Sri Lankan National Anthem

About Sri Lankan National Anthem Android App

This app lets you play the patriotic national anthem of Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka Matha) on your android phone. Included sound quality is awesome. We have also provided lyrics in both Roman English form as well as translated English language.

You can play/pause or stop the Anthem. The sound keeps playing int he background as you are navigating through the application once you started it from the landing page. There is a history of anthem on who wrote it and how it began for those seekers of the knowledge.

If you play music, we have also provided musical notations in this app.

This is an app every Sri Lankan people should have on their android phone. Give it a try and give us feedbacks and suggestions for improvement.

See the detail about this app in our website:
http://www.icodejava.com/android-app-national-anthems/490/sri-lankan-national-anthem-android-app/

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INFO ON THE NATIONAL ANTHEM
Sri Lanka Matha 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.

The song was officially adopted as the national anthem of Ceylon on November 22, 1951, by a committee headed by Sir Edwin Wijeyeratne. The anthem was translated into the Tamil language by M. Nallathamby.

The first line of the anthem originally read: Namo Namo Matha, Apa Sri Lanka. There was some controversy over these words in the 1950s, and in 1961 they were changed to their present form, Sri Lanka Matha, Apa Sri Lanka, without Samarakoon's consent. Samarakoon committed suicide in 1962 apparently due to the change in words.The Second Republican Constitution of 1978 gave Sri Lanka Matha constitutional recognition.

The Sri Lankan national anthem is one of a number that are sung in more than one language: Canada (English, French & Inuktitut), Belgium (French, Dutch & German), Switzerland (German, French, Italian & Romansh), South Africa (Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans & English), Suriname (Dutch and Sranan Tongo), and New Zealand (English & Maori). The majority of Sri Lankans (more than 80%) speak the Sinhala language and the Sinhala version is mainly used in Sri Lanka for public and private events. This version is the only version used during international sports and other events. Due to popularity of the song and it's rich meaning, it's being translated into several other languages. Although the Sinhala version of the anthem is used at official/state events, the Tamil translation is also sung at some events. The Tamil translation is used at official events held in the Tamil speaking regions in the North and East of Sri Lanka. The Tamil translation is sung at Tamil medium schools throughout the country. The Tamil translation was used even during the period when Sinhala was the only official language of the country (1956 - 87).


The Sri Lankan anthem's tune is similar to a Hindu devotional song Jai Jagdish Hare. But No references still known about the co-incidence between both them. It is said that on Ananda Samarakoon's request, Rabindranath Tagore wrote this song in Bengali, later translated by Ananda into Sinhala language.