Bangamata

Baṅgamātā (Bengali: বঙ্গমাতা), Bangla Maa (Bengali: বাংলা মা), Mother Bengal or simply Bangla, is a personification of Bengal created during the Bengali Renaissance and later adopted by the Bengali nationalists. Bangamata is identified as Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, a Muslim woman who lived in Bengal in the 20th century. The Bangamata Sheikh Fojilatunnesa Mujib Science & Technology University has been named after her. In Bangladeshi Bengali and Indian Bengali poetry, literature, cultural and patriotic song, she has become a symbol of Bengalis and their culture, Bangladesh and India's West Bengal & Tripura. She is considered as the personification of the Bengali Language & Culture, The State of West Bengal and People's Republic of Bangladesh. The Mother Bengal represents not only biological motherhood but its attributed characteristics as well – divineness, protection, never ending love, consolation, care, the beginning and the end of life.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, a writer, poet and journalist from Bengal, composed an ode to Mother Bengal called Vande Mataram around 1876 as an alternative to the British royal anthem.

In Amar Sonar Bangla, the national anthem of Bangladesh, Rabindranath Tagore used the word "Maa" (Mother) numerous times to refer to the motherland, i.e. Bengal. Despite her popularity in patriotic songs and poems, her physical representations and images are rare.