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23 September 2011

Sanjukta Panigrahi


Sanjukta Panigrahi (24 August 1944 – 24 June 1997) was a dancer of India, who was the foremost exponent of Indian classical dance Odissi. Sanjukta was the first Oriya girl to embrace this ancient classical dance at an early age and ensure its grand revival.

In recognition of her contribution to dancing and associated activities, she was honoured with one of India's highest civilian awards the, Padma Shri (1975). She is also recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1976.

Apart from presenting Odissi performances in different parts of India, Sanjukta Panigrahi has been a part of Government’s cultural delegation to different countries, including to the USA and the Philippines (1969), United Kingdom (1983), Israel,Delphi International Festival in Greece (1989). She has also performed in France for eleven weeks, and participated there in the International Music Festival at Paris.

She was born in Berhampur, Ganjam District, Orissa state, to a traditional Brahmin family of Orissa.When she was a small child, she would start dancing intuitively to any rhythmic sound like the sound of chopping of vegetable or cutting of firewood. Her mother was from Baripada and belonged to a family, which had been patronizing chhau folk dance for long. She recognized the talent in her daughter, and encouraged her despite some initial resistance from Abhiram Misra, Sanjukta's father. The reason for the resistance was the fact that in those days this form of dance was performed generally by temple singing girls, called maharis and gotipuras. These girls were like devadasis in the temples of south India.

At the initiative of her mother, she started to learning dance from Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra at age 4. She was assessed to be the best child artist by the Bisuba Milan consecutively for three years during 1950-53.

In one of her performances as six-year old girl, she refused to leave the stage and continued to perform energetically even after the time was over. Her mother had to shout at and cajole her to stop dancing. At nine she performed at annual festival of the Children's Little Theatre in Calcutta.

She bagged the first prize in International Children’s Film Festival in 1952.Encouraged by her success, her parents decided to send her for better dance training, to Kalakshetra at Chennai. There she continued her lessons under the guidance of Rukmini Devi Arundale.

For the next six years of her she stayed there, and eventually graduated with a 'Nrityapraveen' diploma in Bharatnatyam with Kathakali as the second subject. After that, she toured many places in India and abroad, as a member of the 'Kalakshetra Ballet Troupe'.

At the age of 14 she returned to Orissa. The state government of Orissa awarded her a scholarship to learn Kathak from Guru Hazarilal in Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, Mumbai. However, she left the course and returned to Orissa to concentrate on Odissi.

At Kalakshetra, Chennai, she had fallen in love with Raghunath Panigrahi, ten year her senior, and a fine vocalist of Gita Govinda, who left a promising career in film music in Chennai, to provide vocal support in her performances . When was sixteen, they married and over a period of time had two children.

The initial years were very challenging for the Sanjukta and her husband. Though things turned for the better, when in 1966, her guru Kelucharan Mahapatra was conferred with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, and she rendered an Odissi performance during the award ceremony in New Delhi. The audience was entralled by her performance. She had made her mark at the national level, and from that point she did not look back.

Meanwhile her husband had emerged a fine vocalist, and also started rendering music for her performances. In the coming decades, the Sanjukta-Raghunath duo enthralled the audience, even outlasting the Yamini-Jyothismathi duo, and were jointly awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1976.

Sanjukta later came to be known as Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra's greatest disciple, and they travelled the length and the breath of the India, performing together and popularising the almost lost dance form of Odissi, so much so that today, both are considered equal revivalists of the dance form.

She continued to perform in most of the state functions. Her pioneering efforts, she brought forth almost forgotten Odissi style of dancing to an important position in the dance repertory of India.For four decades, she remained an undisputed leading dancer of Odissi. She died of cancer at a age 52, on 24 June 1997. Even up to her last years, and while battling death, she exuded grace far beyond her years, and physical being would have allowed.

After her death, her husband Raghunath Panigrahi formed a trust in her name, 'Sanjukta Panigrahi Memorial Trust', in 1999, to promote the cause of Odissi dance. Since 2001, every year on her birth anniversary, the trust has been giving away scholarships to budding dancers, and awards excellence in the field of Odissi dance.

