94-471: Anandamath ( Bengali : আনন্দমঠ Anondomôţh ) ( lit. The Abbey of Bliss) is a Bengali historical novel, written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and published in 1882. It is inspired by and set in the background of the Sannyasi Rebellion in the late 18th century, it is considered one of the most important novels in the history of Bengali and Indian literature. Vande Mataram , "Hail to
188-500: A bid to lessen this burden on young learners, efforts have been made by educational institutions in the two main Bengali-speaking regions (West Bengal and Bangladesh) to address the opaque nature of many consonant clusters, and as a result, modern Bengali textbooks are beginning to contain more and more "transparent" graphical forms of consonant clusters, in which the constituent consonants of a cluster are readily apparent from
282-596: A different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is লবণ lôbôṇ in the east which corresponds to নুন nun in the west. Bengali exhibits diglossia , though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax : Linguist Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar categorises
376-480: A diphthong. The total number of diphthongs is not established, with bounds at 17 and 31. An incomplete chart is given by Sarkar (1985) of the following: In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all trochaic ; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as in সহযোগিতা shô -hô- jo -gi- ta "cooperation", where
470-568: A ghazal (Vande Mataram) composed by Bismil was also given on its back, i.e. page 12. The book written by the famous martyr of Kakori Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil was proscribed by the colonial government. Mahatama Gandhi supported adoption and the singing of the Vande Mataram song. In January 1946, in a speech in Guwahati ( Assam ), he urged that "Jai Hind should not replace Vande-mataram". He reminded everyone present that Vande-mataram
564-513: A large force. The rebels blockade the bridge over the nearby river, but they lack any artillery or military training. In the fighting, the troops make a tactical retreat over the bridge. The Sanyasis' undisciplined army, lacking military experience, chases the troops into the trap. Once the bridge is full of rebels, the East India Company artillery opens fire, inflicting severe casualties. However, some rebels manage to capture some of
658-692: A large scale and were communally limited. Owing to Bengal's geographic location, Bengali areas bordering non-Bengali regions have been influenced by each other. Small numbers of people in Midnapore , which borders Odisha , have used the Odia script to write in Bengali. In the border areas between West Bengal and Bihar , some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali in Devanagari , Kaithi and Tirhuta . In Sylhet and Bankura , modified versions of
752-682: A majority in Bangladesh speaks dialects notably different from SCB. Some dialects, particularly those of the Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB. The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis. The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety – often, speakers are fluent in Cholitobhasha (SCB) and one or more regional dialects. Even in SCB,
846-590: A marching song. The song, as well as Anandmath , were banned under British colonial rule under threat of imprisonment, making its use revolutionary. The ban was ultimately overturned by the Indian government upon independence in 1947. On 24 January 1950, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted Vande Mataram as the Republic's national song. President of India Rajendra Prasad stated that
940-649: A mother. The root of the Sanskrit word Vande is Vand , which appears in Rigveda and other Vedic texts. According to Monier Monier-Williams , depending on the context, vand means "to praise, celebrate, laud, extol, to show honour, do homage, salute respectfully", or "deferentially, venerate, worship, adore", or "to offer anything respectfully to". The word Mātaram has Indo-European roots in mātár- (Sanskrit), méter (Greek), mâter (Latin) which mean "mother". The first two verses of Vande Mataram adopted as
1034-585: A national gathering if they do not want to sing Vande Mataram because they find it "objectionable" for a personal reason. According to the gathered leaders, including the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, though the first two stanzas began with an unexceptionable evocation of the beauty of the motherland, in later stanzas there are references to the Hindu goddess Durga . The All-India Muslim League and Muhammad Ali Jinnah opposed
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#17327837086181128-615: A part in the adoption of the English alphabet to write Bengali, with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali. Vande Mataram Vande Mātaram ( Devanagari : वंदे मातरम् Bengali : বন্দে মাতরম্ Bônde Mātôrôm ; transl. I praise you, Motherland ) is a poem written in Sanskritised Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in the 1870s. The first two verses of
