The "Sri Lanka Matha" (English:"Mother Sri Lanka";Sinhala:ශ්රී ලංකා මාතා,romanized: Śrī Laṅkā Mātā;Tamil:ஸ்ரீ லங்கா தாயே,romanized: Srī Laṅkā Tāyē) is thenational anthem ofSri Lanka. "Sri Lanka Matha" was composed byAnanda Samarakoon and was originally titled "Namo Namo Matha" ("Salute! Salute! Motherland").[1]
"Sri Lanka Matha" was first performed at an official ceremony on 4 February 1949 at theIndependence Memorial Hall in Torrington Square during the national day ceremony. The anthem was given full constitutional recognition in the 1978Second Republican Constitution.[2]
There are differing accounts as to the origin of the "Sri Lanka Matha". The most widely held view is that Sri Lankan composerAnanda Samarakoon wrote the music and lyrics to the song, inspired/influenced by the IndianBengali poetRabindranath Tagore.[3][4][5][1] A minority suggest that Tagore write the anthem in full.[6][7][8][9] Some have suggested that Tagore composed the music whilst Samarakoon wrote the lyrics.[10][11] Tagore being directly involved in the creation of the song has been denied by some historians like Indian Lipi Ghosh and Sri Lankan Sandagomi Coperahewa.[12] Samarakoon had been a pupil of Tagore atVisva-Bharati University,Santiniketan.[13][14] After returning toCeylon Samarakoon taught music atMahinda College,Galle.[15][16] The song, which was then known as "Namo Namo Mata", was first sung by students at Mahinda College.[17][18] After it was sung by the choir fromMusaeus College,Colombo at a public event it became hugely popular inCeylon and was widely played on radio.[19]
Prior to Ceylon's independence (1948) the Lanka Gandharva Sabha had organised a competition to find a national anthem.[20][21] Among the entries were "Namo Namo Matha" by Samarakoon and "Sri Lanka Matha Pala Yasa Mahima" byP. B. Illangasinghe andLionel Edirisinghe.[20][21] The latter won the competition but this was controversial as Illangasinghe and Edirisinghe were members of the judging panel.[20][21] "Sri Lanka Matha Pala Yasa Mahima" was broadcast byRadio Ceylon on the morning of 4 February 1948,independence day, but it was not sung at the official Freedom Day celebrations.[20][21] Ceylon continued to use theUK's national anthem as its official national anthem after independence.[22] At the first independence day ceremony held on 4 February 1949 at theIndependence Memorial Hall in Torrington Square both "Namo Namo Matha" and "Sri Lanka Matha Pala Yasa Mahima" were sung, in Sinhala and Tamil, as "national songs".[20][23]
More specifically, in 1950Minister of FinanceJ. R. Jayewardene requested that thegovernment recognise Samarakoon's "Namo Namo Matha" as the official national anthem.[19] The government appointed a committee headed byEdwin Wijeyeratne,Minister of Home Affairs and Rural Development, to pick a new national anthem.[22] The committee heard several songs but, after much deliberation, picked "Namo Namo Matha".[8][19][22] The committee made a minor change to Samarakoon's song, with his approval, changing the tenth line from "Nawajeewana Damine Newatha Apa Awadi Karan Matha" to"Nawa Jeewana Demine Nithina Apa Pubudu Karan Matha".[19] The committee's decision was endorsed by the government on 22 November 1951.[15][22] The anthem was translated into theTamil language byM. Nallathamby.[19][24][25] "Namo Namo Matha" was first sung as Ceylon's official national anthem at the independence day parade in Colombo in 1952.[19][26]
In the late 1950s controversy arose over its first line, "Namo Namo Matha, Apa Sri Lanka".[18][19] It was deemed to be "unlucky" and blamed for the country's misfortunes including the deaths of two prime ministers.[18] In February 1961 thegovernment changed the line to their present form, "Sri Lanka Matha, Apa Sri Lanka", despite Samarakoon's strong opposition.[19][24] Samarakoon committed suicide in April 1962, leaving anote complaining that its lyrics had been mutilated.[19]
"Sri Lanka Thaaye", the Tamil version of the Sri Lankan national anthem, is an exact translation of "Sri Lanka Matha", the Sinhala version, and has the same music.[27] Although it has existed since independence in 1948 it was generally only sung in the north and east of the country where the Tamil language predominates.[27] The Sinhala version of the Constitution uses Sinhala lyrics while the Tamil version of the constitution uses Tamil lyrics. Per the constitution both Sinhala and Tamil are official and national languages and thus the anthem could be sung in both languages.[28]
The majority of Sri Lankans (around 75%) speak the Sinhala language. More specifically, "Tamil is the native language for the Tamil people, who constitute about 15% of Sri Lankans, and for Muslims who are nearly 10%", according to theBBC.[27] Until early 2016, the Sinhala version was the only one to be used during official government events and it was the only version used during international sports and other events.[25] Although the Sinhala version of the anthem was used at official/state events, the Tamil version wasalso sung atsome events in spite of the unofficial ban which ended in early 2016.[citation needed]
The Sinhala version of Sri Lanka Matha was used in all parts of the country with the exception of the North and the East which have a large Tamil population.[24][29][30] Some reports indicate that the Tamil version was used at official events held in the Tamil speaking regions in the North and East of Sri Lanka.[24][25] The Tamil version was sung at Tamil medium schools throughout the country.[24][25] The Tamil version was even used during the period when Sinhala was the only official language of the country (1956–87).[24][25]
