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ODISSI TODAY -Challenges despite state support

In 1954, when Priyambada Mohanty with the late Guru Debaprasad Das accompanying her on the mardal, and Aarati Kar providing vocal accompaniment, danced in the historic Inter-University Youth Festival at Delhi, to be awarded the third prize, in what was the first Odissi performance rendered outside its home of Odisha, nobody could have foreseen developments, which within two or three decades would see Odissi as one of the most popular of India’s dance traditions, practised in several parts of the world. It was much later in 1957 that the Jayantika meetings held at Loknath Misra’s house, brought together the scattered Odissi teachers, litterateurs, and scholars to codify and standardise a performance format. The rest is history.

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