Quick Facts
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Pandit Raghunath Panigrahi (10 August 1932 – 25 August 2013) was an Indian classical singer and music director. A noted singer of the Gita Govinda. He also sang in the popular Telugu movies like Ilavelupu and Jayabheri. He left a promising career in film music in Chennai to provide vocal support to his wife, Sanjukta Panigrahi, a legendary Odissi performer and composer. He also sang for few Oriya and Kannada movies. He made a lifetime contribution of promoting, propagating and popularizing the life and works of Jayadeva and the cult of Lord Jagannatha.
Sanjukta-Raghunath played for many years from the 1970s until the 1990s.
After the death of Sanjukta in 1997, he was associated with the Nrityagram and gave music for many of their productions. He formed the 'Sanjukta Panigrahi Memorial Trust', in 1999, to promote the cause of Odishi dance.Since 2001, every year on her birth anniversary, the trust has been giving away scholarships to budding dancers, and awards excellence in the field of Orissi dance.
Personal life
Raghunath Panigrahi was born on 10 August 1932 in Gunupur, Rayagada, Odisha. He met his future wife dancer Padma Shri Sanjukta Panigrahi at Kalakshetra dance school, subsequently they married in 1960 and had two sons. He died on 25 August 2013 in Bhubaneswar at the age of 82.
Awards
- Title of Sur Mani 1968
- He received an award from the government of France in the 1980s.
- Central Sangeet Natak Akademi Award,1976
- State Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, 1993
- Padma Shri, 2010
- Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship
- Jayadeva Samman- 2008
- Lifetime Achievement award of Banichitra Awards, 2008
- Degree, Doctor of Literature, Ravenshaw University, Odisha, August 2013
- Degree, Doctor of Literature, Utkal University, Odisha, 2011
- Degree, Doctor of Literature, Berhampur University, Odisha, 2010