Panjika
Encyclopedia
The panjika( paanji) is the Hindu astronomical
Hindu astronomy
Historical Indian astronomy develops as a discipline of Vedanga or one of the "auxiliary disciplines" associated with the study of the Vedas.The oldest extant text of astronomy is the treatise by Lagadha, dated to the Mauryan era ....

 almanac
Almanac
An almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc...

, published in Maithili
Maithili language
Maithili language is spoken in the eastern region of India and South-eastern region of Nepal. The native speakers of Maithili reside in Bihar, Jharkhand,parts of West Bengal and South-east Nepal...

, Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...

, Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

 and Oriya
Oriya language
Oriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...

. In colloquial language it is called a ‘panji’. In other parts of India it is called a panchangam
Panchangam
A panchāngam is a Hindu astrological almanac, which follows traditional Indian cosmology, and presents important astronomical data in tabulated form. It is sometimes spelled Pancanga, Panchanga, Panchaanga, or Panchānga, and is pronounced Panchānga...

. It is amongst the most popular annual books published in India and is a handy reference for observant Hindus to determine the most auspicious times for their rituals, festivals, celebrations, and pursuits of various sorts including marriage, undertaking travels, etc. It is a sort of a ready-reckoner, or the first source, before one approaches a priest or an astrologer to decide on the details. Even “non-believers” amongst Hindus and those who are not Hindus often consult a panjika for much of the practical information it publishes. It also records Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

, Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 and other festivals, dates of birth and death of many leading personalities and carries informative articles on astrology.

Oriya and Assamese panjikas

There are Five Panji in Oriya , Biraja Panji , Bhagyadaya Panji, Kohinoor Panji, Gaudiya Vishnava Panjika and Madala Panji
Madala Panji
Madala Panji is a chronicle of the Jagannath in Puri, Orissa state, India. It describes the historical events of Orissa related to Lord Jagannath or Jagannath Temple. Though the actual date of starting of Panjis is not known, but it is believed that it might be started from 12th or 14th Century AD...

. Madala Panji , this is the 1st Panjika in Indian regional Language started from 12th century . it is the main source and evidence of Orissa History . Pathani samanta Chandra Sekar ( 1835 to 1904) has revived the Oriya Panjika in scientific way .
and the Gaudiya Vishnava Panjika In Assam there is the Kalpurush Panjika.

Two schools of Bengali panjika-makers

There are two schools of panjika-makers in Bengal - Driksiddhanta (Bisuddhasiddhanta Panjika
Vishuddha Siddhanta Panjika
Vishuddha Siddhanta Panjika is a Panjika that was first published in 1297 Bengali year . Madhab Chandra Chattopadhyay of the then Bengal of undivided India was the first editor.- Why a new almanac? :...

) and Odriksiddhanta (Gupta Press, PM Bagchi, etc.). They dictate the days on which festivals are to be held. Sometimes, they lay down different dates for particular festivals. For the Durga Puja
Durga Puja
Durga puja ; দুর্গা পূজা,ଦୁର୍ଗା ପୂଜା,‘Worship of Durga’), also referred to as Durgotsava ; , is an annual Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. It refers to all the six days observed as Mahalaya, Shashthi, Maha Saptami, Maha Ashtami, Maha Navami and...

 in 2005, two different sets of dates came through. Some community pujas followed the Gupta Press Panjika, because of its popularity. It was with deference to convention, confirmed Pandit Nitai Chakraborty, president of Vaidik Pandit O Purohit Mahamilan Kendra. Belur Math
Belur Math
' or Belur Mutt is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, founded by Swami Vivekananda, a chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It is located on the west bank of Hooghly River, Belur, West Bengal, India and is one of the significant institutions in Calcutta...

 adhered to Bisuddhasiddhanta Panjika
Vishuddha Siddhanta Panjika
Vishuddha Siddhanta Panjika is a Panjika that was first published in 1297 Bengali year . Madhab Chandra Chattopadhyay of the then Bengal of undivided India was the first editor.- Why a new almanac? :...

