Ananda Samarakoon's Death Anniversary today

Today is the 49th death anniversary of Ananda Samarakoon who composed Sri Lanka’s National Anthem. He is considered the father of artistic Sinhala music and founder of the modern Sri Lankan Geeta Sahitya (Song Literature).

He was born to a Christian family in Padukka, on January 13, 1911, and had his primary and secondary education at Christian College ,Kotte, presently known as Sri Jayawardenapura M.V.Kotte. His Sinhala Guru was Pandit D.C.P. Gamalathge. Later he served his Alma mater as a teacher of Music and Art.

The late Mr. Samarakoon left for the Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan in India to study art and music. After six months he abandoned his studies and returned to Sri Lanka, and changed his name to Ananda Samarakoon, embracing Buddhism. Then he served as the music teacher of Mahinda College, Galle from 1938 to 1942.

He was very much influenced by Rabindranath Tagore while in India and his fascination and the desire to imitate the great Indian musician would go on to take him in the direction of creating a tradition of music for the Sri Lankan people.

In 1937, the popular music of Sri Lanka consisted of songs derived from the North Indian Ragadhari music. These song lyrics often contained meaningless phrases with little or no literary merit. Samarakoon set out to create a form of  music that can be classified as Sri Lanka's own and came out with the song Endada Menike (1940) that paved the foundation for the artistic Sinhala music. In 1940, he composed Namo Namo Matha to instill patriotism and love for one's country, among the students at Mahinda College[2]. That song was later selected as the National Anthem of Sri Lanka by the Sri Lankan government.

The love themed song ' Endada Menike ' unfolds in the form of a dialogue between a young village boy and a girl. Poetic and beautifully rustic, it became a success and Samarakoon followed it with a string of successful songs in the early to mid 1940s, the period considered his golden age. Among his best known works are:

* Podimal Etano                                 
* Vilay Malak Pipila
* Poson Pohoda
* Asay madura
* Sunila Guvanay
* Nilvala Gangay
* Sumano
* Pudamu Kusum
* Siri Saru Saara Ketay

In 1945 Samarakoon's only son died at the age of five and the grieving Samarakoon left Sri Lanka for India where he pursued a painting career and held eleven art exhibitions there. Though his painting were critically acclaimed, he returned to music in 1951 back in Sri Lanka.