On August 25, 2013, music maestro, ambassador of Gita Govinda Padmashri ‘Suramani’ Pandit Raghunath Panigrahi breathed his last. Sunday is his first death anniversary.
Panigrahi dedicated his life to Indian classical music, singing and composing many masterpieces both in classical and light classical. Known worldwide as a noted vocalist of Jayadeva’s Gita Govind, Panigrahi’s effort to popularise poet Jayadeva’s masterpiece globally is widely hailed.
He was the first Odia singer to be honoured by the French Government for his ‘Gita Govinda’ composition way back in the 70s. But it was in 2010 that he was recognized with the Padmashri award, considered by many as a belated honour for the great master.
Panigrahi enjoyed a highly successful, paying and promising career in Chennai as a playback singer for Telugu and Tamil films and worked with all the greats of the big south music industry. He decided to give up a national career to team up with his wife celebrated Odissi danseuse Sanjukta Panigrahi, who was then dreaming of launching a worldwide campaign to popularise the classical Odissi form. Both the legends did not buckle under the pressure of building an international repertoire of Odissi dance and music at a time when there was hardly any media support, infrastructure and endorsement. They continued to pursue the ‘great dream’ together and gave Odissi an international reputation and opened global vistas for Odia art and culture.
Gotipua was popular in the villages and was mostly performed by boys. Maharis, or Devadasis, danced before the idol to the accompaniment of mantras. They evolved to dancing to vocal music when Jayadeva composed his famous Geeta Govinda celebrating the life and times of lord Krishna. This dance form, accompanied by the music in the Geeta Govinda, the contributions of the duo Pandit Raghunath and Sanjukta Panigrahi gave rise to emotive expression or abhinaya, an integral part of present-day Odissi. The dance form had come out of the confines of temples during the time of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the seventh century sage but was made contemporary in the world of art and culture by the Panigrahis. Sanjukta Panigrahi herself a Padma awardee passed away in 1997. Incidentally, Raghunath breathed his last, a day after his wife’s death anniversary. It was truly a partnership of creative genius, and it was impossible to imagine one without the other. The 70s and 80s saw them at their peak.
Born at Gunupur in Rayagada district, Panigrahi, under the tutelage of his father and uncle, learnt the classical way of singing ‘Gita Govinda.’ Trained in both Hindustani and Carnatic styles, Panditji was not just a vocalist but also a versatile composer whose work covered a wide range of forms. He got Title of Sur Mani in 1968 , an award from the Government of France in the 1970s, Central Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1976.