Prior to Ceylon's independence (1948) the Lanka Gandharva Sabha had organised a competition to find a national anthem. After it was sung by the choir from Musaeus College, Colombo at a public event it became hugely popular in Ceylon and was widely played on radio. The song, which was then known as 'Namo Namo Mata', was first sung by students at Mahinda College. After returning to Ceylon Samarakoon taught music at Mahinda College, Galle. Samarakoon had been a pupil of Tagore at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. Tagore being directly involved in the creation of the song has been denied by some historians like Indian Lipi Ghosh and Sri Lankan Sandagomi Coperahewa. Some have suggested that Tagore wrote the music whilst Samarakoon wrote the lyrics. A minority suggest that Tagore wrote the anthem in full. The most widely held view is that Sri Lankan composer Ananda Samarakoon wrote the music and lyrics to the song, inspired/influenced by the Indian Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. There are differing accounts as to the origin of the 'Sri Lanka Matha'.
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