1222-576: A rounded total of 280 million) worldwide. The Bengali language is native to the region of Bengal , which comprises the present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal . Besides the native region it is also spoken by the Bengalis living in Tripura , southern Assam and the Bengali population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Bengali is also spoken in
1316-408: A special diacritic, called the hôsôntô (্) , may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as in ম্ [m] ). This diacritic, however, is not common and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation. The abugida nature of Bengali consonant graphemes is not consistent, however. Often, syllable-final consonant graphemes, though not marked by a hôsôntô , may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in
1410-581: A state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan . On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of the University of Dhaka ; they were the first ever martyrs to die for their right to speak their mother tongue. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan. 21 February has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh and has also been commemorated as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO every year since 2000. In 2010,
1504-463: A vowel in isolation from any preceding or following consonant, the independent form of the vowel is used. For example, in মই [moj] "ladder" and in ইলিশ [iliʃ] "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel ই is used (cf. the dependent form ি) . A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realised using its independent form. In addition to the inherent-vowel-suppressing hôsôntô , three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are
1598-500: Is Bangladesh's national march, written by The National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bengali in 1928. It was adopted as the national marching song by the Bangladeshi government in 1972. Additionally, the first two verses of Vande Mataram , a patriotic song written in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , was adopted as the "national song" of India in both the colonial period and later in 1950 in independent India. Furthermore, it
1692-468: Is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting nine vowels and two diphthongs , and thirty-nine graphemes representing consonants and other modifiers. There are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separate orthographic words . Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together called মাত্রা matra . Since
1786-513: Is a better chance of survival. While doing so, the couple become separated and Kalyani has to run through the forest with her infant to avoid getting caught by robbers. After a long chase, she loses consciousness at the bank of a river. A Hindu "Santana" (who were not true sanyasis but common people who took the symbol of sanyasis and left their household so as to rebel against the British East India Company ) named Jiban takes
1880-411: Is also given shelter by the monks; thus Mahendra and Kalyani are reunited. The leader of the rebels shows Mahendra the three faces of Bharat Mata (Mother India) as three goddess idols being worshipped in three consecutive rooms: Gradually, the rebel influence grows and their ranks swell. Emboldened, they shift their headquarters to a small brick fort. The East India Company troops attack the fort with
1974-572: Is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas ( Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America, the Middle East and other regions. Bengali was accorded the status of a classical language by the government of India on 3 October 2024. It is the second most spoken and fourth fastest growing language in India , following Hindi in the first place, Kashmiri in the second place, and Meitei ( Manipuri ), along with Gujarati , in
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#17327837086182068-400: Is an abugida , a script with letters for consonants, with diacritics for vowels, and in which an inherent vowel (অ ô ) is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked. The Bengali alphabet is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000 CE (or 10th–11th century). It
2162-437: Is arrested by the East India Company soldiers, because other monks were fuelling the revolt against Company rule. While being dragged away he spots another monk who is not wearing his distinctive robes and sings, "In mild breeze, by the bank of the river, In the forest, resides a respectable lady." The other monk deciphers the song, rescues Kalyani and the baby, and takes them to a rebel monk hideout. Concurrently, Mahendra
2256-707: Is believed by many that the national anthem of Sri Lanka ( Sri Lanka Matha ) was inspired by a Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tagore , while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated into Sinhala . After the contribution made by the Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force in the Sierra Leone Civil War under the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone ,
2350-721: Is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects. During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was in Kolkata , a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia and Kushtia District . There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use
