Puspita Mishra

Bhubaneswar, March 7: Odissi dancer Puspita Mishra has been selected for the Mahari Award this year.

Instituted by the Guru Pankaj Charan Odissi Research Foundation, the award is given to Odissi dancers from India and abroad. Pushpita would be felicitated with the award at the 15th Guru Pankaj Utsav, to be held from March 17 to 19 here.

The award carries a cash prize of Rs 25,000 along with a memento and a citation. It is dedicated to the memory of Maharis, who renounced earthly pleasure to devote their lives in service of Lord Jagannath. The Odissi dance has its origin from the Mahari tradition, of which Guru Pankaj Charan Das is a descendent. He later emerged as the Adi Guru or founding father of the dance’s modern form.

The festival — a tribute to Das — is a platform to search for young talents to popularise and make further innovations in the dance form. Thirty-eight-year-old Puspita is a Sangeet Visharad in Odissi conducted by the Prachin Kala Kendra under Chandigarh University. The Grade-A artiste has received a research scholarship from the Union ministry of human resource development.

Guru Pankaj Utsav this year would feature Jyoti Srivastava and Supriya Nayak from New Delhi, Parwati Dutta, Rashmirekha Das, Munmun Chakraborty, Lipsa Dash, Saswat Joshi among others, foundation chairperson Batakrushna Dash said.