..*..Vande Mataram ..*..

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..Jawaharlal Nehru

(1889-1964)

first prime minister of free India, the archangel of our secularists, wrote:



"Vande Mataram is obviously and indisputably the premier national song of India, with a great historical tradition, and intimately connected with our struggle for freedom. That position it is bound to retain and no other song can displace it. It represents the position and poignancy of that struggle."


Mahatma Gandhi

too, saw Vande Mataram as the most powerful anti-imperialistic battle cry and had declared that he associated the purest nationalist spirit with it.


***


Ode to Motherland



Vande Matram - the first expression of Indian Nationhood.


"I bow to you, my mother"



Vande maataram Sujalaam suphalaam

malayaja shiitalaam Sasyashyaamalaam maataram

Shubhrajyotsnaa pulakitayaaminiim

Pullakusumita drumadala shobhiniim

Suhaasiniim sumadhura bhaashhiniim

Sukhadaam varadaam maataram

Koti koti kantha kalakalaninaada karaale

Dwisapta koti bhujaidhrat kharakaravaale

Abalaa keno maa eto bale Bahubaladhaariniim

Namaami taariniimRipudalavaariniim Maataram

Tumi vidyaa tumi dharmaTumi hridi tumi marma

Tvam hi praanaah shariireBaahute tumi maa shaktiHridaye tumi maa bhakti

Tomaara i pratimaa gadiMandire mandire

Tvam hi Durgaa dashapraharanadhaarinii

Kamalaa kamaladala vihaarinii

Vaanii vidyaadaayinii namaami tvaam

Namaami kamalaam amalaam atulaam

Sujalaam suphalaamMaataram

Vande Mataram Shyaamalaam saralaam susmitaam bhuushhitaam

Dharaniim bharaniim Maataram



***


Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

(1838 - 1894)


wrote the lyrics of Vande Mataram, or at least the first two stanzas of the song, much before he penned Anandamath, his novel celebrating the sanyasi uprising against the tyrannical rule of Bengal's Muslim subedars. The original version was written sometime in the early 1870s - probably 1875 - and was later expanded into its full version and incorporated in Anandamath in 1881. Much later, when Vande Mataram became the rallying cry of India's freedom movement, after it was set to music by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and adopted as the National Song at the Varanasi session of the Congress on September 7, 1905 (it was accorded this status, bringing it at par with the National Anthem, officially by the Constituent Assembly on January 24, 1950)