2444-404: Is known as Apabhraṃśa , by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time. Though some archaeologists claim that some 10th-century texts were in Bengali, it is not certain whether they represent a differentiated language or whether they represent a stage when Eastern Indo-Aryan languages were differentiating. The local Apabhraṃśa of
2538-490: Is set out below in the International Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme). Bengali is known for its wide variety of diphthongs , combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable . Two of these, /oi̯/ and /ou̯/ , are the only ones with representation in script, as ঐ and ঔ respectively. /e̯ i̯ o̯ u̯/ may all form the glide part of
2632-405: Is the fifth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world. It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language . Bengali is the official , national , and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh , with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language. It is the second-most widely spoken language in India . It
2726-686: Is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam . It is also the second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal , and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar , Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Chhattisgarh , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Odisha and Uttarakhand . Bengali
2820-416: Is widely believed that the tune set for All India Radio station version was composed by Ravi Shankar . Hemant Kumar composed music for the song in the movie Anand Math in 1952. Many singers like Lata Mangeshkar , K.S.Chithra sung made it cult classic. In 2002, BBC World Service conducted an international poll to choose ten most famous songs of all time. Around 7000 songs were selected from all over
2914-509: The Aesop's Fables in Bengali was printed using Roman letters based on English phonology by the Scottish linguist John Gilchrist . Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali have continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes of Suniti Kumar Chatterji , Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda , and Muhammad Enamul Haq . The Digital Revolution has also played
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3008-615: The Arabic , Persian , and Turkic languages . The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East and Turkestan into the Buddhist -ruling Pala Empire , from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region. In the 13th century, subsequent Arab Muslim and Turco-Persian expeditions to Bengal heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population. Bengali absorbed Arabic and Persian influences in its vocabulary and dialect, including
3102-648: The Calcutta Congress Session held at Beadon Square. Dakhina Charan Sen sang it five years later in 1901 at another session of the Congress at Calcutta . Poet Sarala Devi Chaudurani sang the song in the Benares Congress Session in 1905. Lala Lajpat Rai started a journal called Vande Mataram from Lahore . Hiralal Sen made India's first political film in 1905 which ended with the chant. Matangini Hazra 's last words as she
3196-474: The Constitution of Bangladesh states Bengali to be the sole official language of Bangladesh. The Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 , made it mandatory to use Bengali in all records and correspondences, laws, proceedings of court and other legal actions in all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh. It is also the de facto national language of
3290-430: The Indian independence movement . The colonial government in response banned the book and made the recital of the song in public a crime. The colonial government imprisoned many independence activists for disobeying the order, but workers and general public repeatedly violated the ban many times by gathering together in the presence of colonial officials and singing it. Rabindranath Tagore sang Vande Mataram in 1896 at
3384-579: The Kaithi script had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script of Hindustani with the exception of Sylhet Nagri possessing matra . Sylhet Nagri was standardised for printing in c. 1869 . Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of the Arabic script had been used across Bengal from Chittagong in
3478-723: The Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were influential in the first millennium when Bengal was a part of the Greater Magadhan realm. The local varieties had no official status during the Gupta Empire , and with Bengal increasingly becoming a hub of Sanskrit literature for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained a lot of influence from Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was also spoken in modern-day Bihar and Assam , and this vernacular eventually evolved into Ardha Magadhi . Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what
3572-524: The Nadia region . Bengali shows a high degree of diglossia , with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language. Modern Bengali vocabulary is based on words inherited from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, along with tatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and borrowings from Persian , Arabic , Austroasiatic languages and other languages with which it has historically been in contact. In