. It was Swami Vijnanananda (who became Math president in 1937-38), an astrologer, who decided that Ramakrishna Mission
Ramakrishna Mission
Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission are twin organizations which form the core of a worldwide spiritual movement known as Ramakrishna Movement or Vedanta Movement. The Ramakrishna Mission is a philanthropic, volunteer organization founded by Ramakrishna's chief disciple Swami Vivekananda on...

 would follow this almanac as it was more scientific.

The difference occurs because the two schools follow different calendars of luni-solar movement
Lunisolar calendar
A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year. If the solar year is defined as a tropical year then a lunisolar calendar will give an indication of the season; if it is taken as a sidereal year then the calendar will...

 on which tithi
Tithi
In vedic timekeeping, a tithi is a lunar day, or the time it takes for the longitudinal angle between the moon and the sun to increase by 12°. Tithis begin at varying times of day and vary in duration from approximately 19 to approximately 26 hours. There are 30 tithis in each lunar month, named...

s are based. While Gupta Press Panjika follows 16th century Raghunandan’s work Ashtabingshatitatwa based on the 1,500-year-old astronomical treatise, Suryasiddhanta
Surya Siddhanta
The Surya Siddhanta is one of the earliest siddhanta in archeo-astronomy of the Hindus by an unknown author. It describes the archeo-astronomy theories, principles and methods of the ancient Hindus. This siddhanta is supposed to be the knowledge that the Sun god gave to an Asura called Maya. Asuras...

. Bisuddhasiddhanta Panjika
Vishuddha Siddhanta Panjika
Vishuddha Siddhanta Panjika is a Panjika that was first published in 1297 Bengali year . Madhab Chandra Chattopadhyay of the then Bengal of undivided India was the first editor.- Why a new almanac? :...

is based on an 1890 amendment of the planetary positions given in Suryasiddhanta.

Scientific reform

The earliest Indian almanacs date back to around 1000 BC. It did analyse time but the calculations were not always very accurate. It was greatly improved around the 4th and 5th centuries AD when finer methods of calculations were adopted. Some of the people who played a leading role in this were Aryabhata
Aryabhata
Aryabhata was the first in the line of great mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy...

, Varahamihira
Varahamihira
Varāhamihira , also called Varaha or Mihira, was an Indian astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer who lived in Ujjain...

, and Brahmagupta
Brahmagupta
Brahmagupta was an Indian mathematician and astronomer who wrote many important works on mathematics and astronomy. His best known work is the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta , written in 628 in Bhinmal...

. They based the calculation of time on astrology and added the position of stars and planets, their movements, auspicious/inauspicious times, lunar days etc. to the almanac. Suryasiddhanta
Surya Siddhanta
The Surya Siddhanta is one of the earliest siddhanta in archeo-astronomy of the Hindus by an unknown author. It describes the archeo-astronomy theories, principles and methods of the ancient Hindus. This siddhanta is supposed to be the knowledge that the Sun god gave to an Asura called Maya. Asuras...

, produced in that era, was the forerunner of all later day panjikas. Scholars used to copy almanacs on palm leaves and carry them to rural areas. Times for worship and other religious and social festivities were fixed on the basis of such information.

The Bengali panjika has a long history, with the earliest perhaps being the Navadvip Panjika, edited by the renowned Smriti
Smriti
Smriti literally "that which is remembered," refers to a specific body of Hindu religious scripture, and is a codified component of Hindu customary law. Smṛti also denotes non-Śruti texts and is generally seen as secondary in authority to Śruti. The literature which comprises the Smrti was...

 scholar Raghunandan. Others who prepared the panjika include Ramrudra Vidyanidhi (18th century) and Biswambhar Jyotisharnabha. In the later part of the 18th century, panjika calculations ceased but during British rule, Biswambhar again began the work of publishing the panjika, in handwritten book form. The printed version came in 1869. Bisuddhasiddhanta Panjika
Vishuddha Siddhanta Panjika
Vishuddha Siddhanta Panjika is a Panjika that was first published in 1297 Bengali year . Madhab Chandra Chattopadhyay of the then Bengal of undivided India was the first editor.- Why a new almanac? :...

was first published in 1890. Gupta Press follows Suryasiddhanta with the original format while the version with “corrected” scripture is called Visuddhasiddhanta.

