On Guru Purnima, Recalling How Mayadhar Raut Worked With A Group Of Exponents To Give Odissi Its Classical Status
A guru is somebody who dispels the darkness (‘gu’ in Sanskrit means darkness and ‘ru’ means dispeller) of ignorance and provides the sunshine of information. Since the day I started to study the attractive dance type of Odissi from my guru, Mayadhar Raut, he transfomed my life. In the ten years I spent studying from him, I delved deeper into the artwork kind and skilled it alone phrases.
His educating was not restricted to method and efficiency. He helped me perceive the essence of Vaishnava philosophy that gave start to this dance on the Jagannath temple in Puri. He introduced a brand new dimension to studying, particularly when explaining the verses of Jayadeva’s Gita Govind.
Over the years, I realised how necessary it’s transcend concept and kind and perceive an artwork additionally from its socio-cultural and historic views. I understood what is supposed by a holistic strategy to studying and educating. Even right this moment, each time I carry out my guru’s compositions, I uncover new meanings within the items.
Born on July 6, 1930 in Kantapenhara, a small village within the Cuttack district of Odisha, Mayadhur Raut began working in numerous theatre corporations from the age of seven. Later, in his teenagers, he joined the Annapurna theatre, the place he met guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and guru Pankaj Charan Das. It was the nice grasp Pankaj Charan Das who taught him Odissi and Mahari.
In 1952, Mayadhar Raut joined Kala Vikas Kendra in Cuttack as its first guru. His dance lessons turned highly regarded. He took the initiative to organize a syllabus in line with which Odissi started to be taught.
His honest pursuit of the artwork kind was acknowledged in 1955, when he was awarded a scholarship to check Kathakali and Bharatanatyam at Kalakshetra in Chennai. It is right here that he mastered the Natyshastra and Abhinaya Darpana, which led him to redefine the grammar of Odissi and the abhinaya vocabulary. It is at Kalakshetra that he gained deeper insights into choreography — it additional enhanced his capacity to choreograph dance-dramas similar to ‘Tapaswini’, ‘Meghdoot’, ‘Brij Leela’, ‘Krishna Charitam’, and ‘Geeta Govindam’ — and he was additionally launched to Carnatic music.
During summer time holidays, he would return to Kala Vikas Kendra and put into observe the data gained at Kalakshetra. He modified his strategy to hasta mudras, and likewise launched sanchari bhava in abhinaya, which he described as “abhinaya is the ocean and sanchari bhava is the wave in the ocean which ultimately settles down in it.” Many famend artistes skilled beneath him in these summer time programs.
As the recognition of Odissi grew, guru Mayadhar turned a part of the rising group of Odissi dancers who had realised that it was essential to kind an affiliation to offer a extra structured and systematic form to Odissi. This led to the Jayantika institute being constituted in 1957, which helped Odissi to emerge stronger. Around 1964, Odissi was recognised by Sangeet Natak Akademi as a classical dance kind. The relaxation, as they are saying, is historical past.
In July 1967, when guru Mayadhar got here to show Odissi in Delhi, individuals weren’t conscious of the dance type, however enormously impressed by his work, Sumitra Charatram invited him to show on the famed Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, New Delhi, the place he began the Odissi division in 1970.
Many of India’s main Odissi dancers right this moment are guru Mayadhar’s disciples, together with Kiran Segal, Geeta Mahalik, Ramani Ranjan Jena, Hare Krishna Behera, and Aloka Panikar. Many of his college students have began dance establishments to impart coaching within the Mayadhar type.
At the age of 91, the grasp, an establishment in himself, leads a lifetime of satisfaction, figuring out the significance of his physique of labor and contributions to Odissi.
