Suramani Pandit Raghunath Panigrahi, the doyen of Indian classical music, who promoted and popularised Jaydeva’s Gita Govinda worldwide, was paid rich tributes here on Thursday last. He was born in Gunupur in this district on August 10, 1932.
Though Panigrahi was the first Odia singer to be honoured by the French Government for his Gita Govinda
composition way back in the 70s, he was conferred with Padmashree in 2010. Raghunath also received several honours like the Kendriya Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Jayadeva Award and recently an honorary doctorate from the Ravenshaw University.
The convenor of the meeting T B Kumar said, “Indian Government was late in recognising the competence of Panigrahi who inherited music from his classical vocalist father. He learnt the unique style of singing the Gita Govinda from him and gave numerous renditions of it in tune with the traditions of the lord Jagannath Temple in Puri.
He was probably the only vocalist who could sing all 24 verses of Gita Govinda. He also made several efforts to promote and popularize Gita Govinda across the globe. He decided to give up a very
successful and lucrative career in Chennai as a playback singer for Telugu and Tamil films to team up with his newly married wife Sanjukta Panigrahi, who was then dreaming of launching a worldwide campaign to popularise the classical Odissi dance form.”
T Gowrishankar of Sakshi said, “Panigrahi lent his voice for superstar NT Rama Rao in the super-hit Telugu film, ‘Ilavelpu’ and also acted in Telugu film Jayabheri”. Senior scribe Kirti Sahu told, “He composed music and also sang for several Odia films. He had also left an indelible mark in Odissi light classicals like ‘Na Jaa Radhika’ and an out-and-out modern love song like ‘Nali Nali Ei, Krushnachuda’ , ‘Nupoor Bajaai Kie’ and many other enchanting songs.”
Basudev Mohapatra recalled how the maestro as a dog lover would take every ailing or injured stray dog in the area under his care and nurse it back to health with care and attention. Panigrahi was felicitated during the district’s cultural extravaganza-Chaiti.