Author: Dr Shakti Shankar Dandapat, Ankit Rout

Abstract: The province of Odisha has carved a niche for itself in the global arena by virtue of three extraordinary things: (1) the sun temple at Konark, (2) Jagannath dham at Puri, and (3) Odissi, the classical dance form. While there's abundance of literature and discursive accounts about the first two, that way, the last one, Odissi, suffers from a dearth of knowledge portals. But for a few and far articles here and there, there's no substantive accounts available about this unique cultural art form and tradition. In spite of its prominent presence over a prolonged period of time, strangely enough, till late 20th century, many have made effort to undermine Odissi by considering it as a mere mimetic version of Bharatanatyam or Kuchipudi. Even though this point-of-view holds no ground in recent times, the lack of adequate credible accounts about the origin and history of this splendid dance form has somehow helped this viewpoint to score a point. Although pinpointing the exact origin of Odissi is nearly impossible, archaeological evidence confirms a tradition that dates back to over two thousand years. The Odissi dance of contemporary times may be less than a hundred years old in its present form, but the knowledge tradition of Odra-Magadhi dance and music has continued in various forms across the Odisha region. This chapter aims at offering a historical overview of this rich dance tradition. The focal length of this chapter ranges from the stone carvings of Konark to the stage of the Konark International Dance Festival.

Keywords: Odissi, classical dance-drama, Gotipua dance, Mahari tradition, bhaba & rasas.

Article Info: Received: 03 May 2026; Received in revised form: 29 Apr 2026; Accepted: 02 May 2026; Available online: 07 May 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.113.6