Pankaj Charan Das Biography 
Pankaj Charan Das was a famous classical dancer and choreographer associated with dance form, Odissi. He is known as the 'Father of Odissi dance'. Kelucharan Mohapatra, Guru Deba Prasad Das and Guru Mayadhar Raut – the prominent Odissi dancers were his disciples. For his outstanding contributions to the field of Odissi dance form, he has been honoured with Padma Shri by government of India. He was also a recipient of Kendra Sangeet Natak Academi award, Odisha state Sangeet Natak Academi award, Orissa Sahitya Academi Award, Kabi Samrat Upendra Bhanja Award and many more honours. He lived during the period, 17 March 1925 – 11 June 2003.
Das was born on 17 March 1925 in Puri, Odisha. By birth, he belonged to the Mahari tradition, the only all-female service from among 36 listed rituals for the reigning deity of the Jagannath temple in Puri. He was the adopted son of Ratna Prabha Devi, a mahari or temple dancer. He grew up in an environment of devotional music and temple dance. He grew passion to practice this dance form similar to female members of the family, and learnt dance form from his aunt Mahari Ratnaprabha. Mahari dance was confined to the women of the family, and as a male member, he was only allowed to play the mardala, a traditional percussion instrument during performances. Obviously he faced opposition from his family and society.
Along his academics, he found his calling in the acrobatic ‘Gotipua’ tradition at the local “akhada-ghara” – gymnastics and the “jatra” – folk theatre. He was orphaned at a young age. While he was struggling to make ends meet, he joined theatre as a dancer and dance director. Thus began the artistic journey of this legend. He was responsible for bringing odyssey out of the temple precincts into broad daylight, and also revived Mahari which became the base form of Odissi dance, thus earning the title, Adi Guru.
Published: July 28, 2018
Updated: July 28, 2018
