# Bangamata

Baṅgamātā (Bengali: বঙ্গমাতা), Bangla Maa (Bengali: বাংলা মা), Mother Bengal or simply Bangla, is a personification of Bengal created during the Bengali Renaissance and later adopted by the Bengali nationalists. In Bangladeshi Bengali and Indian Bengali poetry, literature, cultural and patriotic song, she has become a symbol of Bengalis and their culture, Bangladesh and India's West Bengal & Tripura. She is considered as the personification of the Bengali Language & Culture, The State of West Bengal and People's Republic of Bangladesh. The Mother Bengal represents not only biological motherhood but its attributed characteristics as well – divineness, protection, never ending love, consolation, care, the beginning and the end of life.
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, a writer, poet and journalist from Bengal, composed an ode to Mother Bengal called Vande Mataram around 1876 as an alternative to the British royal anthem.
In Amar Sonar Bangla, the national anthem of Bangladesh, Rabindranath Tagore used the word "Maa" (Mother) numerous times to refer to the motherland, i.e. Bengal. Despite her popularity in patriotic songs and poems, her physical representations and images are rare.

## History
### Partition of Bengal

The first incarnations of Mother Bengal, or Bangamata, emerged during resistance to the partition of Bengal. The partition took place in October 1905 and separated the largely Muslim areas of Eastern Bengal from the largely Hindu areas of Western Bengal. Hindus living in Western Bengal, who dominated Bengal's businesses and rural life complained that the partition would make them a minority in a province due to the incorporation of the Bihar and Orissa Province into the Bengal Presidency. It was during this time the Mother Bengal was an immensely popular theme in Bengali patriotic songs and poems and was mentioned in several of them, such as the song ″Dhana Dhanya Pushpa Bhara″ and ″Banga Amar Janani Amar″ (Our Bengal Our Mother) by Dwijendralal Ray. These songs were meant to rekindle the unified spirit of Bengal, to raise public consciousness against the communal political divide.

### Bangladesh Liberation War

Many of Bengali patriotic songs were regularly played on the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, the clandestine radio station broadcast to revolutionaries and the Bengali public during the Bangladesh Liberation War. some of these patriotic songs, such as “Jonmo Amar Dhonno Holo Maa-go” and “Bangla Moder Bangla Maa Amra Tomar Koti Shontan” have significant representations of “Mother Bengal”. She was an icon of freedom and democracy against all forms of dictatorship. These patriotic songs are still immensely popular in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

## In art and literature

* Vande Mataram, by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
* Banglar Mati Banglar Jol, by Rabindranath Tagore
* Banga Amar Janani Amar, by Dwijendralal Ray
* Bangamata (poem), by Rabindranath Tagore
* Amar Sonar Bangla, by Rabindranath Tagore in 1905
* O Amar Desher Mati, by Rabindranath Tagore
* Bangladesh, by Kazi Nazrul Islam
* Aaji Bangladesher Hridoy, by Rabindranath Tagore
* Bangla Mayer Kol, by S. D. Burman; better known by first line Takdum Takdum Bajai Bangladesher Dhol
* Oh Amar Bangla Maa, by Abul Umrah Fakhruddin and Alauddin Ali
* “Aji Bangladesher Hridoy Hote” lit. "From the Heart of Bangladesh" (here bangladesh refers to the country of bengalis and not the present state of People's Republic of Bangladesh) is one of Tagore’s most famous poems and a true masterpiece of Indian literature. The poem was first published in 1905. This is most probably only the picturesque details of Mother Bengal. The poem's historical context is the British colonization of India, which had been ongoing for over two centuries by the time the poem was written. The British had established a stranglehold on Indian society, both politically and economically, and had suppressed the Indian people’s culture and traditions. Tagore’s poem was a direct challenge to this oppression and a call to action for the Indian people to assert their identity and their rights as free people. It became a rallying cry for the Indian independence movement, and its words inspired countless Indians to take up the cause of freedom. The poem’s message of fearlessness and self-determination continues to resonate with Indians today, and it is often cited as an example of the power of poetry to inspire social change.
    When did you come out of the heart Bangladesh,
    O, Mother dear, with such inexplicable splendor!
    It's impossible to take away eyes from you!
    The doors of your golden temple have unlocked.
    Your right hand holds the blazing sword, the left one takes away fear,
    Smile of affection on the eyes, the third eye glaring.
    O Mother dear, how uniquely you reveal yourself!
    The cloud of your untied hair conceals thunders
    Ends of your sunlight coloured robes flutter in the horizon!
    It's impossible to take away eyes from you!
    The doors of your golden temple have unlocked.
    When impassionately did not look up seemed
    Poor mother stayed back home, desolate, destitute.
    Your torn clothes vanish now, meager smile disappear.
    Beams of light scatter from your feet into entire sky
    O Mother, your appearance astounds me.
    You flood the world with the flow of happiness on the distressed nights
    O the mindblower, your word of fearlessness drum the heart
    It's impossible to take away eyes from you!
    The doors of your golden temple have unlocked.