Celebrating Pahela Baishakh

If the origin of Pahela Baishakh, Bangla New Year's Day, dates back to November 5, 1556 with its launching day at a much later date on March 10/11, 1584, it just covers a little less than the Bangalee people's thousand years' history. Earlier, the people in this part of the world followed a Vedic lunisolar calendar where the Surya Siddhanta was considered a standard. Further reformed by Aryabhata, Varahmihira and Bhaskara II in the fifth, sixth and 12th centuries, this calendar set Agrahyana as the first month which was replaced later by Chaitra. It was Aamir Fahehullah Siraji, Emperor Akbar's court astrologer, who under the emperor's order brought about a synthesis between the Vedic and Hijri calendars and made Pahela Baishakh the first day of a new year. The purpose though was to kick-start revenue collection in harvesting season.
That tradition of clearing all yearly dues by the last day of Chaitra, Sangkranti that is, still holds among the business community. Traders arrange a ritualistic event known as 'halkhata' where their clients or customers are invited to settle all dues and as a gesture of goodwill they are entertained with an array of sweetmeats and other delicacies. This is symbolic. A fresh beginning takes off from a cutting point where some obligations have to be fulfilled. This sense of incumbency is what fuels the spirit within human beings and allows them the luxury to set aside a day or two for celebration pure and total. Today, the urbanites have become one with the spirit of this fresh journey invented by the rural people who after their long and hard harvesting period indulged in celebration of the Chitra Sangrakanti and the Pahela Baishakh through holding village fairs. The fairs showcased the finest creative articles -- most of which for household use but some were meant to appeal to aesthetic senses of children and the old alike.
Thanks to the Chhayanaut, a cultural organisation, the celebration of Pahela Baishakh has indeed been redefined. A touch of refinement after the Shantinekatan-style of celebration of different seasons as introduced by Rabindranath Tagore has given it a grace and poise of its own. The rowdiness as associated with the New Year's Day on the Gregorian calendar is alien to this soulful and yet lively celebration of the day. To add colour to the occasion the teachers and students of the Art College have introduced a most eye-catching procession in the capital. Following in the footsteps of the Chhayanaut, other cultural organisations in Dhaka and other cities and towns have also come forward to welcome the Pahela Baishakh in as befitting a manner as possible.
Evidently the essence of the celebration is to start the year on a high note. But when ugly political rivalry, violence, lawlessness and social disparities pose the greatest challenge to shaping a cohesive society, the celebration remains peripheral instead of germinating from the core values of a nation. More than anything else, though, people need to be culturally reawakened, if society has to achieve the poise and enlightenment required for its balanced development. The type of politics and economic pursuance now leaving a dehumanising effect must give way to a cultural resurgence organisations like the Chhayanaut have been promoting.
Shuvo Nabobarsho to all.