Vande Mataram Vande Mataram Bande Mataram (IAST: ) (English Translation: "Mother, I bow to thee") is a Bengali poem written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1870s, which he included in his 1881 novel "Anandamath". The poem was composed into song by Rabindranath Tagore. The first two verses of the song were adopted as the National Song of India in October 1937 by the Congress Working Committee prior to the end of colonial rule in August 1947. An ode to the Mother goddess, it was written in Bengali script in the novel "Anandmath". The title 'Bande Mataram' means "I praise thee, Mother" or
I Vow to Thee, My Country are peace" (KJV), in the context of which the feminine pronoun refers to Wisdom. The original first verse of Spring-Rice's poem "Urbs Dei/The Two Father Lands" (1908–1912), never set to music, was as follows: <poem style="margin-left: 2em;"> I heard my country calling, away across the sea, Across the waste of waters, she calls and calls to me. Her sword is girded at her side, her helmet on her head, And around her feet are lying the dying and the dead; I hear the noise of battle, the thunder of her guns; I haste to thee, my mother, a son among