Odissi Dance


Odissi Dance

Odissi, the classical dance form of Orissa distinguishes itself as one of the eight Indian classical dance forms. Though it was revived and developed only in the recent years, only after the independence of the country, it existed in the ancient times. References about it have been made in the Natya Shastra as the Odra Magadhi Nrutya. Odissi dancedeals largely with the love theme of Radha and Krishna and distinguishes itself from other dance forms in its unique rhythm, the bhangis and mudras. Odissi classical dance places much importance on tribhangi(the three part break) i.e. the independent movement of head, chest and pelvis and the basic square stance called Chauka.

Development of Odissi Dance
Earlier the dance existed in three schools of dance in Orissa; the Mahari, the Nartaki and the Gotipua. Maharis { the name is derived from combination of two words Maha (great) and (nari)} were the Oriya Devdasis performing nrityas at the temple of Lord Jagannath. These Maharis used to perform on Mantras and shlokas and performed nritta (pure dance) and abhinaya (interpretation of poetry).Later sequences based on the poetry of Jayadev’s magnum opus Geeta Gobinda were performed. Bhitari gauni Maharis, were allowed in the inner temple while Bahari gauni Maharis, though in the temples, were excluded from the sanctum sanctorum.
With the advent of vaishnavism, Gotipua, an offshoot of the Mahari emerged in the later parts of the 6th century.Since the viashnavites did not approve the dancing of women, young boys dressed as girls were taught Maharis. This led to the growth of Gotipua. Vaishnava poets composed innumerable lyrics in Oriya dedicated to Radha and Krishna. Since the performers here were little boys, the dance for the first time broke the precincts of temple.
The last dance form viz the Nartaki was practiced in the court of royal kings. During the British rule, the Mahari dance form was misused under the guise of the Nartaki form and devdasis were forced to perform in the royal courts. This led to both forms of dance becoming unfashionable. Only the Gotipua form of dance remained and weathered the waves of time.
Post independence, the style of the Gotipua dance was resurrected and reconstructed based on archaeological and anthropological findings by exponents like Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, Pankaj Charan Das and Deba Prasad Das and was rechristened as Odissi.

The Odissi Dance

The different items of the Odissi dance style are Managlacharna, Batunrya or Sthayi Nata, Pallavi, Abhinaya and Moksha. In mangalacharana the dancer dedicates herself to the Lord and begs forgiveness of the Mother Earth for stamping her feet upon her; she apologizes to her audience for any shortcomings and offers salutations to the Guru. Batu Nrytya is pure dance. It begins with a series of sculpturesque poses symbolizing the playing of the veena, drum, flute or cymbals. Pallivi is extremely graceful and lyrical. The tune is in some raga and is sung to the accompaniment of Sargam and Bols. Through facial expressions abhinaya depicts rasa and bhava to bring out the meaning and mood of songs. Generally the songs written by poets, Banamali, Upendra Bhanja, Baladeva Rath, Gopala and Jayadeva are sung. Moksha Nrutya is the last item, performed to the accompaniment of rhythmic syllables. It has a fast tempo. The soul of the dancer is supposed to merge with the Divine as the dancer becomes ecstatic. Odissi classical dance is an effort to come near God and experience true bliss.
Renowned artists of Odissi Dance include Priyambada Hejmadi, Padmashree Sanjukta Panigrahi, Minati Mishra, Kumkum Mohanty, Oopalie Oparajita, Sangeeta Das, etc.

