Collaborating on Odissi: An Interview with Sanjukta Panigrahi, Kelucharan Mahapatra, and Raghunath Panigrahi

Abstract

According to Kapila Vatsyayan, Orissi [odissi] may well claim to be the earliest classical Indian dance style on the basis of archaeological evidence, the most outstanding being the Rani Gumpha caves of the 2nd century B.C. in Orissa. [. ..] Certainly these caves are the first specimens of a dance scene with full orchestration found in sculptures (1974:34). Thus the dance style of which Sanjukta Panigrahi and her teacher-partner Kelucharan Mahapatra are masters has roots deep in the historical traditions of Eastern India. Its place is Orissa, a province facing the Bay of Bengal south of Calcutta. Odissi dance has not had a smooth, unchanging history for the last 2,200 years. Much of its development is sketchy or unknown. And its story in the 20th century is full of the same kind of swift and deep changes that mark what's happened to other Indian classical dances such as bharatanatyam. Dancers were part of the population established at Puri's Jagannath temple built in the 12th century. In the late 1970s close to I,500 persons have some ritual duties in this temple, all of whom are males except for the small group of devadasis. The women ritual specialists dance and sing in the temple on a daily basis as well as participate in several calendrical festivals (Marglin I980:I). The devadasis-now all but extinct in Puri and elsewhere-danced their version of odissi for Jagannath, the Orissan Krishna. Devadasi dancing was extinguished by Indians and British colonial authorities who considered the dancers prostitutes. A way around the pressures building against the devadasis and their dancing was to teach odissi to very young boys, the gotipuas, of whom Mahapatra was one. Or maybe the gotipuas were dancers of odissi independent of the temple tradition: Indian arts (as elsewhere) often have their several roots braided together. Trained in gymnasiums, dressed as females for dancing, the gotipuas were organized into village-based troupes. Al-