National Anthem & Rabindranath Tagore

How many countries owe their National Anthem to Rabindranath Tagore?

The pat answer will come- Why! two; India and Bangladesh.; owing ‘Jana Gana Mono Adhinayaka…” (= O lord of the populace) & “Amar Sonar Bangla” ..(=O, my golden Bengal) respectively to Tagore as their national anthems.

But, according to the following translated letter to the Editor of ‘Bartaman’, a Bengali daily (published on 12^th May 2011), it is three.

“The rank and file readers like us knew for many years that National Anthems of two countries were composed by Rabindranath Thakur (=Tagore). Few erudite readers, researchers and historians know the real history. But, after hearing the National Anthems of India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the arena of the World Cup of 2011, all knew that all the National Anthems of all these three countries were creation of Rabindranath. That history of Sri Lanka is being elaborated below.

Some student from Sri Lanka named Anand Samarkun came to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore to study in the Art & Music Dept. Till 1940 he took lesson in Visva Bharati (University of Tagore). In 1938 Anand made an earnest request to Gurudev to write a National Anthem for Sri Lanka. Rabindranath did not disappoint his student and wrote one in Bengali the first line of which is – “Sri Lanka Mata…” (=Mother SriLanka). Anand translated the Anthem into Sinhalese language in 1953 and gave it to the then President of Sri Lanka. The President was charmed and approved of the song as his country’s National Anthem. Anand Samarkun had translated a good many essays, poems, short stories and novels into Sinhalese language and had become famous for that. It is needless to mention that Rabindranath had set tune to both the National Anthems of India and Bangladesh. Similarly, the Sinhalese National Anthem is sung in the tune set by the Poet in the original Bengali version composed by him.

No song other than Rabindranath’s was accepted by Sri Lanka as their national anthem. The Poet had visited Sri Lanka several times. It is known that Sri Lankans are mostly Buddhists. From the time of Emperor Ashoka they adopted Buddhism and generations down they had their ablutions in this religion. The students of history know, along with other religious priests the sons and daughters of Emperor Ashoka also visited Ceylon to preach Buddhism. At the time of visiting Ceylon Rabindranath had dissertated elaborately on Buddhist theology and spirituality in various gatherings with eager participation of numerous people there. As in India and Bangladesh the World Poet is equally revered in Sri Lanka. At the Poet’s 150^th Birth Anniversary also he is hailed in that country as elsewhere in the world with undiminished reverence. Paeans are still sung with deep respect and inquisitiveness. Daily he is researched in many countries.

Yours etc.

Satyaranjan Das

Retd. Head Master

Bharatpur Higher Secondary School

Raigunj, North Dinajpur.