Vande Mataram (Bengali script: বন্দে মাতরম্, Devanagari: वन्दे मातरम्, Vande Mātaram)—literally, "I pray/bow down to thee, Mother"—is a poem from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's 1882 novel Anandamath. An Ode to Mother Bengal as Mother goddess, it was written in Bengali and Sanskrit. It is a hymn to the Mother Land. It played a vital role in the Indian independence movement, first sung in a political context by Rabindranath Tagore at the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress. Spiritual Indian nationalist and philosopher Sri Aurobindo referred it as "National Anthem of Bengal".