Sanjukta Panigrahi

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Sanjukta Panigrahi (24 August 1944 – 24 June 1997) [1] 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.[2]

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.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

She was born on 24 August 1944 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. [3]

She bagged the first prize in International Children’s Film Festival in 1952.

[edit] Dance training

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 Geeta Govinda. When was sixteen, they married and over a period of time had two children.

[edit] Career

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, who started to render music at her performances. He sacrificed a promising career in film music in Chennai to give voice to her dance. [4] 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. [5]

[edit] The dance of Sanjukta Panigrahi

During her long dancing career as a dance choreographer, she was able to create ballets drawing from rich resources, embedded in the literature of various Indian languages, the reason being that she was well-versed in several Indian languages , apart from Oriya (her mother tongue), including, Tamil, Bengali, Hindi, English, and Sanskrit. The effect was evident in ���S���P�}m'��E�����@�@���EQ�FB��d���P�?��ZW�]��C�������� ���be��0eir 'bhavpaksha' (emotive content) and presentation.

She spent some time at the International School of Theatre Anthropology at Bologna, Italy in 1986, 1990 and 1992, teaching and demonstrating Odissi dance to foreign students, further adding to its global popularity. [6]

Though she excelled in footwork, 'taal' and 'laya', it was with the finesse and exurberance in her 'abhinaya' (expressions) that she stood far above her contemporaries exponents of Odissi dance.

Together with her musician husband, Sanjukta has left behind, a rich repertoire of Odissi Dance, both modern as well as classical, ranging from traditional numbers based on the Jayadeva's Gita Govinda to the padabalies of Surdas, Chaupais from the Ramacharitamanasa of Tulasidas and the songs of Vidyapati and Rabindranath Tagore, with piece-de-resistance being, the innovative 'Yugma-Dwandwa': a short of Jugalbandi between the dancer and the musician in Raga Bageshwari, and the sublime, 'Moksha Mangalam' which in time had become her personal signature, which she use to end her performances, on an ethereal note. [7]

In the words of noted dance critic, Dr. Sunil Kothari, "Sanjukta gave up Bharatnatyam and devoted her life to Odissi, putting her signature on the form." [8] {{sectstub})

[edit] Her Contribution

Sanjukta Didi, left behind many enlightened students. She was the most humble person and an artist the world had ever seen. She gave her students one hundred percent and demanded that the students give that back. Her valued contribution was to Joyoti Das a resident of Melbourne who has been hand moulded by Sanjukta Didi herself. She gave her all, including a place in her house named Joyoti's room where she stayed for months on end learning this art form according to Sanjukta Panigrahi. She then also performed her Mancha Prabesh (graduation) in Kolkata at the Academy of fine arts where Raghunath Panigrahi, and her musicians accompanied her. Today, Joyoti's aim is to keep her name alive as she says " Sanjukta Didi's Odissi" is the only Odissi I know. It should also be noteworthy, that after Sanjukta didi's sad demise, Poushali Mukherjee in Kolkata has also been a strong hold in Joyoti's dancing and as an audience, Joyoti is Australia's treasure in this style of Odissi and watching her dance is like watching the sculptures of the temples come alive.

[edit] The Last years

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 six 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.

[edit] Sanjukta Panigrahi Awards

After her death, her husband Rajunath 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. [9] [10]

[edit] Quotes

  • “I had two gurus, each with contradicting views. Rukmini Devi Arundale stressed technique while Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra insisted upon forgetting technique. I was confused. Much later I realized that with dedication and hard work, technique would follow automatically.” As told to a disciple, Joyoti Das.
  • "Shakti [. . .] which is neither masculine nor feminine [. . .]. A performer of either sex is always Shakti, energy which creates." [11]

[edit] Films on Sanjukta Panigrahi

  • Encounter With the Gods: Orissi Dance With Sanjukta Panigrahi. [12]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sanjukta at odissivilas
  2. ^ Indian Express, June 25 1997
  3. ^ Sanjukta Panugrahi at mapsofindia
  4. ^ Sunday, The Hindu, May 13, 2007
  5. ^ Kelucharan Mahapatra profile
  6. ^ International School of Theatre Anthropology
  7. ^ [1] Odissi Dance, Govt of Orissa]
  8. ^ Obituary by Dr. Sunil Kothari
  9. ^ First Sanjukta Panigrahi award, The Times of India, 25 Aug 2001
  10. ^ Sanjukta Panigrahi Awards
  11. ^ The Journal of Religion and Theatre, 2004
  12. ^ Encounter With the Gods, Yahoo Movies
  • Indra Gupta, India’s 50 Most Illustrious Women New Delhi: Icon Publications, 2003. ISBN 81-88086-19-3

[edit] External links

[edit] See also