The flag had three horizontal bands of equal width with the top being orange, the centre yellow and the bottom green in colour. It had eight half-opened lotus flowers on the top stripe representing the eight provinces of British India and a picture of the sun and an crescent moon on the bottom stripe. वन्दे मातरम् (Vande Mataram, meaning "Mother, I bow to thee!") was inscribed in the centre in Devanagari.[4][5]