Who Wrote Vande Mataram? The Story Behind India's National Song

Short answer: Vande Mataram, the national song of India, was written by the Bengali novelist and poet Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (also spelt Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, 1838–1894). He wrote it in the 1870s in a mix of Sanskrit and Bengali. It is traditionally dated to 7 November 1875, and it reached a wide readership through his novel Anandamath, published as a book in 1882. Jadunath Bhattacharya set the first tune soon after it was written. On 24 January 1950 the Constituent Assembly declared that Vande Mataram would be honoured equally with the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. In 2026 India is marking 150 years of the song, so here is the full story behind the credits.

Vande Mataram credits at a glance

• Words: Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
• Language: Bengali heavily mixed with Sanskrit (the first lines are almost pure Sanskrit)
• Written: 1870s. The Government of India's commemoration takes Akshaya Navami, 7 November 1875, as the date
• First published: serialised in Bankim's literary journal Bangadarshan as part of Anandamath, then in the book edition of 1882
• First tune: Jadunath Bhattacharya
• Best-known film version: Anand Math (1952), music by Hemant Kumar, sung by Lata Mangeshkar
• Official status: national song of India, declared on 24 January 1950 with equal honour to the national anthem

Who was Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay?

Bankim Chandra was born on 26 June 1838 at Kanthalpara, near Naihati in Bengal. He was one of the first two graduates of the newly founded University of Calcutta. Like his father, he went on to a long career as a deputy magistrate and deputy collector in the colonial administration, and he retired in 1891.

He was also the leading novelist of the Bengal Renaissance, and Bengali readers still call him Sahitya Samrat, the "emperor of literature". He wrote fourteen novels, among them Durgeshnandini (1865), Kapalkundala, Devi Chaudhurani and Anandamath, and he founded and edited Bangadarshan. So the man who wrote India's national song was a government official by day and a writer by vocation. That double life explains a lot about the song's careful, layered language.

How the song was written and first published

Most accounts say Bankim wrote the poem in a single burst at Chinsura (Chuchura), on the Hooghly river, while he was still in government service. He used Sanskrit words for their sound and grandeur and Bengali for the later lines. The poem then found its home inside Anandamath, a historical novel set during the Sannyasi Rebellion of the late eighteenth century, in which a band of ascetic warriors sing it as their hymn to the motherland.

That origin matters. Vande Mataram was not written as a stand-alone anthem. It began as a song sung by characters in a novel, and readers carried it out of the book and into public life.

What the words mean

"Vande Mataram" means "I bow to thee, Mother". The first stanza opens with a run of Sanskrit adjectives describing the land: "Vande Mataram / Sujalam suphalam malayaja shitalam" (Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, 1875; public domain). In plain English that is "I bow to you, Mother, rich in waters, rich in fruit, cooled by the southern breeze". The lines that follow call the land dark green with crops, bright with moonlit nights and flowering trees, sweet-voiced and smiling, a giver of joy and blessings.

These first two stanzas are a portrait of a fertile, beautiful homeland personified as a mother. The later stanzas go further. They picture the mother as the strength of millions of voices and arms, and identify her with the goddesses Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. That shift from landscape to goddess is the key to the song's later history. The best-known English version is Sri Aurobindo's 1909 verse translation, which begins "Mother, I bow to thee!"

From a novel to the song of the freedom movement

Rabindranath Tagore sang Vande Mataram at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in 1896, and the song soon moved from literature to politics. During the protests against the partition of Bengal in 1905 it became the movement's rallying cry, and "Vande Mataram!" became a slogan as much as a song. The colonial authorities responded by restricting it, and people were jailed for singing it in public.

A few moments show how far it travelled:

• In 1906 more than ten thousand people marched in Barisal, in today's Bangladesh, carrying Vande Mataram flags.
• In 1907 Bhikaiji Cama raised an early Indian flag in Stuttgart with "Vande Mataram" written across the middle band.
• Lala Lajpat Rai started a journal called Vande Mataram in Lahore.
• Freedom fighter Matangini Hazra is remembered for crying "Vande Mataram" as she was shot by police during the Quit India movement in 1942.

