Vande Mataram (album) Vande Mataram (album) Vande Mataram is a 1997 studio album by Indian musician A. R. Rahman. It is the largest selling Indian non-film album to date. It released on December 9, 1997 by Columbia Records, a music label owned by Sony Music. It was released on the Golden Jubilee anniversary of India's independence and has been instrumental in instilling a sense of patriotic pride and national unity amongst the people of India. Ever since release, both the album and its title song "Maa Tujhe Salaam" have had a profoundly positive and unifying impact on the nationalistic and patriotic mood of
Vande Mataram unlike later verses that compare certain qualities of thee country and mother to goddesses like Durga and Lakshmi. There is no time limit or circumstantial specification for the rendition of this song [unlike the national anthem "Jana Gana Mana" that specifies 52 seconds]. 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