Anandamath Abbey of Bliss" (literally Anand=Bliss and Math=Abbey). "Vande Mataram", "Hail to the Mother", first song to represent Bengal - or India, which is almost synonymous at that time as far as nationalism is concerned - as the Mother (the goddess Durga) 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 at their village "Padachina" without food and water in the times of famine. They decide to leave their village and move to the next closest city
Vande Mataram of Calcutta, would work themselves up into a patriotic fervour by shouting the slogan "Vande Mataram", or "I praise the Mother(land)!" The British, fearful of the potential danger of an incited Indian populace, banned the book and made the recital of the song a crime. The British colonial government imprisoned many independence activists for disobeying the order, but workers and general public repeatedly violated the ban many times by gathering together before British officials and singing it. Rabindranath Tagore sang "Vande Mataram" in 1896 at the Calcutta Congress Session held at Beadon Square. Dakhina Charan Sen sang it five years