Guru Pankaj Charan Das: The Pathfinder Of Odissi

Until now and forever he will be addressed as the Adi Guru or the first teacher of classical dance, Odissi. He was first among the famous triad of the dance form, who reshaped, rearranged and reintroduced Odissi.

The famous troika – Guru Pankaj Charan Das, Guru Deba Prasad Das and Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra – is in fact a combination of one plus two because the later duos were pupils of Guru Pankaj Charan Das. So always he was the first one, the father and the pathfinder.

Perhaps, he was the first and the last artiste from the Mahari (temple dancers of Puri) lineage. He was the adopted son of Chintamani Mahari and married to the daughter of Haripriya Mahari. He was the only Odissi maestro who had learnt the dance form from the original sources and retained the authenticity of the Mahari tradition in his compositions and choreography.

In the history of Odissi, Guru Pankaj Charan Das is portrayed as a “angry and anguished” teacher. He was angry and anguished with his contemporaries due to artistic reasons. He had his differences with “Jayantika”, a conglomerate of Odissi gurus and scholars, to formalise the repertoire of the dance form. He had serious differences with his disciples on styles, trainings and pedagogy of Odissi. Somehow, that was quite natural and those differences transformed into creative competitiveness amongst the gurus and brought out finest of the dialogues and choreographic outputs in Odissi.

Historically, he was the founding father of Odissi and undisputedly he was the teacher of everyone, including Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and Guru Deba Prasad. He was the first and foremost dance composer who blended dance of the temple with modern theatre. His compositions, which helped to revive Odissi, were presented in New Theatre, Odisha Theatre and Annapurna “B” Theatre in the 40s and 50s.

By character and training, he was a classicist but he went on exploring modern ideas and styles in many of his compositions. Dance historians tried to push him into the margin by branding him as one of the conservatives, but in reality his dance statement was highly modern and progressive. The way he portrayed the mythological “Panchakanya” (the five rebel women: Ahalya, Draupadi, Tara, Kunti and Mandodari) is an eye opener. He explored modern stage craft for Odissi dance when the dance itself was in infancy. He went on to compose mega dance dramas like “Glani Samhara” and “Ushabhilasha”, which are referred until now as path breaking productions.

Among the three pathfinders of Odissi dance, Guru Pankaj Charan’s struggle was the most difficult one. He came from the family of Mahari, who are socially ostracised and looked down as a fallen group of servitors. Maharis offered their services to Lord Jagannath as His dedicated wives, but socially they are treated as almost untouchables. Writing on the plight of the son of a Mahari, Guru Pankaj Charan’s most distinguished disciple and dance scholar late Ritha Devi wrote, “The young son of Mahari, whom barbers would refuse a haircut because of his low birth, and who had vowed to change this order of things within his own lifetime”. Indeed, he changed the whole mindset and approach of Odia society towards the “Mahari” tradition, which has now been recognised as one of the holiest source of Odissi dance and music.

Further elaborating the lifesketch of Guru Pankaj Charan, Ritha Devi said, “As a male member of the Mahari community, he was not supposed to learn dance, but only play Mardala. But his overwhelming love for the dance saw him to learn it from his aunt, Shrmati Ratnaprabha Devi, most accomplished dancer of her time. His creative genius infused chiselled line and rhythmic exuberance into what was originally performed as a ritual before the Lord by the Mahari, who, therefore, saw no need to  display any technical virtuosity. Guru Pankaj made the same dances, stage-worthy, by introducing lightning foot works, agile leaps and spacious, expansive movement”.

Guruji lived a long life (March 17, 1919,- June 11,2003), singlehandedly set up the intellectual and grammatical base of Odissi and choreographed dozens of dance numbers which are considered to be iconic until now. Unfortunately many of his old compositions are not in circulation and there is serious lack of documentation on his life and creativity.