BHUBANESWAR : A distinguished bureaucrat, scholar and a leading cultural voice of Odisha, Subas Pani, who passed away here on Monday, embodied a rare fusion of administrative acumen and deep cultural vision. He was 76.
Pani was silently battling cancer for the last few years. A former chief secretary of Odisha, he was a much-respected voice on the state’s culture and an authority on Jayadev’s Geeta Govinda and Jagannath Culture.
Born on February 17, 1949 at Jeypore, Pani was an ardent devotee of Lord Jagannath. Deeply grounded in empirical research of different aspects of Jagannath Culture and Geeta Govinda from an early age, he had pursued a PhD in Jayadev’s Geeta Govinda.
While Pani authored many books on Jagannath Culture and Odisha’s heritage, two of his most important works in Odia language were ‘Sampoorna Geeta Govinda’ and ‘Daru Brahma’. In fact, ‘Sampoorna Geeta Govinda’ continues to be one of the most comprehensive introductions to Jayadev’s classic, and provides word by word meanings and translations of all ashtapadis and shlokas in the time.
Some of his other publications are ‘Her Monuments and Their Tales’, ‘Palm Leaf Paintings of Orissa: A Selection from the Orissa State Museum’, ‘Ratha Yatra’, ‘Blue Hill: Hymns to Jagannatha’ (English verse translations from Sanskrit and Odia), ‘Jagannatha Consciousness’, among others. He was also the editor of the volume ‘Glimpses of History and Culture of Balasore’.
Books on Geeta Govinda were not all. Pani had also come out with a namesake music project - ‘Sampoorna Geeta Govinda’ - which is a set of five audio CDs entirely composed by him and was released by Saregama in 2008. It is a musical interpretation of Jayadev’s Geeta Govinda, presented through 14 songs of the classic, and is currently available on platforms like Gaana and Spotify. Interestingly, Pani was never a trained musician.
He also curated many festivals that went on to become an integral part of the state’s and country’s cultural calendar, be it the Mukteswar dance festival in Bhubaneswar, the Srikshetra Utsav at Puri, Nritya Bharati at Puducherry, or the Ashtapadi Festival of Dance at Delhi. He collaborated with many dancers in the creation of new choreographies on Geeta Govinda. For close to two decades (1994 to 2021), Rath Yatra in Puri was incomplete without his commentary on Doordarshan.
Pani pursued all this while fulfilling his responsibilities as a top bureaucrat. A man of many talents, he was the former chief secretary of Odisha government; deputy election commissioner, Election Commission of India (ECI); besides holding several other high-profile positions at both the state and central government level. In fact, he was instrumental in digitisation of voters’ list and voter ID card during his stint at the ECI. He conducted three national elections at short intervals in 1996, 1998 and 1999.
Prior to joining the Indian Civil Service in 1972, Pani was an English professor at Utkal University from 1969. One of his notable achievements was setting up the Bhubaneswar Software Technology Park, which went on to contribute to the growth of the IT industry in the state.
“He was also behind bringing Mindtree and Infosys to Odisha and the commercial success of Konark TV. He was a strict administrator and much ahead of his time, someone who had a stronghold over information and technology but at the same time, dedicated his life for the state’s culture,” said Sanhati Pani, his daughter.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi expressed his condolences. “I am deeply saddened to hear about the demise of Subas Pani, the former chief secretary of the Odisha government, a distinguished researcher of Jagannath culture, and a writer. His passing is an irreparable loss for all of us. I express my condolences to the bereaved family and pray to Lord Jagannath for the peace of the departed soul. Om Shanti,” the CM said in a statement.
Pani’s mortal remains were consigned to flames in the city.
