Odisha to move Centre seeking classical tag for Odissi music
BHUBANESWAR: The heritage cabinet of the state cabinet headed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday passed a resolution to move the Centre seeking classical-tag for Odissi music, one of the very ancient forms of music.
“The state government has recognised Odissi as a classical form of music during 2008. This form of music is very ancient and has a sastric basis. It is also different from other forms of classical music. So, the cabinet decided to move the Centre to accord classical tag to Odissi music,” said state culture minister Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi after the meeting.
While Odissi dance has already been recognized as a classical dance by the Centre in 1964, Odia became the sixth Indian language after Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit and Tamil to get the classical tag.
The Odia language literature and culture (OLLC) department will prepare proposals by consulting with experts to move to the Centre seeking classical tag for Odia language, said official sources.
The Odissi vocalists and composers appreciated the state government’s move saying the state government should place a proper demand before the Centre.
The heritage cabinet also approved a proposal to increase the financial amount given by the OLLC department in various cultural fields. The amounts for the Atibadi Jagannath Das Samman, Kabi Samrat Upendra Bhanja Samman, Dharmapada Samman and Vyasakabi Fakir Mohan Samman has been increased from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. Similarly, prize money of various awards given by various Akademies has been increased from Rs 50, 000 to Rs 2 lakh.
A proposal for development of Suando in Puri district, the birthplace of Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das with an investment of over Rs 11 crore was also approved by the heritage cabinet, said Panigrahi.
“Utkalmani is known as one of the makers of modern Odisha. He had established Satyabadi Bana Bidyalaya. His contributions to the fields of education, politics, literature, culture and spiritualism are significant,” said the minister.
Among others, the heritage cabinet decided to have a separate directorate for proper maintenance of its architectural heritage consisting of ancient temples, stupas and sculptures and other ancient treasures. There will also be a separate directorate for Odisha state museum.
The Odisha State Museum and the Ananda Bhavan Museum in Cuttack that memorializes Biju Patnaik will be developed into a virtual entity with digitisation. The state government has also decided to fill up all the vacancies in various akademies, institutions and various centres of the OLLC department.