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The song Vande Mataram composed by Bankimchandra Chatterji has an equal status with jana-gana-mana. The first political occasion when it was sung was the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress. This song has been a source of inspiration to the people in their struggle for freedom. It reads as:   Translation 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, 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! translated by Sri Aurobindo Vande Mataram, Sujalam, suphalam, malayaja shitalam, Shasyashyamalam, Mataram! Shubhrajyothsna pulakitayamini, Phullakusumita drumadala shobhinim, Suhasini sumadhura bhashini, Sukadam varadam, Mataram! English translation of the stanza rendered by Sri Aurobindo (in Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library Popular Edition 1972, vol. A mix of Bengali and Sanskrit, the song appears in Bankimchandra Chattopadyay’s book Anandmath published in 1882. Initially it was criticized on the grounds of difficulty in pronunciation of some words included in it, however, when Jadunath Bhattacharya set the tune for it, soon it became shouting slogan [...]