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Dreams do come true
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Guru Gangadhar Pradhan and his disciple Aruna Mohanty have been consistently holding aloft the banner of Odissi. HARIHARAN BALAKRISHNAN
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Photo: H. Balakrishnan
Thinking big: Guru Gangadhar with his troupe.
After the death of the three masters of Odissi (Gurus Debaprasad, Pankaj Das and Kelucharan Mahapatra), the foremost living Guru in Orissa is Gangadhar Pradhan. The popularity of Odissi skyrocketed with the master-disciple duo Kelucharan and Sanjukta Panigrahi who took this classical dance form across continents. Though they travel less often, Guru Gangadhar and his talented disciple Aruna Mohanty have been consistently holding aloft the banner of this form through the Orissa Dance Academy (ODA) established in 1975.
Aruna’s composition “Kanchi Abhijan”, a dance-drama on the conquest of Kanchi by the Raja of Puri and his consequent marriage to Princess Padmavati received applause wherever it was enacted. The ODA’s vast repertoire is growing by the year. Aruna, now Secretary of ODA, looks after day-to-day affairs and the technical aspects “to reduce the strain on the Guru who has larger things to attend to”.
Innovative productions
One of the productions is a dance-drama with 11 speech and hearing challenged children from Bhubaneswar schools along with 22 other mainstream dancers. Another achievement was “Shrishti”, based on the super-cyclone of 1999, staged in 2003.
Guru Gangadhar was initiated into dance through the Gotipua form in his native Puri district by Pandits Chandrasekhar Patnaik, Banchanidhi Pradhan, Digambar Sahu and Mahadev Rout. He never fails to mention them when people ask him about his life as an Odissi dancer.
Later, he had the good fortune to be trained by all the three masters of modern Odissi. He picked up nuggets from each to evolve his own style and school. In addition to regular teaching, he takes Odissi and Chhau dance to villages in Orissa and West Bengal where his troupes give free performances. He is also involved in conserving and propagating other forms of Oriya culture like its distinct forms of music and painting. “He is more a social worker than a dance guru,” says Mohanty.
Early days
Gangadhar recalls his journey from Gotipua to Odissi with angst. “One day, Guru Mahadev Rout decided that I had trained enough in Gotipua and asked me to learn Odissi under the great guru Pankaj Charan Das who was with the newly-formed Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya. I told my large joint family of 60-odd members. Elders ridiculed me: ‘Is it not enough that you were swinging your hips in the village; now you want to show your bum in Bhubaneswar?’ One day, I packed some rice, chuda (pounded rice) and gur (molasses) and started walking towards Bhubaneswar, crying all the way"
Young Gangadhar was interviewed by Markandeya Mahapatra and Sanjukta Panigrahi at UMV. Sanjukta was ecstatic when she saw him eneact some postures in Gotipua. At age 17, on July 10, 1965, he joined the Mahavidyalaya. The rest is history.
Guru Gangadhar reminisces, “I became a teacher even as a student. Whenever there was a function in some school or college, they asked me to dance. And then parents asked me to teach their children. I shared whatever I learnt with pleasure. Life was hard. Odissi is set to music heavily laced with Sanskrit. One has to understand the inner meaning of every word, subtle nuances that evoke certain expressions and enact them while dancing. I immersed myself in study, practice and recitation. The food I brought from home was finished quickly. When the drama troupe of Kamalalochan Mohanty asked if I would dance for them, I agreed. I got a rupee or more a day. But I found I was wasting time being away from my practice and learning process. I begged to be excused and immersed myself in study and practice.”
One day, this itinerant teacher-student saw Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra perform and felt something was lacking in his own dance. He applied for a government scholarship and was interviewed by a panel with Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan as head. She asked him to enact two poses. “I enacted one and then did the Chauka of Lord Jagannath. There were no more questions. When they asked me under whom I wanted to learn, I immediately said ‘Guru Kelucharan’. I worked with him for 10 years and benefited immensely.”
Even as a teenager, Gangadhar dreamt of building an institution to teach dance. Till then, no guru had an institution of his own. At the age of 19, he made a small beginning with a few disciples in Bhubaneswar. Understanding elders and friends helped with finance, unlike his family back in the village. The seeds of a dream were sown. ODA started taking shape. His greatest contribution is the Konark Natya Mandal, started on a barren tract of land off the Sun Temple in 1986, eight years after he got a small patch of land.
Plans
“My mother-in-law, Sushilabati Swain, inspired me ‘to do something big and lasting’. She offered a third of an acre for which I paid some money in 1978. I have plans for four acres where this dream can take shape. I am no longer confined to the role of an Odissi guru. I want to take the culture of Orissa — our Chhau and folk dances, our instrumental music, our art and architecture— to the world. To this end, I am associated with 47 institutions in different parts of the world. Before my flesh and bones mingle with the dust, I hope to have 101 such centres.”
Every year the Konark Dance and Music Festival (February 19 to February 21) draws connoisseurs from across the world. “For 115 days a year, we have programmes, some through the night till dawn. I want all 365 days to be covered, ” says Guru Gangadhar.
“I am a dreamer, not a thinker. When you think, the barriers of real life confront you. Thinkers are seldom big achievers. They give up soon. I don’t give up on my dreams,” says Guru Gangadhar Pradhan.
E-mail: fabalas02@yahoo.com
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