Sri Lanka Matha

Sri Lanka Matha (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජාතික ගීය, Tamil: சிறீ லங்கா தாயே) is the national anthem of Sri Lanka. The song was written and composed by the Ananda Samarakoon in 1940, and was later adopted as the national anthem in 1951. It was written when Sri Lanka was still a British colony and was initially written as a tribute to Sri Lanka, expressing sentiments of freedom, unity and independence, and not for the purpose of serving as a national anthem. The song however became very popular throughout the 1940s and when Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948 it was chosen to be the national anthem, 3 years later. The first independence day it was sung was in 1952. Ananda Samarakoon was Rabindranath Tagore's student and the tune is influenced by Tagore's genre of music.