Banga Mata

This article is about the national personification of Bengal. For the Bengali poem, see Bangamata (poem).

Banga Mata (Bengali: বঙ্গমাতা [ˈbɔŋɡoˌmat̪aˑ]) or Bangla Ma (Bengali: বাংলা মা [ˈbaŋlaˑ ˈmaˑ]), often translated into English as Mother Bengal, is a personification of Bengal emerged during the Bengali Renaissance and later adopted by the Bengali nationalists. Banga Mata is originally an old abstract personification of undivided Bengal (modeled after similar ones from europe, such as Britannia) and not based on an actual person. It remains popular in Bangladeshi and Indian Bengali as a cultural expression and a patriotic symbol.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838-1894), a writer, poet and journalist from undivided 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.

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