Sri Lanka Matha
| English: Mother Sri Lanka | |
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| Śrī Laṁkā Mātā Srī Laṅkā Tāyē |
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anthem of Sri Lanka |
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| Also known as | ශ්රී ලංකා මාතා ஸ்ரீ லங்கா தாயே |
| Lyrics | Ananda Samarakoon, 1940 |
| Music | Ananda Samarakoon, 1940 |
| Adopted | 1951 |
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Sri Lanka Matha (Sinhalese: ශ්රී ලංකා මාතා Śrī Laṁkā Mātā; Tamil: ஸ்ரீ லங்கா தாயே, translit. Srī Laṅkā Tāyē) is the national anthem of Sri Lanka.
There are differing accounts as to the origin of the Sri Lanka Matha. The most widely held view is that Sri Lankan composer Ananda Samarakoon wrote the music and lyrics to the song inspired/influenced by Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. A minority suggest that Tagore wrote the anthem in full. Some have suggested that Tagore wrote the music whilst Samarakoon wrote the lyrics. Samarakoon had been a pupil of Tagore at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. After returning to Ceylon Samarakoon taught music at Mahinda College, Galle. The song, which was then known as Namo Namo Mata, was first sung by students at Mahinda College. After it was sung by the choir from Musaeus College, Colombo at a public event it became hugely popular in Ceylon and was widely played on radio.
Prior to Ceylon's independence (1948) the Lanka Gandharva Sabha had organised a competition to find a national anthem. Among the entries were Namo Namo Matha by Samarakoon and Sri Lanka Matha Pala Yasa Mahima by P. B. Illangasinghe and Lionel Edirisinghe. The latter won the competition but this was controversial as Illangasinghe and Edirisinghe were members of the judging panel.Sri Lanka Matha Pala Yasa Mahima was broadcast by Radio Ceylon on the morning of 4 February 1948, independence day, but it was not sung at the official Freedom Day celebrations. Ceylon continued to use the British national anthem as its official national anthem after independence. At the first independence day ceremony held on 4 February 1949 at the Independence 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".
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