Famous Odissi Dancers 

22 September 2011

Bibhuti Pattnaik

Odia Novelist:Bibhuti Pattnaik

Born on 25.10.1937, Sri Bibhuti Patnaik is a popular novelist who has dedicated to the history of Oriya novel. If his total number of novels are to be list out it will be elephantaein in size. He is yet admired by his innumerable readers. He has received Orissa Sahitya Akademi Award in 1985 for his novel ‘ASWAMEDHARA GHODA’. To his credit other award also goes like Sarala, Jhankara and Bisubha Awards. His novels include : SESHA BASANTA, ABHIMANA, PARAPURUSHA, GARE KAJWALA DHARE LUHA, ODA MATIRA SWARGA, SESHA ABHINAYA, ASWAMEDHARA GHODA, TRUTIYA PURUSHA, KHELAGHARA BHANGIGALA, PREMA O’ PRUTHIBI, DIPATA SANKHA, HE BANDHU BIDAYA, UJANI JAMUNA, MANA BHALANAHIN, RANGANATI, BADHUNIRUPAMA, EI MANA BRUNDABANA, BANDI JAJABARA, PRATHAMA SAKALA, DINA JAE CHINHA RAHE, CHAPALA CHHANDA. TUME TRUSHNARA JALA, SANDHYARAGA, SULTANA, BIDAYABELA, EKANTA ADIMA, CHHAYA CHANDRIKA, SNAYU SAHARARE SHANTIBHANGA, KALABATI, SESHA RATIRA SURYA, NISANGA NAKHYATRA, ANEKA TARARA RATRI, PRIYA BANDHABI, SAMAYASOKA, EKAKINI KUNTALA, KALA BAISHAKHI, SHOK BANARA SITA, BAULA PHULARA, BASNA, DIPASIKHA, PRIYA PURUSHA, SAMAYA ASAMAYA, SANDHYA DIPARA SIKHA, ADINA SHARABNA, BHALA JHIA KHARAP JHIA, ANDHARKRRA SIDI, NASTA CHARITRA NADI NARI KHETRA, MADHYANHA RA DIBARATRI, CHAHALA PANIRA DHEU, RAGA ANURAGA, DEBAKIRA KARABASA, HASAKANDARA CHHANDA, CHHBIRA MANISHA, TOPAE SINDURA DIPATA SANKHA, NAGAPHENI, AGNEYAGIRIRE BANA BHOJI, SUVARNA, MAYABI HRUDAYA, SATI ASATI, DHULI GHARA, SMRUTIRA SUDESNA, ASABARNA, KESA BATI KANYA, GRAHANA, NISANGA BIHANGI SE DINA CHAITRAMASA, AIE GAON AIE MATI, DAGHA PHULABANA, DIPATALARA DRUSHYA, RAHU GRASHA, SESA RATRIRA SURYA, NADI SAMUDRA, SELI MAUSI, ATHAKATHI, TUME TRUSHNARA JALA, ADIMA ARANYA, RANI MAHUMACHHI, NIDA MAHIN, PREMIKA, DINAKALA, BARNAMALA.
Story books include MANABHALA NAHIN, UNEISISAHA PANCHABANA, RAJAKANYARA DUKHA, NIMNAGAMI MANA, KICHHI JOCHHNA KICHHI ANDHAKARA, NILA AKHIRA NADI, KETEJE BASANTA SATE, JIBANARA JATILATA, ANNYA EKA VARATABARSHA, ANEKA TARA RATRI, NIRBACHITA GALPA, GRAHANA, ADINA BARSHA, PREMAGALPA, SURYAMUKHI, IRSARA ISWARI, LALITA LABANGALATA, KALIKALA, AKHIBUJIDELE SATYAJUGA. Travel literature – DWARKA DARSHANA, TIRE TIRE TIRTHA, BIOGRAPHY MAHATMA, JANA NAYAK, HASAKHUSI, KAHI JANILE KATHA SUNDARA. Criticisms include – SAMPRATIKA SAHITYA, SAHITRARA SUCHIPATRA, ODIA UPANYASHARA SAMAJ TATWIKA RUPAREKHA. To his credit 75 nos of novel yet has already been printed and admired by his readers.

21 September 2011

Odia Quote

Odia Quote

Kasturi Pattanaik


Odissi Dancer Kasturi Pattanaik

Mrs. Kasturi Pattanaik is one of the original thinkers and innovative interpreters of Indian classical dances, particularly Odissi dance. Deeply associated with the Odissi Research Centre (ORC), Bhubaneswar, particularly in its choreography and students’ training for two decades, after passing out from the Odissi Research Centre as its first batch student, Mrs. Pattanaik, has the advantage of working with all the seniormost exponents of Odissi dance and Odissi music. After her outstanding stint at ORC, she joined Sankalp, New Delhi as its Programme Director (Culture).