3666-607: The University of Karachi (established by East Pakistani politicians before Independence of Bangladesh ) also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature. The national anthems of both Bangladesh ( Amar Sonar Bangla ) and India ( Jana Gana Mana ) were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore . Notuner Gaan known as " Chol Chol Chol"
3760-2538: The Vande Mataram are available at Vande Mataram – via Wikisource . বন্দে মাতরম্ ৷ সুজলাং সুফলাং মলয়জশীতলাম্ শস্যশ্যামলাং মাতরম্ ! শুভ্র-জ্যোত্স্না-পুলকিত-যামিনীম্ ফুল্লকুসুমিত-দ্রুমদলশোভিনীম্, সুহাসিনীং সুমধুরভাষিণীম্ সুখদাং বরদাং মাতরম্ ৷৷ সপ্তকোটীকন্ঠ-কল-কল-নিনাদকরালে, দ্বিসপ্তকোটীভুজৈধৃতখরকরবালে, অবলা কেন মা এত বলে ! বহুবলধারিণীং নমামি তরিণীং রিপুদলবারিণীং মাতরম্ ৷ তুমি বিদ্যা তুমি ধর্ম্ম তুমি হৃদি তুমি মর্ম্ম ত্বং হি প্রাণাঃ শরীরে ৷ বাহুতে তুমি মা শক্তি, হৃদয়ে তুমি মা ভক্তি, তোমারই প্রতিমা গড়ি মন্দিরে মন্দিরে ৷ ত্বং হি দুর্গা দশপ্রহরণধারিণী কমলা কমল-দলবিহারিণী বাণী বিদ্যাদায়িণী নমামি ত্বাং নমামি কমলাম্ অমলাং অতুলাম্, সুজলাং সুফলাং মাতরম্ বন্দে মাতরম্ শ্যামলাং সরলাং সুস্মিতাং ভূষিতাম্ ধরণীং ভরণীম্ মাতরম্ ৷ Bande Mātaram. Sujalāṃ suphalām Malayajaśītalām Śasyaśyāmalām Mātaram. Śubhra-jyotsnā-pulakita-yāminī Phullakusumita-drumadalaśobhinī, Suhāsinīṃ sumadhurabhāṣinīm Sukhadāṃ baradāṃ Mātaram. Saptakoṭīkanṭha-kala-kala-ninādakarāle Dbisaptakoṭībhujaidhṛtakharakarabāle, Abalā kena mā eta bale ! Bahubaladhārinīṃ Namāmi tarinīṃ Ripudalabārinīṃ Mātaram. Tumi bidyā tumi dharma Tumi hrṛdi tumi marma Tbaṃ hi prānāḥ śarīre. Bāhute tumi mā śakti, Hṛdaye tumi mā bhakti, Tomārai pratimā gaṛi mandire mandire. Tbaṃ hi Durgā daśapraharanadhārinī Kamalā kamala-dalabihārinī Bānī bidyādāyinī Namāmi tbaṃ Namāmi kamalām Amalāṃ atulām, Sujalāṃ suphalām Mātaram Bande Mātaram Śyāmalām saralām Susmitām bhūṣitām Dharanīṃ bharanīṃ Mātaram. वन्दे मातरम् सुजलां सुफलाम् मलयजशीतलाम् शस्यश्यामलाम् मातरम्। शुभ्रज्योत्स्नापुलकितयामिनीम् फुल्लकुसुमितद्रुमदलशोभिनीम् सुहासिनीं सुमधुर भाषिणीम् सुखदां वरदां मातरम्॥ सप्त-कोटि-कण्ठ-कल-कल-निनाद-कराले द्विसप्त-कोटि-भुजैर्धृत-खरकरवाले, अवला केन मा एत वले वहुवलधारिणीं नमामि तारिणीं रिपुदलवारिणीं मातरम्॥ तुमि विद्या, तुमि धर्म तुमि हृदि, तुमि मर्म त्वम् हि प्राणा: शरीरे बाहुते तुमि मा शक्ति, हृदये तुमि मा भक्ति, तोमारई प्रतिमा गडी मन्दिरे-मन्दिरे॥ त्वम् हि दुर्गा दशप्रहरणधारिणी कमला कमलदलविहारिणी वाणी विद्यादायिनी, नमामि त्वाम् नमामि कमलाम् अमलां अतुलाम् सुजलां सुफलाम् मातरम्॥ वन्दे मातरम् श्यामलाम् सरलाम् सुस्मिताम् भूषिताम् धरणीं भरणीं मातरम्॥ The first translation of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay 's novel Anandamath , including
3854-499: The boldface represents primary and secondary stress. Native Bengali words do not allow initial consonant clusters ; the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e., one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bengali restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as গেরাম geram (CV.CVC) for গ্রাম gram (CCVC) "village" or ইস্কুল iskul (VC.CVC) for স্কুল skul (CCVC) "school". The Bengali-Assamese script
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3948-557: The phonology of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalised vowels and an alveolar articulation of what are categorised as the "cerebral" consonants (as opposed to the postalveolar articulation of western Bengal). Some varieties of Bengali, particularly Sylheti , Chittagonian and Chakma , have contrastive tone ; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong
4042-1105: The "National Song" read as follows: বন্দে মাতরম্৷ সুজলাং সুফলাং মলয়জশীতলাম্ শস্যশ্যামলাং মাতরম্! বন্দে মাতরম্৷. শুভ্র-জ্যোৎস্না পুলকিত-যামিনীম্ ফুল্লকুসুমিত দ্রুমদলশোভিনীম্, সুহাসিনীং সুমধুরভাষিণীম্ সুখদাং বরদাং মাতরম্৷৷ বন্দে মাতরম্৷ Bônde mātôrôm sujôlāng suphôlāng môlôyôjôshītôlām shôsyô shyāmôlāng mātôrôm bônde mātôrôm shubhrô jyotsnā pulôkitô jāminīm phullô kusumitô drumôdôlôshobhinīm suhāsinīng sumôdhurôbhāshinī sukhôdāng bôrôdāng mātôrôm bônde mātôrôm वन्दे मातरम्। सुजलाम् सुफलाम् मलयजशीतलाम् शस्यश्यामलाम् मातरम्। वन्दे मातरम्। शुभ्रज्योत्स्नाम् पुलकितयामिनीम् फुल्लकुसुमित द्रुमदलशोभिनीम् सुहासिनीम् सुमधुर भाषिणीम् सुखदाम् वरदाम् मातरम्॥ वन्दे मातरम्। vande mātaram sujalāṃ suphalāṃ malayajaśītalām śasyaśyāmalāṃ mātaram vande mātaram śubhrajyotsnām pulakitayāminīm phullakusumita drumadalaśobhinīm suhāsinīṃ sumadhura bhāṣhiṇīm sukhadāṃ varadāṃ mātaram vande mātaram The complete original lyrics of
4136-623: The 16th century, Portuguese missionaries began a tradition of using the Roman alphabet to transcribe the Bengali language. Though the Portuguese standard did not receive much growth, a few Roman Bengali works relating to Christianity and Bengali grammar were printed as far as Lisbon in 1743. The Portuguese were followed by the English and French respectively, whose works were mostly related to Bengali grammar and transliteration. The first version of
4230-652: The 19th and 20th centuries, there were two standard forms of written Bengali: In 1948, the government of Pakistan tried to impose Urdu as the sole state language in Pakistan, giving rise to the Bengali language movement . This was a popular ethnolinguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh ), which arose as a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengalis and their desire to promote and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as
