Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay, the proficient scholar and novelist, composed “Vande Mataram” in 1874. Later on, he incorporated the song in Anandamath, published in 1882. Written in a blend of Sanskrit and Bengali, “Vande Mataram” was a prayer to the Motherland. It was severely criticised by his friends and even by his daughter. But Bankimchandra was confident about the mass acceptance of “Vande Mataram” as a national hymn.
In 1883, Anandamath was staged at the Great National Theatre under the direction of Kedar Chowdhury. The music was scored by the noted music director, Devkantha Bagchi, in Raga Tilak-Kamod. On an earlier occasion, “Vande Mataram” had been set to tune in Raga Malhar by Jadunath Bhattacharya, the sangeet guru of Bankimchandra and Rabindranth. In 1885, Pratibhasundari, Rabindranath’s niece, set the verses to tune, again, partly based on Raga Desh. The notation of the same was published in Balak, edited by Jnanadanandini Devi, along with an illustration of Mother India with her children as a goddess of plenty by Harish Chandra Haldar, a good friend of Rabindranath.
At the Calcutta session of the Congress in 1896, Rabindranath sang “Vande Mataram” accompanied by Jyotirindranath on the piano. The song had an electrifying effect.
The turn of the twentieth century witnessed nationwide protest against the partition of Bengal. “Vande Mataram” became the clarion call of the time. Hemendra Mohan Bose, an advocate of the swadeshi movement, succeeded in taking cylinder recordings of the song sung by Rabindranath as well as different recordings of “Vande Mataram” by the Vande Mataram Sampradaya — composed by Dakshinacharan Sen in Raga Khamaj — and the Bhawanipore Sevaka Sampradaya — composed by Raicharan Mukhopadhyay in Raga Malhar. Nicole Record recorded a version in Raga Malhar sung by Narainchandra Mookherjee and another version in the same I sung by R.N. Bose, under the banner of GramophoneMonarch Record.
Subsequently, several renowned singers — Satyabhusan Gupta, HemchandraSen, Harendranath Dutta, Himangshu Dutta, AmalaDas, Sarala Devi, Sati Devi, Sahana Devi, Kanak Das and others — performed it. Sarala, Rabindranath’s niece, even altered the verse, “Sapta koti (seven crore)” with “Tringshakoti (thirty crore)”, keeping pace with time. Sister Nivedita introduced “Vande Mataram” as the daily prayer song at the school she ran. Kazi NazrulIslam, as music director of the film, Gora, used it too.
During the next quarter of a century, several versions of“Vande Mataram” were composed by such celebrated composers and performers likeOmkarnath Thakur (RagaBangiya Kafi), KeshavaraoBhole (Raga Deshkar) and Vishnu Kant Pagnis (RagaSarang). Dilipkumar Roy, Pankajkumar Mallick andBhabanicharan Das used a combination of ragas. Apart from a solo presentation, Dilipkumar performed a duet along with M.S.Subbulakshmi. On Subhas Chandra Bose’s request, the noted composer, Timirbaran, even tuned the song to a marching move in Raga Durga. A vocal chorus, as well as instrumental orchestration, was cut to a double-sided record released by Ananda Bazar Patrika and Hindustan Standard. Incidentally, Babasaheb Ambedkar liked a tune composed by V.D. Ambhaikar in Raga Khambavati. Hirabai Badodkar sang the same version at the Red Fort on the day of Independence. Vande Mataram was accorded the status of the national song on January 24, 1950.
The journey of “Vande Mataram” was made through the ears, lips and harps of theRepublic’s artists who sang of history, mysteries, wonders and omens of India.