The Bisuddhasiddhanta Panjika
Vishuddha Siddhanta Panjika
Vishuddha Siddhanta Panjika is a Panjika that was first published in 1297 Bengali year . Madhab Chandra Chattopadhyay of the then Bengal of undivided India was the first editor.- Why a new almanac? :...

came into being because an astronomer Madhab Chandra Chattopadhyay, on studying the panjikas then in vogue found differences in the actual and astrological position of the planets and stars. He revised the panjika as per scientific readings. There were other people in different parts of India who also supported the approach for scientific revision of the panjika. It included such people as Mahamahopadhyay Chandrasekhar Singha Samanta in Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

 and Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Lokmanya Tilak –, was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer and independence fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called the great leader "Father of the Indian unrest"...

 in Pune.

In 1952, a major revision of the panjika was undertaken under the aegis of the Indian government. With the scientist Megh Nad Saha as chairman, a Calendar Reform Committee was set up which reviewed the existing almanacs and recommended certain reforms. At its recommendation, the publication of the panjika was brought under the purview of the government.

The transformation

Gupta Press, one of the Bengali panjikas, has come out in 2007 with a CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

-version packed with interactive features like 'know your day', 'daily horoscope' and 'koshthi bichar' (horoscope). Transformation has been staple food for the panjika. With the passage of time it has added information, like tourist attractions, pilgrim destinations, telephone codes and general information that common people seek, to make it more attractive. The format has also been made more flexible to cater to the needs of varied groups. The variants like 'directory panjika' (magnum opus) 'full panjika' (thinner version) and 'half panjika' (abridged version) and 'pocket panjika' have different price tags. The pocket panjika is a hawkers' delight on local trains.

Madan Gupter Full Panjika, which came out in the 1930s, has not changed much externally. The cover is still the same, on thick pink paper, but the inside is very different. The pages have changed from coarse newsprint to smooth white paper, the letter press has made way for offset printing, wooden blocks have been replaced by sharp photographs. The biggest difference is in the ad-editorial ratio. Previously the ads formed the bulk of the printed matter — and were pure delight. “When there was no TV and not so many newspapers, the panjika was the place to advertise for many products. Many people bought panjikas for the ads,” says the owner Mahendra Kumar Gupta, “They would offer solutions to many ‘incurable’ diseases.” The 1938 edition started off with a full-page ad on an “Electric Solution”, which promised to revive dead men. Now they publish Durga Puja timings in London, Washington and New York, based on the sunset and sunrise there.

According to Arijit Roychowdhury, managing director of Gupta Press, panjika sales plunged after partition of India, as the market was lost in the eastern part of the former state. However, with innovative transformation of format and content, sales have been picking up and the overall annual market in 2007 is 2 million copies. The figure includes sales in the US and the UK.

Panjikas have found their way into modern day shopping malls also. A senior official of the RPG group, Mani Shankar Mukherjee
Mani Shankar Mukherjee
Shankar, real name Mani Shankar Mukherjee, and generally known in English-language literature as Sankar is a very popular writer in the Bengali language...

, himself a reputed author, said, "Our Spencer's store in Gurgaon
Gurgaon
Gurgaon is the second largest city in the Indian state of Haryana. Gurgaon is the industrial and financial center of Haryana. It is located 30 km south of national capital New Delhi, about 10 kilometers from Dwarka Sub City and 268 km south of Chandigarh, the state capital...

 has sold a record number of panjikas." Bengali panjikas follow the Bengali calendar
Bengali calendar
The Bengali calendar or Bangla calendar is a solar and sidereal Hindu calendar used by the Bengali people. It is used in the eastern Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura and in Bangladesh...

 and are normally out in the month of Choitro
Choitro
Choitro is the last of the twelve months of the Bangla Calendar. It falls from mid-March to mid-April and is the last month of Spring.Choitro is also known as:*Chait in the Nepali Bikram Sambat calendar....

, so that people can buy it well before Pohela Baishakh
Pohela Baishakh
Bengali New Year or Poyela Boishakh is the first day of the Bengali calendar, celebrated in both Bangladesh and West Bengal, and in Bengali communities in Assam and Tripura...

.

External links

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