4324-435: The 20th century and its first two stanzas became the national song of India after independence. The story's setting was based on the time period around the devastating Bengal famine of 1770 during the period of Company rule in India and unsuccessful Sannyasi rebellion . In the book, Chatterjee imagines an alternative history where untrained Sannyasi soldiers defeat the experienced East India Company forces . The novel
4418-593: The 6th century, which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for some time. The ancestor of Bengali was the language of the Pala Empire and the Sena dynasty . During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by the elision of the word-final অ ô and the spread of compound verbs, which originated from the Sanskrit Schwa . Slowly, the word-final ô disappeared from many words influenced by
4512-456: The Bengali equivalent of a full stop – have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. Unlike in Western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) where the letter forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called মাত্রা matra . The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example,
4606-426: The Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phonetic segments , but carry an "inherent" vowel and thus are syllabic in nature. The inherent vowel is usually a back vowel , either [ɔ] as in মত [m ɔ t] "opinion" or [o] , as in মন [m o n] "mind", with variants like the more open [ɒ] . To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it,
4700-536: The Indian comic book series, Amar Chitra Katha . Bengali language Bengali , also known by its endonym Bangla ( বাংলা , Bāṅlā , [ˈbaŋla] ), is a classical Indo-Aryan language from the Indo-European language family native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With over 237 million native speakers and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2024, Bengali
4794-484: The Members. The poem has been set to a large number of tunes. The oldest surviving audio recordings date to 1907, and there have been more than a hundred different versions recorded throughout the 20th century. Many of these versions have employed traditional Indian classical ragas . Versions of the song have been visualised on celluloid in a number of films, including Leader , Amar Asha , and Anand Math . It
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#17327837086184888-574: The Motherland ", first song to represent India – as the Motherland was published in this novel. The book is set in the years during the famine in Bengal in 1770 CE . It starts with introduction to a couple, Mahendra and Kalyani, who are stuck in their village Padachinha without food and water in a time of famine. They decide to leave their village and move to the next closest city where there
4982-1534: The above prose translation, Sri Aurobindo also translated Vande Mataram into a verse form known as Mother, I praise thee! . Sri Aurobindo commented on his English translation of the poem that "It is difficult to translate the National Song of India into verse in another language owing to its unique union of sweetness, simple directness and high poetic force." Vande Mataram has inspired many Indian poets and has been translated into numerous Indian languages, such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Odia, Malayalam, Assamese, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu and others. Arif Mohammad Khan translated Vande Mataram into Urdu. It can be read in Urdu ( Devanagari script) as: तस्लीमात, माँ तस्लीमात तू भरी है मीठे पानी से फल फूलों की शादाबी से दक्खिन की ठंडी हवाओं से फसलों की सुहानी फ़िज़ाओं से तस्लीमात, माँ तस्लीमात तेरी रातें रौशन चांद से तेरी रौनक सब्ज़-ए-फ़ाम से तेरी प्यार भरी मुस्कान है तेरी मीठी बहुत ज़ुबां है तेरी बांहों में मेरी राहत है तेरे क़दमों में मेरी जन्नत है तस्लीमात, माँ तस्लीमात تسلیمات، ماں تسلیمات تُو بھری ہیں میٹھے پانی سے پھل پھولوں کی شادابی سے دکھن کی ٹھنڈی ہواؤں سے پھسلوں کی سُہانی فضاؤں سے تسلیمات، ماں تسلیمات تیری راتیں روشن چاند سے تیری رونک سبزِ فام سے تیری پیار بھری مسکان ہے تیری میٹھی بہت زُباں ہے تیری باہوں میں میری راحت ہے تیرے قدموں میں میری جنت ہے تسلیمات، ماں تسلیمات Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
5076-813: The awe In our hearts that conquers death. Thine the strength that nerves the arm, Thine the beauty, thine the charm. Every image divine. In our temples is but thine. [Verse 3] Thou art Goddess Durga , Lady and Queen, With her hands that strike and her swords of sheen, Thou art Goddess Kamala ( Lakshmi ), lotus-throned , And Goddess Vani ( Saraswati ), bestower of wisdom known Pure and perfect without peer, Mother lend thine ear, Rich with thy hurrying streams, Bright with thy orchard gleams, Dark of hue O candid-fair [Verse 4] 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! [Verse 5] Apart from
5170-536: The basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh ( Barisal , Chittagong , Dhaka and Sylhet Divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal and western Bangladesh are pronounced as fricatives . Western alveolo-palatal affricates চ [ tɕɔ ] , ছ [ tɕʰɔ ] , জ [ dʑɔ ] correspond to eastern চ [tsɔ] , ছ [tsʰɔ~sɔ] , জ [dzɔ~zɔ] . The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on
