Odissi Guru Mayadhar Raut Passes Away At His Delhi Residence; Last Rites Today

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: Odissi Guru Mayadhar Raut breathed his last at his Delhi residence on Saturday morning. He was 95.

“He had breakfast this morning, surrounded by his grandchildren and the rest of the family. He wasn’t experiencing any illnesses and passed away due to old age,” his son Manoj Raut told PTI.

The last rites will be performed at Lodhi Road crematorium, he added.

He is survived by his daughter and Odissi dancer Madhumita Raut, and sons Manoj and Manmath Raut. His wife Mamta Raut died in 2017.

Born on July 6, 1933 in Odisha, Raut was one of the most prominent gurus of Odissi. He began his training at the age of seven with ‘Gotipua’ dance form, a precursor to the classical dance form. He was also the first to present the ‘Gotipua’ dance on stage in 1944.

The Padma awardee was one of the founder members of Jayantika, an association of scholars, performers and gurus, formed in 1959, that played a major part in the reconstruction of modern Odissi through codification and development of the dance form while building its vocabulary by incorporating basic sciences of ‘Abhinaya’.

He is credited for steering the revival of Odissi with Shastra-based knowledge. He also had a great mastery over ancient treatises like Natyashastra, Abhinaya Darpana and Abhinaya Chandrika and adopted many aspects from them into Odissi.

In the late 60s, Raut moved to Delhi and started teaching Odissi at a dance school called Nritya Niketan. Later he joined Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra and headed its Odissi department from 1970 to 1995.

He introduced sanchari bhava in the dance, and also was the first to adapt Gita Govinda ashtapadis to Odissi on stage. Delhi’s famous Kamani Auditorium was inaugurated with the performance of his Gita Govinda in 1971.

For his substantial contributions to the growth and evolution of Odissi, he was conferred with Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1977), Sahitya Kala Prishad Award (1984), Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1985), Rajeev Gandhi Sadbhavana Award (2003), Upendra Bhanja Samman (2005), and Tagore Akademi Ratna (2011) among others.

 His disciples include well-known performers like Ranjana Gauhar, Kiren Segal, Aloka Panikar, Vanashree Rao, Usha Gupta, and Jayalakshmi Eshwar.