Odissi Dance Guru Mayadhar Raut. file. , Photo Credit: RV Murthy

His son Manoj Raut said that the famous Odissi dancer Mayadhar Raut (92) died on Saturday (February 22, 2025) in his Delhi house.

“He had breakfast this morning, was surrounded by his grandson and the rest of the family. He was not experiencing any diseases and died of old age,” said Mr. Raut.

The funeral will be held on Saturday at Lodhi Road crematorium.

Padma Shri Awardee, born in Odisha on July 6, 1933, is considered to be the “father of Odissi Dance”, which carried forward the revival of Odissi with scripture-based knowledge in the 1950s.

His training begins at the age of seven to become one of the leading artists of dance form. Gotipua Dance form, a precursor for classical Odissi dance.

Raut was the first to present Gotipua Dance on stage in 1944.

Later, he worked to re-define and reorganize the Odissi dance to achieve the position of the “scripture-based classical dance form”.

Raut was the founding member of the Art Development Center in Cuttack in 1952; It was the first institution in India where Odissi was taught.

Along with his colleagues, he founded the Jayantika Association in 1959, working on the Code and Development of Odissi dance and provided it with a classical structure and created his vocabulary, which included the basic science of ‘Abhinya’.

Raut is credited with offering ‘Camsha Bhava’, ‘Mudra Appropriation’ and ‘Rasa Siddhanta’ in Odissi’s study.

He was also the first guru to choreographed Gitagovinda ashtapadis with Shringara juiceLike compositions Pashyati dashi dashi, Priya Charu Shile And Sakhi,

From 1970 to 1995, Raut led the Odissi Department at the Sri Ram Indian Arts Center. Delhi’s famous Kamani Auditorium was inaugurated with his performance Gitagovinda In 1971.

Some of his disciples include the famous Odissi dancers, including Ramani Ranjan Jena, Aloka Paneikar and Geeta Mahalik.

For his comprehensive work in the field of Odissi dance, Raut gets the Orissa Sangeet Natak Academy Award (1977), Sahitya Kala Prince Award (1984), Sangeet Nutak Academy Award (1985), Rajiv Gandhi Sadjan Award (2003), Undendra Bhanja Samman ( 2005), and Tagore Academy Ratna (2011) others.

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