5264-404: The cannons, and turn the fire back on to the East India Company lines. The East India Company troops are forced to fall back, the rebels winning their first battle. The story ends with Mahendra and Kalyani building a home again, with Mahendra continuing to support the rebels. The song Vande Mataram is sung in this novel. Vande Mataram means "I bow to thee, Mother". It inspired freedom fighters in
5358-615: The complete poem by Shri Aurobindo appeared in Karmayogin , 20 November 1909. Mother, I bow to thee! Rich with thy hurrying streams, Bright with thy orchard gleams, Cool with the winds of delight, Dark 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. [Verse 1] Who hath said thou art weak in thy lands, When
5452-469: The consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exist a few visual formulas to construct some of these ligatures, many of them have to be learned by rote. Recently, in
5546-455: The country. In India, Bengali is one of the 23 official languages . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura and in Barak Valley of Assam . Bengali has been a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. In Pakistan , Bengali is a recognised secondary language in the city of Karachi mainly spoken by stranded Bengalis of Pakistan . The Department of Bengali in
5640-604: The development of Dobhashi . Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of the Sultans of Bengal with the ascent of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah . Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali, allowing it to become the most spoken vernacular language in the Sultanate. Bengali adopted many words from Arabic and Persian , which was a manifestation of Islamic culture on
5734-700: The east to Meherpur in the west. The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal, Nur Qutb Alam , composed Bengali poetry using the Persian alphabet . After the Partition of India in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali in East Pakistan ; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement. In
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#17327837086185828-553: The eastern subcontinent, Purbi Apabhraṃśa or Abahatta (lit. 'meaningless sounds'), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups, the Bengali–Assamese languages , the Bihari languages , and the Odia language . The language was not static: different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects in this period. For example, Ardhamagadhi is believed to have evolved into Abahatta around
5922-505: The emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement. Although Sanskrit has been spoken by Hindu Brahmins in Bengal since the 3rd century BC, the local Buddhist population spoke varieties of the Prakrit . These varieties are generally referred to as "eastern Magadhi Prakrit ", as coined by linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji , as
6016-466: The final ন in মন [m o n] or the medial ম in গামলা [ɡamla] ). A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent [ɔ] is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel typographic ligatures . These allographs, called কার kar , are diacritical vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example,
6110-726: The government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Bengali as an honorary official language in December 2002. In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali to be made an official language of the United Nations . Regional varieties in spoken Bengali constitute a dialect continuum . Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji grouped the dialects of Bengali language into four large clusters: Rarhi , Vangiya , Kamrupi and Varendri ; but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed. The south-western dialects ( Rarhi or Nadia dialect) form
6204-499: The graph মি [mi] represents the consonant [m] followed by the vowel [i] , where [i] is represented as the diacritical allograph ি (called ই-কার i-kar ) and is placed before the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs মা [ma] , মী [mi] , মু [mu] , মূ [mu] , মৃ [mri] , মে [me~mɛ] , মৈ [moj] , মো [mo] and মৌ [mow] represent the same consonant ম combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. In these consonant-vowel ligatures,
6298-412: The graphical form. However, since this change is not as widespread and is not being followed as uniformly in the rest of the Bengali printed literature, today's Bengali-learning children will possibly have to learn to recognise both the new "transparent" and the old "opaque" forms, which ultimately amounts to an increase in learning burden. Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke । daṛi –
6392-403: The independence of India from colonial rule, after a committee consisting of Maulana Azad , Jawaharlal Nehru , Subhash Chandra Bose , Acharya Deva, and Rabindranath Tagore recommended the adoption. The entire song was not selected by Hindu leaders in order to respect the sentiments of non-Hindus, and the gathering agreed that anyone should be free to sing an alternate "unobjectionable song" at
