Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay; ("Chattopadhyay" or "Chatterji" as spelt by the British) (27 June 1838 – 8 April 1894) was a Bengali writer, poet and journalist. He was the composer of India's national song Vande Mataram, originally a Bengali and Sanskrit stotra personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring the activists during the Indian Independence Movement. Bankim Chandra wrote 13 novels and several 'serious, serio-comic, satirical, scientific and critical treaties' in Bengali. His works were widely translated into other regional languages of India as well as in English.
'Vande Mataram', the immortal song composed by Bankin Chandra Chaterjee, is more than a hundred years old. Though it first appeared in the first instalment of serialisation of Bankim Chandra's Bengali novel, Anand Math, in 1881, there is clear evidence to show that it was composed independently earlier in 1875. Writing in the English Daily, 'Bande Mataram', on 16th April 1907, Sri Aurobindo said: "It as 32 years ago that Bankim wrote his great song.....". In his novel Anand Math, Bankim Chandra rote about sanyasis who left their hearths and homes and dedicated their lives to the cause of their motherland. The characters in his novel personified the motherland as the Mother Goddess and worshipped her as such. They knew no other deity excepting the motherland and no other religion excepting the religion of patriotism. This spirit was reflected in the song 'Vande Mataram'.
Although Rabindranath Tagore's song, Jana-gana-mana, was adopted as the national anthem of Independent India, Vande Mataram was given an equal status with Jana-gana-mana.
The stamp shows the first stanza of the song "Vande Mataram".
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