What is the ragam for jana ga na mana?

Answer 1

The national anthem of India. India's National Anthem - Was it Tagore's intention to honor King George V and British Rule with this Song? - (Interview with Bhagwan S. Gidwani, Author of Return of the Aryans) Bhagwan S. Gidwani is a known author (The Sword of Tipu Sultan & Return of the Aryans, etc.); earlier he was Director General of Civil Aviation and Additional Director General of Tourism of Government of India; he served also as a Counsel for India at the International Court of Justice at the Hague; later as Director of the Legal Bureau of International Civil Aviation Organization (United Nations). He is based in Montreal, Canada In his interview, Gidwani said he had not recently seen the websites and other material to which I referred but he outright .ridiculed the assertions that Tagore had composed Jana Gana Mana originally to honor King George V and that the Song was intended to welcome the British emperor; or was meant to create continuing sense of loyalty to British rule in India. Gidwani added that there is record to show that, while handing over the Song, Gurudev Tagore had clearly said that it was intended to honor God and Gidwani saw not the slightest reason to doubt that statement. To him, Tagore's words meant far more than what hundreds of websites may carelessly report. Gidwani was satisfied that Jana Gana Mana was the soulful creation of Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore and was concerned with India's cultural & spiritual presentation and destiny - and, there was absolutely no truth in the frivolous hoax that Tagore's Jana Gana Mana was intended to honor King George V. As to petty remarks on various websites which may carry this canard, Bhagwan Gidwani quoted Gurudev Tagore's words: "I should only insult myself if I cared to answer those who consider me capable of such unbounded stupidity as to sing in praise of George the Fifth as the Eternal Charioteer leading the pilgrims on their journey through countless ages of the timeless history of mankind."

Gidwani is convinced beyond a shadow of doubt that Lord to which Jana Gana Mana is addressed, is the Bhagya Vidhata who is India`s eternal guiding spirit, and certainly not the temporal king of a colonial empire. In any case, the Song Jana Gana Mana is larger than the National Anthem and in that extended Song there are images of the Bhagya Vidhata who is also India`s eternal Mother - and surely Tagore knew that King George V was not a female.

As to the question that certain territories of India and even rivers that flow in India, do not find a mention in the National Anthem, Gidwani countered with questions: What do you think? Was Gurudev Tegore writing a geographical handbook or an encyclopedia? No! Please understand, there was no intent on the part of this greatest of our poets to write a soulless geographical directory but to create a soulful Song which the people of India accepted as the National Anthem and the constituent Assembly adopted it; and now with sheer lunacy, there are those who are asking the Supreme Court of India to reconstruct the National Anthem. Nowhere in the world has this task been performed by its courts and I cannot believe that the highest legal body in India would engage in such an act of lawlessness.

Quoting various experts, Gidwani pointed out how senseless was the bizarre accusation that Jana Mana Gana was inspired to honor the British King in 1911. If such a taint had attached to the Song, would Tagore have translated the Song into English, eight years later, in 1919, which was the year when Tagore had renounced his knighthood in protest over the massacre at Jallianawala Bagh, Amritsar.

According to Gidwani, those who make such baseless charges apparently know nothing of Gurudev's undying allegiance to India and his supreme sense of patriotism. The plain fact, according to Gidwani, is that in this great song, Jana Mana Gana, Tagore, enamored of the river-culture of India starts with Punjab (five rivers, or the land of five rivers), then Sindh(u) another river, also meaning ocean, Utkal and Bang- littoral provinces (of Bengal then), lapped by the ocean, and he ends with Jamuna-Ganga - who all commingle in the ocean (Jaladhi) and its waves (tarang). In one word Dravid, he refers to today`s all four southern states (Tamil Nadu, Andhra pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala) abutting on the ocean.

Tagore was not writing geography, but a poem. He did not enumerate states. In any case, how can anyone contemplate correcting or amending someone else`s song - and in this case the song of our foremost poet and Nobel laureate..

Answer 2

Shankarabharanam