On 12 December 2010The Sunday Times reported that theCabinet of Sri Lanka headed byPresidentMahinda Rajapaksa had taken the decision to scrap the Tamil translation of "Sri Lanka Matha" at official and state functions, as "in no other country was the national anthem used in more than one language" - even though the national anthems ofBelgium,Switzerland,Canada and those of several other countries have more than one language version.[29] The Cabinet's decision had followed a paper on the national flag and national anthem produced by Public Administration and Home Affairs MinisterW. D. J. Senewiratne.[24][31] The paper had drawn on the Singaporean model where the national anthem is sung in the official lyrics and not any translation of the lyrics.[24] Based on this the paper recommended that the Sri Lankan national anthem only be sung in Sinhala and the Tamil translation be abolished.[24] The paper's authors had failed to realise that the official lyrics of theSingaporean national anthem are inMalay, a minority language (75% of Singaporeans areChinese).[32]
Government ministerWimal Weerawansa had labelled the Tamil version a "joke" onDerana TV, and had cited India as an analogy.[33][34][35] Some journalists, such as D. B. S. Jeyaraj,[24] claimed that it was wrong of Weerawansa to cite India as an analogy because according to them theIndian national anthem was not inHindi, which is the most widely spoken language of India, but inBengali, a minority language.[36][37][38][39] Although sources based on an officialGovernment of India website state that the Indian National anthem was adopted in its Hindi version by theConstituent Assembly of India,[40][41] the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly of India on 24 January 1950 does not mention that the National Anthem was "adopted", nor does it mention that it was done so in its Hindi version.[42][43] In actual practice the unaltered Bengali version is the version sung as the National Anthem, with its words in original Bengali Tatsama, a highly Sanskritized form of Bengali that has Sanskrit words common to both Hindi and Bengali.[44]
The Cabinet's December 2010 decision to scrap the Tamil translation of the anthem[45] (which was not subsequently enacted) caused much furore in Sri Lanka. Later, the government denied allegations that the Tamil translation was to be abolished.[46] ThePresidential Secretariat has stated that there was no basis to the media report and follow up reports which intimated the same.[47] Nevertheless, an unofficial ban[30] on the Tamil version came into being as fearful public officials in Tamil speaking areas stopped using the Tamil version or blocked attempts to use it.[25][48] TheSri Lankan Army forcefully stopped any use of the Tamil version and taught school children to sing only the Sinhala version.[48][49][50][51]
During Sri Lanka's 68th national independence day celebrations on 4 February 2016, the Tamil version of the anthem was sung for the first time since 1949 at an official government event, the independence day celebrations.[58] Lifting of the unofficial ban on the Tamil version had been approved by President Maithripala Sirisena (who had said he would unite the nation after the nearly 26-year civil war that ended in 2009) and by others in the government.[30] This step was viewed as part of the plan for "post-civil war ethnic reconciliation".[59]
Naturally, Sri Lanka Matha was also sung in Sinhalese. Some groups, and Sri Lanka's former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, were opposed to the government officially allowing the Tamil version to be sung.[27][60][59][61]
In 2020, the Sri Lankan government stopped using the Tamil version of the national anthem at the main Independence Day celebration.[62] However, regional independence day celebrations including those with government involvement in regions with significant Tamil populations continue to sing in both Tamil and Sinhala.[63]
In 2024, the government once again reinstated the national anthem at the 76th Independence Day.[64]
சிறீ லங்கா தாயே – நம் சிறீ லங்கா நமோ நமோ நமோ நமோ தாயே நல்லெழில் பொலி சீரணி நலங்கள் யாவும் நிறை வான்மணி லங்கா ஞாலம் புகழ் வள வயல் நதி மலை மலர் நறுஞ்சோலை கொள் லங்கா நமதுறு புகலிடம் என ஒளிர்வாய் நமதுதி ஏல் தாயே நம தலை நினதடி மேல் வைத்தோமே நமதுயிரே தாயே – நம் சிறீ லங்கா நமோ நமோ நமோ நமோ தாயே
நமதார் ஒளி வளமே நறிய மலர் என நிலவும் தாயே யாமெலாம் ஒரு கருணை அனைபயந்த எழில்கொள் சேய்கள் எனவே இயலுறு பிளவுகள் தமை அறவே இழிவென நீக்கிடுவோம் ஈழ சிரோமணி வாழ்வுறு பூமணி நமோ நமோ தாயே – நம் சிறீ லங்கா நமோ நமோ நமோ நமோ தாயே
Thou Mother Lanka, Oh Mother Lanka we salute, salute, salute, salute Thee! Plenteous in prosperity, Thou, Beauteous in grace and love, Laden with grain and luscious fruit, And fragrant flowers of radiant hue, Giver of life and all good things, Our land of joy and victory, Receive our grateful praise sublime, we worship, worship Thee. Oh Mother Lanka! We salute, salute, salute, salute Thee!
Thou gavest us Knowledge and Truth, Thou art our strength and inward faith, Our light divine and sentient being, Breath of life and liberation. Grant us, bondage free, inspiration. Inspire us for ever.
In wisdom and strength renewed, Ill-will, hatred, strife all ended, In love enfolded, a mighty nation Marching onward, all of us as Children of One Mother, Lead us, Mother, to fullest freedom, we worship, worship Thee Oh Mother Lanka! We salute, salute, salute, salute Thee!