6486-465: The infant to his home, handing her to his sister, while he moves Kalyani to his ashram. The husband, Mahendra, at this point is more inclined towards joining the brotherhood of the monks and serving the Mother Nation. Kalyani wants to help him attain his dreams by trying to kill herself, thereby relieving him of worldly duties. At this point, Mahatma Satya joins her but before he can help her, he
6580-494: The language as: While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), spoken dialects exhibit a greater variety. People in southeastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in SCB. Other dialects, with minor variations from Standard Colloquial, are used in other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh, such as the Midnapore dialect, characterised by some unique words and constructions. However,
6674-547: The language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) include Yusuf-Zulekha by Shah Muhammad Sagir and Srikrishna Kirtana by the Chandidas poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when the Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century. The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the west-central dialect spoken in
6768-428: The letter ত tô and the numeral ৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the matra , as is the case between the consonant cluster ত্র trô and the independent vowel এ e , also the letter হ hô and Bengali Ôbogroho ঽ (~ô) and letter ও o and consonant cluster ত্ত ttô . The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between
6862-605: The neighbouring states of Odisha , Bihar , and Jharkhand , and sizeable minorities of Bengali speakers reside in Indian cities outside Bengal, including Delhi , Mumbai , Thane , Varanasi , and Vrindavan . There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the Middle East , the United States , Singapore , Malaysia , Australia , Canada , the United Kingdom , and Italy . The 3rd article of
6956-517: The parliament of Bangladesh and the legislative assembly of West Bengal proposed that Bengali be made an official UN language. As of January 2023, no further action has been yet taken on this matter. However, in 2022, the UN did adopt Bangla as an unofficial language, after a resolution tabled by India. In 2024, the government of India conferred Bengali with the status of classical language . Approximate distribution of native Bengali speakers (assuming
7050-461: The poem Vande Mataram , into English was by Nares Chandra Sen-Gupta , with the fifth edition published in 1906 titled "The Abbey of Bliss". Here is the translation in prose of the above two stanzas rendered by Sri Aurobindo Ghosh . This has also been adopted by the Government of India's national portal. The original Vande Mataram consists of six stanzas and the translation in prose for
7144-589: The poem in a spontaneous session using words from Sanskrit and Bengali . The poem was published in Chattopadhyay's book Anandamath (pronounced Anondomôţh in Bengali) in 1882, which is set in the events of the Sannyasi Rebellion. Jadunath Bhattacharya was asked to set a tune for this poem just after it was written. " Vande Mataram " was one of the most popular songs of protest during
7238-509: The poem were adopted as the National Song of India in October 1937 by the Congress . The poem was first published in 1882 as part of Chatterjee's Bengali novel Anandmath . It is an ode to the motherland, personified as the "mother goddess" in later verses, of the people. This initially referred to Bengal , with the "mother" figure therefore being Banga Mata (Mother Bengal), though
7332-427: The so-called "inherent" vowel [ɔ] is first expunged from the consonant before adding the vowel, but this intermediate expulsion of the inherent vowel is not indicated in any visual manner on the basic consonant sign ম [mɔ] . The vowel graphemes in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent, abridged, allograph form (as discussed above). To represent
7426-470: The song make abstract reference to the "mother" and "motherland", without any religious connotation. However, later verses mention Hindu goddesses such as Durga . Unlike the national anthem, there are no rules or decorum to be observed when reciting Vande Mataram . Indian Muslims and Sikhs have opposed the singing of Vande Mataram since in Islam and Sikhism , the homeland cannot be considered as
7520-599: The song should be honoured equally with the national anthem of India, Jana Gana Mana . While the Constitution of India does not make reference to a "national song", the Government filed an affidavit at the Delhi High Court in November 2022 stating that Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram would “stand on the same level”, and that citizens should show equal respect to both. The first two verses of
7614-487: The song. Thereafter, with the support of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian National Congress decided to adopt only the first two stanzas as the national song to be sung at public gatherings, and other verses that included references to Durga and Lakshmi were expunged. Rajendra Prasad , who was presiding the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950, made the following statement which
