababarsha.
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