Why only the first two stanzas became the national song

Because the later stanzas invoke Hindu goddesses, the song became contested in the 1930s. In 1937 the Congress leadership asked for advice, and Tagore, among others, said that the opening stanzas could be sung by everyone but the full poem was not suitable for a gathering of all communities. The Congress then adopted the first two stanzas for national gatherings and left people free to sing another song if they objected.

On 24 January 1950 Dr Rajendra Prasad, presiding over the Constituent Assembly, made the decision official. Jana Gana Mana would be the national anthem. Vande Mataram, "which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom", would be honoured equally with it and have equal status. This is why India has both a national anthem and a national song, and why people so often mix them up.

The music: from Jadunath Bhattacharya to A.R. Rahman

Vande Mataram has never had just one melody. Jadunath Bhattacharya set the first tune after the poem was written, and Tagore sang his own version at the 1896 Congress. All India Radio broadcast a widely heard rendition in Raag Desh. Hindi film gave it a definitive version in Anand Math (1952), with music by Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar's soaring vocal. That recording is still the one many Indians hum.

In 1997, for the fiftieth anniversary of independence, A.R. Rahman released the album Vande Mataram. Its title track, "Maa Tujhe Salaam", is a new composition, not a setting of Bankim's poem, but it builds to "Vande Mataram" as its refrain and introduced the phrase to a new generation. If Rahman's sound is what drew you here, our guide to South Indian film music covers the tradition he came from. Five years later, in a 2002 BBC World Service poll of listeners' favourite songs, Vande Mataram came second, just behind the Irish song "A Nation Once Again".

If you want to sing it yourself, the breath control and vowel work in our beginner's guide to singing Bollywood songs applies directly, and the guide to Bollywood music explains the film-song tradition that the 1952 version belongs to.

150 years on: what changed in 2026

The Union Cabinet approved national celebrations on 1 October 2025, and a year-long commemoration of 150 years of Vande Mataram runs from 7 November 2025 to 7 November 2026. It is run by the Ministry of Culture through the campaign site vandemataram150.in, with mass singing, exhibitions and a commemorative stamp and coin. Two official changes followed during the anniversary year:

• Full-song protocol (February 2026). A Ministry of Home Affairs order dated 6 February 2026 set out when the national song is sung at official functions. It prescribes the full six-stanza version on listed occasions, with a duration of 3 minutes 10 seconds, and asks listeners to stand.
• Legal protection (July 2026). Parliament passed the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, in the Rajya Sabha on 29 July and the Lok Sabha on 30 July. It extends to Vande Mataram the protection the 1971 Act already gave Jana Gana Mana: intentionally preventing its singing, or disturbing a gathering that is singing it, is now an offence.

The anniversary year closes on 7 November 2026, which is why the song and its writer are back in the news.

Frequently asked questions

Who wrote the national song of India?

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote Vande Mataram. It appeared in his novel Anandamath and was declared India's national song on 24 January 1950.

Who wrote the national anthem, and how is it different?

Rabindranath Tagore wrote Jana Gana Mana, the national anthem. Vande Mataram is the national song. The two have equal honour but are separate compositions by different writers.

Who composed the music of Vande Mataram?

Jadunath Bhattacharya set the first tune. Many later versions exist, from Tagore's 1896 rendition to Hemant Kumar's 1952 film score for Anand Math.

In which language was Vande Mataram written?

In Bengali, with a strongly Sanskrit vocabulary. The opening stanza is close to pure Sanskrit, which helped it travel beyond Bengal.

When did Vande Mataram turn 150?

The government dates its writing to 7 November 1875, so the 150th anniversary fell on 7 November 2025. The national commemoration runs until 7 November 2026.

For more song stories, see what three different artists meant by "Forever Young".

Sources

• Ministry of Culture, PIB: year-long commemoration of 150 years of Vande Mataram (5 November 2025)
• PIB factsheet: Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and PRS Legislative Research bill track
• Times of India: MHA guidelines on Vande Mataram (February 2026)
• Vande Mataram, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Vande Mataram (album), Wikipedia
• Vande Mataram text and Sri Aurobindo's translation, Wikisource
• BBC World Service: world's favourite song result (December 2002)