Vande Mataram

"Vande Mataram" ("I bow to the Mother") is the National Song of India. It was written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in the 1870s and included in his Bengali novel Anandamath (1882), where it is sung by the Santans, a band of ascetic rebels. The poem is in a mix of Sanskrit and Bengali. It became a cry of the freedom movement, sung by Rabindranath Tagore at the 1896 Calcutta session of the Congress and used widely after the 1905 partition of Bengal. In 1937 the Congress Working Committee chose only the first two stanzas for public singing, so that people of all faiths could join, and that two-stanza form was the usual one for decades. On 24 January 1950 the Constituent Assembly accepted it as the National Song, and Dr Rajendra Prasad said it should be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana.

The 2026 official version. By an order dated 28 January 2026 (circulated on 11 February 2026), the Ministry of Home Affairs prescribed the full six-stanza version, about 3 minutes and 10 seconds long, for official occasions such as flag hoisting events, civil investitures and school mass singing. It says people should stand at attention, except when it is part of a film or documentary, and that when it is held together with the National Anthem, Vande Mataram comes first. Akashvani began broadcasting the six-stanza version from 26 March 2026. This page gives all six stanzas, as sung officially now. Please follow the instructions of the organisers at events.

Stanza 1: "Sujalam, suphalam, malayaja sheetalam, shasyashyamalam." The Mother is rich in water (sujalam) and fruit (suphalam), cooled by the sandal-scented breeze of the Malaya hills and dark green with crops. It paints the land itself as the Mother, generous and fresh.

Stanza 2: "Shubhrajyotsnam pulakitayaminim." Her nights shine with white moonlight, she is lovely with flowering trees, her smile and speech are sweet, and she gives happiness and boons. Stanzas 1 and 2 are the ones that were sung in public for most of the last century.

Stanza 3: strength. The text here says "Koti koti kantha," crores of voices; the original reads "saptakoti kantha," seven crore voices and "dvisapta koti," fourteen crore arms, meaning the people of Bengal at that time. So who can call the Mother weak (abala)? She is a bearer of great strength, saviour from the enemy host. The line "Ke bole ma tumi abale" is the heart of the stanza.

Stanza 4: the inner life of the nation. "Tumi vidya, tumi dharma, tumi hridi, tumi marma": you are learning, duty, heart and inner essence, the breath in the body, the strength in the arm and the devotion in the heart, and your image is made in every temple.

Stanza 5: the goddess forms. You are Durga with ten weapons, Kamala (Lakshmi) among lotuses and Vani (Saraswati) who gives learning. I bow to you, pure, unmatched, with good water and fruit. Because this stanza uses goddess imagery, it was left out of the 1937 public-singing choice, and it is part of the debate over the full version.

Stanza 6. "Shyamalam saralam susmitam bhushitam, dharanim bharanim mataram": dark green, simple, sweetly smiling, adorned, the earth that bears and feeds us, Mother.

The wider message. The poem turns the land into a mother and asks citizens to serve her with strength, learning and devotion. People hold different views on the later stanzas and on the 2026 rules, so please read with respect. See the Saraswati Vandana and Mahishasura Mardini Stotram.