Thursday, August 9, 2007

INDIANNESS & Patriotic Songs - Part - II - VANDE MATRAM:

Vande Mataram

Vande Mataram

I know lot of you just read it like any other words. Hold on!! Say it out loud and bravely if you are alone or just inside you only your mind can hear it. Just try it

Vande Mataram !

Vande Mataram
!!

Did you feel the impulse and vibe it brings inside you? You will feel if put your heart into while saying it.

Vande Mataram means Hail to the Mother(land). It is this very own phrase derived from Vande Mataram song, our forefathers shouted so loud enough to drive the British crazy. Its the motto of national cry for the freedom struggle.

Vande Mataram is the national song of India, distinct from the national anthem of India "Jana Gana Mana". The song was composed by Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay in a mixture of Bengali and Sanskrit published in his Bengali novel Anand Math. The English translation of Vande Mataram rendered by Shree Aurobindo, is considered to be the "official" and best.

Do you know only first two stanza of this song are considered to be national song. Did you also know that even Jana Gana Mana...is much longer, and that only first two stanzas are recognized as National Anthem.






"Vande maataraM
sujalaaM suphalaaM malayaja shiitalaaM
SasyashyaamalaaM maataram

Shubhrajyotsnaa pulakitayaaminiiM
pullakusumita drumadala shobhiniiM
suhaasiniiM sumadhura bhaashhiNiiM
sukhadaaM varadaaM maataraM

Koti koti kantha kalakalaninaada karaale
koti koti bhujai.rdhR^itakharakaravaale
abalaa keno maa eto bale
bahubaladhaariNiiM namaami taariNiiM
ripudalavaariNiiM maataraM

Tumi vidyaa tumi dharma
tumi hR^idi tumi marma
tvaM hi praaNaaH shariire

Baahute tumi maa shakti
hR^idaye tumi maa bhakti
tomaara i pratimaa gaDi
mandire mandire

TvaM hi durgaa dashapraharaNadhaariNii
kamalaa kamaladala vihaariNii
vaaNii vidyaadaayinii namaami tvaaM


Namaami kamalaaM amalaaM atulaaM
SujalaaM suphalaaM maataraM

ShyaamalaaM saralaaM susmitaaM bhuushhitaaM
DharaNiiM bharaNiiM maataraM "


Mother, I salute thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Green fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.

Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow.

Who hath said thou art weak in thy lands
When swords flash out in seventy million hands
And seventy million voices roar
Thy dreadful name from shore to shore?
With many strengths who art mighty and stored,
To thee I call Mother and Lord!
Thou who saves, arise and save!
To her I cry who ever her foe drove
Back from plain and sea
And shook herself free.

Thou art wisdom, thou art law,
Thou art heart, our soul, our breath
Though art love divine, the awe
In our hearts that conquers death.
Thine the strength that nerves the arm,
Thine the beauty, thine the charm.

Every image made divine
In our temples is but thine.

Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen,
With her hands that strike and her
swords of sheen,
Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned,
And the Muse a hundred-toned,
Pure and perfect without peer,
Mother lend thine ear,
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
Bright with thy orchard gleems,
Dark of hue O candid-fair

In thy soul, with jewelled hair
And thy glorious smile divine,
Loveliest of all earthly lands,
Showering wealth from well-stored hands!
Mother, mother mine!
Mother sweet, I bow to thee,
Mother great and free!


It is generally believed that the concept of Vande Mataram came to Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay when he was still a government official under the British Raj. Around 1870, the British rulers of India had declared that singing of God Save the Queen would be mandatory. He wrote it in a spontaneous session using words from two languages he was expert in, Sanskrit and Bengali.

Regarding the song, Bankimchandra noted almost prophetically,"I may not live to see its popularity, but this song will be sung by every Indian..." A number of lyrical and musical experiments have been done and many versions of the song have been created and released throughout the 20th century. Many of these versions have employed traditional South Asian classical ragas.


Controversy's

While Vande Mataram was treated as the National Anthem of India for long, ultimately Jana Gana Mana was chosen as the National Anthem of independent India. Vande Mataram was rejected on the grounds that Muslims felt offended by its depiction of the nation as "Mother Durga"—a Hindu goddess— thus equating the nation with the Hindu conception of shakti, divine feminine dynamic force; and by its origin as part of Anandamatha, a novel they felt had an anti-Muslim message (see External links below).

In 1937 the Indian National Congress discussed at length the status of the song. It was pointed out then that though the first two stanzas began with an unexceptionable evocation of the beauty of the motherland, in later stanzas there are references where the motherland is likened to the Hindu goddess Durga. Therefore, the Congress decided to adopt only the first two stanzas as the national song


On August 22, 2006, there was a row in the Lok Sabha of the Indian Parliament over whether singing of Vande Mataram in schools should be made mandatory. The ruling coalition (UPA) and Opposition members debated over the Government's stance that singing the National Song Vande Mataram on September 7, 2006 to mark the 125th year celebration of its creation should be voluntary.

On September 7, 2006, the nation celebrated the National Song. Television channels showed school children singing the song at the notified time. Some Muslim groups had discouraged parents from sending their wards to school on the grounds, after the BJP had repeatedly insisted that the National Song must be sung. However, many Muslims did participate in the celebrations.

Here is some versions of the National Songs collected from net.

Original Version (Sang by 4 prominent singers)




Lata Mangeshkar Version




Maa Tujhe Salaam (ARRahman version)







Lata Mangeshkar Version with different collection of photography



Tamil version (written by Tamil Poet Mahakavi Bharathiar)




I remember commenting badly about this song during my school days without feeling the importance of it. I regret it almost all the time when I felt the real meaning and essence of it.

To this day, Vande Mataram is seen as a national mantra describing the love of patriots for India. I hope you share same feeling with me and join me to pronounce the very phrase one more time.

Vande Mataram! Vande Mataram !!

Thanks


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