November 7, 1875, was the sacred day of Akshaya Navami, when Bengal reveres Jagaddhatri, the world-sustainer.

That day, in the quiet village of Kanthalpada, Naihati, North 24 Parganas District, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay sat beneath a mango tree and wrote the six-stanza hymn that would become India's soul-cry : Vande Mataram.

Inspired by the tradition of Durga Puja, Chatterjee imagined the motherland as a living goddess watered by rivers, cooled by southern breezes, adorned with harvests, yet armed with a hundred arms to crush tyranny. For his call for obeisance to the motherland, Chatterjee fused Sanskrit grandeur with Bengali melody, creating an immortal poem rooted in ancient India.

THE POET

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (anglicised as Chatterjee; June 27, 1838-April 8, 1894) w

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