7708-536: The superposed chôndrôbindu (ঁ) , denoting a suprasegmental for nasalisation of vowels (as in চাঁদ [tʃãd] "moon"), the postposed ônusbar (ং) indicating the velar nasal [ŋ] (as in বাংলা [baŋla] "Bengali") and the postposed bisôrgô (ঃ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative [h] (as in উঃ! [uh] "ouch!") or the gemination of the following consonant (as in দুঃখ [dukʰːɔ] "sorrow"). The Bengali consonant clusters ( যুক্তব্যঞ্জন juktôbênjôn ) are usually realised as ligatures, where
7802-443: The 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 strong, To thee I call, Mother and Lord! Thou who savest, arise and save! To her I cry who ever her foemen drove Back from plain and Sea And shook herself free. [Verse 2] Thou art wisdom, thou art law , Thou art heart, our soul, our breath Thou art love divine,
7896-434: The text does not mention this explicitly. Indian nationalist and philosopher Sri Aurobindo referred Vande Mataram as the "national Anthem of Bengal". Nonetheless, the poem played a vital role in the Indian independence movement . It first gained political significance when it was recited by Rabindranath Tagore at Congress in 1896. By 1905, it had become popular amongst political activists and freedom fighters as
7990-654: The third place, according to the 2011 census of India . Bengali has developed over more than 1,400 years. Bengali literature , with its millennium-old literary history, was extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to
8084-484: The visible matra and an invisible baseline). There is yet to be a uniform standard collating sequence (sorting order of graphemes to be used in dictionaries, indices, computer sorting programs, etc.) of Bengali graphemes. Experts in both Bangladesh and India are currently working towards a common solution for this problem. Throughout history, there have been instances of the Bengali language being written in different scripts, though these employments were never popular on
8178-435: The vocabulary may differ according to the speaker's religion: Muslims are more likely to use words of Persian and Arabic origin, along with more words naturally derived from Sanskrit ( tadbhava ), whereas Hindus are more likely to use tatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit). For example: The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7 nasalised vowels . The inventory
8272-582: The world. Vande Mataram , from the movie Anand Math , was ranked second. All India Radio's version and some other versions are in Desh raga . In July 2017, the Madras High Court ruled that the Vande Mataram shall be sung or played at least once a week in all schools, universities and other educational institutions of Tamil Nadu. The Court also ruled that the song should be played or sung in government offices and industrial facilities at least once
8366-539: Was also adopted as the final decision on the issue: ...The composition consisting of the words and music known as Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India, subject to such alterations in the words as the Government may authorise as occasion arises; and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it. (Applause). I hope this will satisfy
8460-508: Was being sung since the inception of the Congress. He supported the "Jai Hind" greeting, but remanded that this greeting should not be to the exclusion of Vande Mataram. Gandhi was concerned that those who discarded Vande Mataram given the tradition of sacrifice behind it, one day would discard "Jai Hind" also. Parts of the Vande Mataram was chosen as the national song in 1937 by the Indian National Congress as it pursued
8554-426: Was later adapted into a film, Anand Math in 1952, directed by Hemen Gupta , starring Prithviraj Kapoor , Bharat Bhushan , Pradeep Kumar , Ajit and Geeta Bali . The music was composed by Hemant Kumar , who gave a version of the Vande Mataram sung by Lata Mangeshkar , which became a cult success. It was adapted as a comic in the 655th and 10028th issue and also in a Special Issue Great Indian Classic of
8648-468: Was one of the earliest graduates of the newly established Calcutta University . After his BA, he joined the colonial government as a civil servant, becoming a Deputy Collector and later a Deputy Magistrate. Chattopadhyay was very interested in recent events in Indian and Bengali history, particularly the Revolt of 1857 and the previous century's Sanyasi Rebellion . Around the same time, the administration
8742-618: Was shot to death by the Crown police were Vande Mataram . In 1907, Bhikaiji Cama (1861–1936) created the first version of India's national flag (the Tiranga ) in Stuttgart , Germany, in 1907. It had Vande Mataram written on it in the middle band. A book titled Kranti Geetanjali published by Arya Printing Press ( Lahore ) and Bharatiya Press ( Dehradun ) in 1929 contains first two stanzas of this lyric on page 11 as Matra Vandana and
8836-489: Was trying to promote " God Save the King " as the anthem for Indian subjects, which Indian nationalists disliked. It is generally believed that the concept of Vande Mataram came to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay when he was still a government official, around 1876. He wrote Vande Mataram at Chinsura ( Chuchura ), in a white colour house of Adhya Family near Hooghly river (near Jora Ghat) in West Bengal . Chattopadhyay wrote
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