"", also known as "Rāṣṭriya Gān", was the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European ...

of the

Kingdom of Nepal The Kingdom of Nepal was a Hindu monarchy in South Asia, founded in 1768 through the unification of Nepal, expansion of the Gorkha Kingdom. The kingdom was also known as the Gorkha Empire and was sometimes called History of Asal Hindustan, ...

from 1962 to 19 May 2006, when the political parties prepared to abolish the monarchy. It was officially replaced by "

Sayaun Thunga Phulka "" is the national anthem of Nepal. It was officially adopted as the anthem on 3 August 2007 during a ceremony held at the conference hall of National Planning Commission, inside Singha Durbar, by the speaker of the interim parliament, Subash C ...

History

The music was composed by Bakhat Bahadur Budhapirthi (grandfather of musician Louis Banks) in 1899, and the lyrics were written by Chakrapani Chalise in 1924. It was adopted as the country's national anthem in 1962, as a homage to the Nepalese sovereign. The song originally had two stanzas, but the Nepalese government dropped the second stanza upon adopting the song as the national anthem. The stanza that was retained honoured the king.

Replacement

Following the 2006 democracy movement in Nepal, "Rastriya Gaan" was discontinued by order of the interim legislature of Nepal in August 2007, after it was seen as merely glorifying the monarchy instead of representing the nation as a whole. It was then replaced by the current national anthem "

Lyrics

When officially adopted, the government of Nepal dropped the second verse of the song. The second verse of the song largely remained unknown to most people. On 11 January 2019, a video was released on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

of a re-recorded and rendered version of the anthem with its second verse. The first four-bar of the song features a regal orchestral introduction which is soon followed by a choir singing. It was dropped in the version which became the national anthem.

Notes

References

{{Authority control Historical national anthems Nepalese songs Royal anthems Asian anthems Nepalese monarchy Kingdom of Nepal 1962 establishments in Nepal 2006 disestablishments in Nepal Songs in Nepali Compositions in G major