{"id":67351,"date":"2020-01-27T12:27:51","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T17:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=67351"},"modified":"2020-01-27T12:30:26","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T17:30:26","slug":"our-national-anthem-is-a-song-that-could-be-sung-by-people-of-all-ethnicities-and-religions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=67351","title":{"rendered":"“Our National Anthem is a song that could be sung by people of all ethnicities and religions.” – Prof Sunil Ariyaratne"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Excerpted from Compilation of Viewpoints Presented by Kamanthi Wickramasinghe in the \u201cDaily Mirror\u201d under the Heading \u201cSinging National Anthem in Sinhala only Tug of war continues over \u2018Matha\u2019 and \u2018Thaaye\u2019)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Sri Lanka became an independent state in 1948 there was a competition to select a national anthem,\u201d recalled veteran lyricist Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne . \u201cHence the first national anthem was titled \u2018Sri Lanka Matha Pala Yasa Mahima\u2019 which was selected by the Lanka Gandharva Sabha. However by then Ananda Samarakoon\u2019s \u2018Namo Namo Matha\u2019 was sung in school choirs and gained much popularity. But it wasn\u2019t even shortlisted for the competition. Therefore, the Cabinet approved it to be the official national anthem on November 22, 1951. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But Samarakoon didn\u2019t receive the Rs. 2500 which the Government was supposed to pay for its author because by that time this song was already published in a book titled \u2018Geetha Kumudini.\u2019 Therefore the cash prize was given to the editor of this book,\u201d said Prof. Ariyaratne. <\/p>\n

However, according to Prof. Ariyaratne, many groups claimed that the National Anthem brought bad luck to the nation. \u201cThis was because it started from the \u2018Na\u2019 sound and many claimed that it\u2019s gana is malefic. Incidents such as the death of D. S Senanayake, the downfall of the Dudley Senanayake Government and the assassination of S.W.R.D Bandaranaike proved this claim. Thereafter, during the Sirimavo Government its lyrics were changed to \u2018Sri Lanka Matha\u2019. But even after that it didn\u2019t bring much luck to the country. <\/p>\n

My personal view is that it is a song that could be sung by people of all ethnicities and religions. There is no nationalist or racist element in this song and therefore this song won\u2019t hurt anybody\u2019s feelings and perfectly suits the description of a National Anthem,\u201d the professor said. <\/p>\n

Courtesy:Daily Mirror<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Excerpted from Compilation of Viewpoints Presented by Kamanthi Wickramasinghe in the \u201cDaily Mirror\u201d under the Heading \u201cSinging National Anthem in Sinhala only Tug of war continues over \u2018Matha\u2019 and \u2018Thaaye\u2019) \u201cWhen Sri Lanka became an independent state in 1948 there was a competition to select a national anthem,\u201d recalled veteran lyricist Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne . …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘“Our National Anthem is a song that could be sung by people of all ethnicities and religions.” – Prof Sunil Ariyaratne’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67351"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67356,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67351\/revisions\/67356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}