Mrs. Pattanaik is credited with re-exploration, reconstruction and recreation of Odissi dance in its creative and classical wholeness. As the Programme Director (Culture), Sankalp & Creative Head, Sankalp’s Performing Arts Groups; she is instrumental in evolving, consolidating and diversifying Sankalp’s Odissi dance style; as a distinct style; with new concepts, objectives, themes, identities, values, meanings and practices in the existing five sequential repertory of Odissi dance through new creations to further enlarge and deepen the classical canvas and cultural rooting of Odissi dance to considerably enhance its artistic evolutionary essence in the contemporary settings.

Besides a profound performer, choreographer and director; she is an insightful Odissi music composer and established classical dance teacher.

Her contribution spread to the other segments of Indian art and culture; including folk, indigenous and traditional arts as well as cultural education and training.

She is a firm believer that the classical dances need the integral participation of the younger generation; who could be the real carriers, transmitters and disseminators of the classical traditions in its great breadth and depth. With this purpose, she has been organising workshops, orientation programmes and refresher courses by Sankalp on Indian classical dances, Indian classical music, theatre, visual arts, indigenous/ folk/tribal arts and literary arts; with the participation of the local exponents all over the country.

Mrs. Pattanaik has performed in all the important national dance and art festivals. She has also widely travelled and performed and imparted trainings in Odissi dance throughout the world; including in the international dance festivals of USSR, North Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.

She has served the Government of India (Ministry of Culture) committees on selection of young scholarships and fellowships and has been member of various thematic committees of the Government of India and State Governments. She has also been nominated as a jury of the Central Board of Film Certification.
She has been taking active interest in programme and policy initiatives and measures in culture, education and other social sector issues of national importance as part of Sankalp’s multi-pronged development activities.

She has also been regularly participating in the Parliamentary Committees on thematic issues of national importance as part of Sankalp’s delegation.

Mrs. Pattanaik has received many prestigious awards and honours for her contribution to Indian classical dance and public life.

Corruption



13 September 2011

Sarojini Sahoo


Well known for her frankness, Sarojini Sahoo, is a prime figure and trendsetter of feminism in contemporary Oriya literature. For her; feminism is not a gender problem or any confrontational attack on male hegemony. So, it is quite different from that of Virginia Woolf or Judith Butler. She accepts feminism as a total entity of female hood which is completely separate from the man’s world. She writes with a greater consciousness of women bodies, which would create a more honest and appropriate style of openness, fragmentation and non-linearity. Her fictions always project a feminine sensibility from puberty to menopause. The feminine feelings like restrictions in the adolescence, the pregnancy, the fear factors like being raped or being condemned by society and the concept of a bad girl etc always have the thematic exposure in her novels and short stories.

On December21, 2000 , The New Indian Express wrote “You may call her creativity controversial and term her unconventional frankness as feminist but you can never afford to ignore this woman and writer of courage and conviction. Sarojini Sahoo is a noted short story writer of India and known for her brilliant boldness.”

Born in a small town of Dhenkanal in Orissa (India), Sarojini has an MA and PhD degrees in Oriya Literature and a Bachelor of Law from Utkal University. She now teaches at a Degree college in Belpahar, Jharsuguda of Orissa. She is the second daughter of Mr.Ishwar Chandra Sahoo and Mrs.(Late) Nalini Devi and has married to Mr.Jagadish Mohanty , a veteran writer of Orissa.and has a son (Anubhav) and daughter(Sambedana).

On Sunday, October 26, 2008 , The Sunday Tribune of India wrote: “She is considered the Judith Butler and Virginia Woolf of contemporary Oriya literature. And yet for her, feminism is not just about battling male hegemony. For Dr Sarojini Sahoo, an award winning Oriya writer, feminism is linked with the sexual politics of women. She refutes the limits that patriarchy places on female sexual expression and identifies women’s sexual liberation as the real motive behind the women’s movement.”

She has had an illustrious literary career. Though she is a bilingual writer, she prefers to write her creative writings in Oriya and her critical appraisal in English . She has been widely translated and published in different Indian languages. Her stories have been included in anthologies published by Harper Collins, National Book Trust ,Gnanapith and Sahitya Akademi. She is the first Oriya writer to have a novel translated and published from Bangladesh. Gambhiri Ghara (The Dark Abode) was a bestseller in Bangladesh when it was published under the title Mithya Gerosthali. Her stories have been translated into Bengali, English and French. She is also perhaps the only Oriya woman writer to have dealt with lesbian sex in her story, ‘Behind the Scene’ (Nepathya).

