Machine summary:
A. SABZWARI, * ''ls the Muslim world to calculate the Hijra year once again"?- Nazrul Islam T is generally believed, by historian as well as layman, that the present Bengali era was introduced by the Moghul emperor Akbar who, dictated by the exigencies of the assessment of the harvest, was forc• ed to adopt the solar system of time, and, beginning with the first year of his reign, engrafted it upon the current year of the Hijra, i.
It is supposed that the Bengali era originated in Akbar's time and, having branched off from the Hijra as a parent stock, was closely related to the Muslim year.
Mt. Prinsep, the Secretary of the Asiatic Society is, perhaps, the first person who, relying upon the statement of Mr. Harington, trac• ed the origin of the Bengali year to the date of Akbar's accession and elaborated upon its foundation on the basis of the Hijra year.
1 In these obscure and confused· circumstances enwrapping the '~eras derived from the Hijra", Prinsep came forward to clear the atmosphere and •set the matter in a very clear light' by enunciating the theory that Akbar, when he conquered Bengal and a portion of the Deccan, was confronted with the different modes of computing time which occasioned a great deal of perplexity to accountants.
The authority quoted by Prinsep admits the existence of the Bengali San era "in which the year began with the arrival of the sun at the vernal equinoctial point, and the months were regulated by its passage through the twelve signs of the Zodiac'' .