One of the Makers of contemporary Odissi

Dame Luck has always been an unpredictable mistress, stalking and wooing some all the time, while visiting others in fits and starts or not at all. That for a prosperous career in the dance field one needs good fortune and the right breaks as much as prowess is an accepted fact.  

While discussing the restructuring of Odissi in the early fifties, through what was known as the Jayantika effort, the names of Guru-s Pankaj Charan Das, Deba Prasad Das and Kelucharan Mohapatra are frequently taken by scholars and dance practitioners. Less often mentioned is the fourth dimension to this revivalist square, Guru Mayadhar Raut who, for years, has settled down in New Delhi to which place he shifted in the year 1967, at the behest of two young guru-s both of whom had their training under him, namely Harekrushna Behera and Surendranath Jena.