Rajat Kumar Kar

Rajat Kumar Kar was an economist, education official and writer from Odisha, best known as the voice of the Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath, which he described on radio and television from 1958. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2021 in the field of literature and education, from Odisha ^[1].

Education official

Kar was born in Cuttack on 2 October 1934, went to Ravenshaw Collegiate School and took a master’s in economics from Utkal University in 1953 ^[2]. After teaching at Bhadrak and Jeypore he spent more than three decades as an administrator in the education department, retiring as director of teacher education and of the state council of educational research and training ^[2]. He was Odisha’s first joint director of non-formal education, and under him the state won national first prizes for its non-formal and adult education programmes ^[2].

Voice of the Rath Yatra

He was the oldest and longest-serving commentator of the Rath Yatra on radio and television ^[2]. From 1951 he was also an A-grade actor and drama artist with All India Radio, Cuttack, and he wrote five popular plays for radio and television, winning the Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi’s best playwright award in 1995 ^[2].

Upendra Bhanja and Pala

From 1944 he was part of the “Bhanja Jayanti” movement for Odisha’s cultural revival, and spent six decades explaining the poetry of Kavi Samrat Upendra Bhanja and other medieval poets ^[2]. From 1950 he worked to preserve Odissi music and dance, leading the effort as president of Kalinga Bharati from 1960 ^[2].

He helped revive Pala, a sung storytelling art, through talent contests across Odisha, which led to the popular television series Badi Pala ^[2]. The Odisha Sahitya Akademi gave him its lifetime achievement award in 2018 ^[2].

Rajat Kumar Kar died in May 2022 ^[3].