Redefining femininity with Eastern perspective, her book Sensible Sensuality explores why sexuality plays a major role in understanding of Eastern feminism. This book is rare of its kind and has covered the topics that never be discussed so far in any Indian discourse. Her debatable concept on feminism, her denial of Simone De Beauvoir’s ‘the other theory’, make her prominent feminist personality of South Asia and for which KINDLE Magazine of India has placed her among 25 exceptional mindset women of India.

The New York Times web portal About.com once wrote in her favour that : as an Indian feminist, Dr. Sarojini Sahoo has written extensively about the interior lives of women and how their burgeoning sexuality is seen as a threat to traditional patriarchal societies. Her novels and short stories treat women as sexual beings and probe culturally sensitive topics such as rape, abortion and menopause from a female perspective.

Once she was also the editor of Oriya Literary Magazine the Pallaba and fiction oriented English timely journal the Breakthrough. Now she is associated with editorial staff of Indian AGE and Indian Journal of Post Colonial Literature. 

Delhi Doordarshan, the National Channel of India has featured her life style and creations in its special tele-serial “Literary Postcard .”

12 September 2011

Pratibha Ray




A
mong the contemporary fiction writings from Orissa, Pratibha Ray is perhaps the best known woman's voice. Winner of the prestigious Central Sahitya Akademi award for her collection of short stories, she is also the first woman to receive the Moorti Devi Award of the Bharatiya Jnanpith Trust (1991). Sachidananda Mohanty, academic, critic and translator, outlines the major achievements of this widely translated author.
Among the contemporary women short story writers and novelists of Orissa, Pratibha Ray would undoubtedly rank as one of the most gifted and accomplished. With an impressive crop of eighteen novels, seventeen collections of short stories, one travelogue, nine books for children and ten for neo-literates, she has received numerous awards including the Sarala Award and the Orissa Sahitya Akademi award, the latter for her novel Shilapadma in 1985. She received the Moorti Devi Award in 1991 for her widely acclaimed novel Yagnaseni. A former Professor of Education, she was a member of the Orissa Public Service Commission.
Pratibha Ray began her career as a modern writer of romance with Barsha, Basanta, Baisakha, (The Rain, the Summer and The Spring) a novel with a typical rural ambience that immediately captured the hearts of the Oriya readers. Later, even as she branched out to explore the more hidden recesses of the human psyche and character, she continued to use the same colloquial style with an eye for the odd detail that became the hall mark of all her fiction, including the best of her tales. Her early education and upbringing at Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack left upon her writing a lasting impression of rural Orissa.
Ray's short story and fictional world is not an imaginary landscape. It is rooted in a concrete socio-historical reality and Orissa's rich cultural heritage. Her main strength lies in her ability to employ the traditional mode of narration in order to depict the changing pattern of Orissa’s primarily rural culture Many of her stories and novels such as Adibhoomi, published in a translated form by Orient Longman, use a powerful tribal setting. Although Ray's locales vary with the story line and the inevitable denouement, there is always a discernibly unique thematic and narrative pattern in her fictional landscape. Whether it is "Shapya" (The Curse) that received the Katha Award for 1994 or others such as "Bipralamba", or translated stories like "The Gentleman", "Hunger", "The Other God", "The Untouchable God" or "The Mango Tree", Ray excels in the leisurely unfolding of the drama of human emotions. In most of such tales, the actual "event","happening" or plot plays a subordinate role. The focus of attention in the bulk of these realistic works is not on the "happening" though there is the inevitable tour de force in many stories, as in the best of Chekhov or O Henry.
Ray's stories are unsparing in their indictment of social evils and injustice. Bigotry and obscurantism of all kinds are her particular bete-noir as in "The Other God", a story that offers a savage critique of the so called "civilized" behaviour of man. In this story as well as the equally moving "The Untouchable God", Ray shows us the evil of blind religiosity that negates the drive for human fellowship. While a faith in the genuine spiritual is always affirmed, such as in the story "Chandrabhaga and Chandrakala", a great many of the tales seem to question the claims of tradition and authority. In Ray, such interrogation often leads her to question patriarchal modes of conduct and belief. She, of course, chooses to describe herself as pro-woman rather than as a feminist. This attitude has varied manifestations in stories such as "Moksha" (The Salvation) where a couple Shoshi and Nuri Das live together under one roof for forty long years, yet neither speaks nor see each other's face. Or it may be expressed through the use of masterly irony, depicting a complex trade-off between the need for sexual identity and social respectability as in "Shapya".
Ray is also powerfully drawn to myths and legends and often builds intricate narratives around themes that are part of the racial consciousness. For instance, Shilapadma deals with the story of Konark. Similarly, Yagnaseni is a reworking of the Mahabharata story seen primarily through the eyes of Draupadi. Written in an epistolary mode, the novel, available in a translation form (Roopa), makes an important contribution to this genre at the all India level.
In her tales, Pratibha Ray seems to prefer the dissidents, the drop-outs or the odd ball rather than heroes and heroines in the classic sense of the term. Her stories suggest a constant spirit of questioning and search for the meaning of life. In personal life, she fought and led a campaign against the powerful priestly orthodoxy of the Jagannath temple of Puri.

