Remembering Guru Ramani Ranjan Jena

Sadly, a renowned guru of Odissi, Ramani Ranjan Jena, passed away recently. The intangible heritage of classical Indian dance resides in the transmission from guru to discipline. It is a great loss to us all when this rich human treasure house of knowledge is no longer among us. Ramani Ranjan Jena was well recognised for his contributions to the field of Odissi with many honours and awards, yet the greatest contribution is the legacy he has left with those he trained over many decades.

The brilliant Bharatanatyam exponent Malavika Sarukkai was impeccably trained by Ramani bhai and they performed Odissi duets together in Madras, now Chennai. He had been encouraged to teach in Chennai by Y.G. Doraisami, the patron of the arts.

Doraisami also guided the French scholar of Sanskrit and Indian culture, Dr Tara Michael, to take up Odissi with Guru R.R.Jena after her initial training in Bharata Natyam. This was fortuitous for both guru and shishya as Tara committed permanently to Odissi under the guru's superb training and the guru had the opportunity to share his art in Europe through her efforts. Tara Michael’s milestone book on dance mudras and viniyoga of Odissi and Bharata Natyam is both scholarly accurate and scrupulously illustrated with photographs of Guru Ramani Rajan Jena and other stalwarts of the dance. His depth of knowledge enabled this lasting treatise so helpful for the next generations of classical Indian dance.

Rohini Dandavate, a San Francisco NRI with a doctoral specialty in Cultural Policy and Arts Administration, received training in Odissi dance in Kala Vikash Kendra, Cuttack from Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, Guru Raghunath Dutta and Guru Ramani Ranjan Jena. She recalls him as “An ace performer and an articulate teacher he was an inspiration for young students. During the intensive summer workshops under Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, amongst many male students, namely Guru Raghunath Dutta, Guru Muralidhar Majhi, Guru Shankar Behera, Guru Gangadhar Pradhan, Guru Natabar Moharana, and many others, Guru Ramani Ranjan Jena's style stood out.”

Ramani Bhai was born in the village Remuna near Cuttack, Odisha in 1941. After initial training from childhood under Gurus Gayadhar Panda, Ramaswami, Ramgopal Mishra, Raghunath Dutta, and Mayadhar Raut, he found his true mentor under the guidance of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra at Kala Vikash Kendra, Cuttack.

By the 1980s, he was well established as a torch bearer of the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra style of Odissi and on par with his peer, Guru Gangadhar Pradhan in his ability to lead classical Odissi dance training forward.

After teaching independently and at Kalakshetra in Chennai, he shifted base to the Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi. It was my pleasure to include one of his first Delhi students, Miki Nonaka from Japan, in an annual Sahitya Kala Parishad Videshi Kalakar Utsav. She had only learned for nine months, but I wanted Delhi audiences to see the caliber of Ramani Bhai as a guru through her half hour of pure dance and Bhakti abhinaya.

Over the many years in Delhi, he maintained a thriving school in his home village near Cuttack. These disciples, without access to other Odissi training close to home, were even more blessed to have such an eminently knowledgeable teacher pass on his tradition to them. His son, Rashmi Rajan Jena, who I fondly remember as a wonderful Odissi dancer at the age of 12, will continue his father’s legacy of intangible heritage in their Kamala Kala Peetha institution in Orissa.

Students at the Odissi Research Centre in Bhubaneswar, Kala Vikash Kendra in Cuttack, Nrityagram near Bangalore, Osaka in Japan and a private academy in Gurgaon, have all benefited from his teaching.

His contributions to Odissi dance have been recognised in Orissa by honours from the Orissa Sahitya Akademi Award in 2009, the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award in 2008, and the Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1987. Several Odia films are also indebted to him for skillful dance direction. The nation honoured him with a central Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2008.

Guru Ramani Rajan Jena played a significant role in the transmission of Odissi tradition in India and internationally. May the artistic seeds he planted continue to grow and flourish.

Sharon Lowen is a respected exponent of Odissi, Manipuri and Mayurbhanj and Seraikella Chau whose four-decade career in India was preceded by 17 years of modern dance and ballet in the US and an MA in dance from the University of Michigan. She can be contacted at sharonlowen.workshop@gmail.com