Shyamamani Devi

Shyamamani Devi is a vocalist of Odissi music, the classical music tradition of Odisha, and one of All India Radio’s best-known top-grade artists. She was named for the Padma Shri in 2022 in the field of art, from Odisha ^[1].

From child artist to playback singer

Shyamamani Devi was born in Cuttack on 21 December 1938 to Nishamani and Rajendra Patnaik ^[2]. She trained in Odissi vocal music under Singhari Shyamsundar Kar and Balkrishna Dash, and in Hindustani vocal music under B. R. Navarang of the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, Pune ^[2]. She began as a child artist on All India Radio at 12, singing from Cuttack, Kolkata and Mumbai, and in the 1960s and 1970s was a popular playback singer for Odia and Bengali films ^[2].

Reviving Odissi songs

At the height of her film career she turned instead to the traditional forms of Odissi music that were dying out, such as champu, chhanda, chautisa, bhajan, janana and the Gita Govinda ^[2]. Cassettes of her renditions of these forms were among the first ever released, and she took them across the state through radio and concerts ^[2]. She has also helped set down the grammar of Odissi music ^[2].

Over more than seven decades she has sung more than 4,000 songs, from Odissi to devotional, light, folk and film songs, along with ghazals, Rabindra Sangeet and Gujarati garba ^[2]. Utkal University of Culture gave her an honorary doctorate, and the Odisha government its Upendra Bhanja Samman ^[2].