07 September 2011

ଅଦିନରେ


Odia Novel ASAMAJIK By Sarojini Sahoo



Title: ASAMAJIK
Language: Oriya
Genre: Novel
Author: Dr. Sarojini Sahoo
Binding: Hard Cover
Publishing Date: 2011
Publisher: Prachi sahiotya Pratisthan, Binode Behari, Balu Bazar , Cuttack-753002
Number of Pages: 140
Price: 75 INR 


A pink marriage on paperback
The Times of India, Feb 22, 2011,

BHUBANESWAR: The LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) revolution is no longer restricted to metros like Delhi or Mumbai. It is touching all nooks and corners of the country.

Asamajik', an Oriya novel on the subject of homosexuality, which is among the very first and few Oriya novels to talk about same-sex relationships, was released at the Bhubaneswar Book Fair on Friday. The book tells the story of China Mali and Phula Mani, two girls from an obscure village in remote Orissa. Childhood friends China and Phula became life partners. Phula leaves behind her loving husband and escapes a rape attempt by another man before uniting with her lesbian partner, China.

Asamajik' would loosely translate to unsocial' in English. "The novel is more about an emotional relationship and bonding rather than about sex between two girls. While talking about sexuality, I have talked about mind over body," the author of the novel, feminist writer Sarojini Sahoo, said on Sunday.

While talking about homosexuality, Sahoo, an Orissa Sahitya Academy Award-winner, said, "Western feminists talk primarily about sexual attraction between the same sex couple. But there is much more in a homosexual relationship than just that."

The plot of the novel has been deliberately given a rural setting as lesbian relationships are as much part of rural life as urban, according to Sahoo, who was listed among 25 exceptional women of India by the Kindle' magazine of Kolkata. "Is lesbian relationship prone to porn or erotica? Is there no role of socio-economic status of society or the role of patriarchal society?," questioned Sahoo. She currently teaches in Belpahar college under Jharsuguda district. "I was inspired to write about lesbianism from an incident in Koraput where two village girls had fought social odds to get married," Sahoo said.

Asamajik' has been released by publisher Prachi Pratisthan. Sahoo's earlier novel, Gambhiri Ghara', which describes an unusual relationship between two people, a Hindu housewife from India and a Muslim artist from Pakistan, has been translated into Bangla and published from Bangladesh in 2007, under the title of Mithya Gerosthali'.
(Reviewer Ashok Pradhan works as Principal Correspondent at The Times of India}
 

06 September 2011

Let Us write a Poem

See the picture and write a poem of minimum four lines and send it to odiablog.com.The Best three poems will be published in ODIA BLOG

ଡିଜେଲ୍ ବଢିଲା,ପେଟ୍ରୋଲ୍ ବଢିଲା ,
                                    ବଢୁଛି ପରିବା ଦର !

ଇସ୍କୁଲ୍ କୁ ଏବେ କେମିତି ଯିବି ମୁଁ 
                                    କୁହ ଆହେ ସରକାର !!