VANDE MATARAM DOWNLOAD IN JPEG, PDF FILE AND MP3
Vande Mataram is a Sanskrit poem written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1870s, which he included in his 1882 novel Anandamath. The poem was first sung by Rabindranath Tagore in 1896. The first two verses of the song were adopted as the National Song of India in October 1937 by the Congress Working Committee prior to the end of colonial rule in August 1947.
An ode to the Motherland, it was written in Bengali script in the novel Anandmath. The title 'Bande Mataram' means "I praise thee, Mother" or "I praise to thee, Mother". The "mother goddess" in later verses of the song has been interpreted as the motherland of the people – Banga Mata (Mother Bengal) and Bharat Mata (Mother India), though the text does not mention this explicitly.
It played a vital role in the Indian independence movement, first sung in a political context by Rabindranath Tagore at the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress. It became a popular marching song for political activism and Indian freedom movement in 1905.
Spiritual Indian nationalist and philosopher Sri Aurobindo referred it as "National Anthem of Bengal". The song and the novel containing it was banned by the British government, but workers and general public defied the ban, many went to colonial prisons repeatedly for singing it, and the ban was overturned by the Indians after they gained independence from the colonial rule.
Although India does not have any "national song", in 1950 (after India's independence), the first president of India, Babu Rajendra Prasad declared the song should be honoured equally with the national anthem of India, Jana Gana Mana.
The first two verses of the song are an abstract reference to mother and motherland, they do not mention any Hindu deity by name, unlike later verses that do mention goddesses such as Durga. There is no time limit or circumstantial specification for the rendition of this song [unlike the national anthem Jana Gana Mana that specifies 52 seconds].