It is completely handmade by using natural

clay. It is too hard to craft such miniature sculpture of

a odissi dancing woman. This beautiful sculpture is
being used in temples, also can be used as a home
décor item.
Odissi is a major ancient Indian classical dance
that originated in the temple of Odisha.
Odissi is a form of dance from the state of
Odisha in eastern India. It is recognized as one of the
eight classical dance forms of India and celebrated
around the world for its lyricism, sensuality and
emphasis on bhakti bhava (attitude of devotion and
surrender).

Odissi gained visibility in India an

internationally from the 1950s onwards when it
began to be presented on theatre stages. Odissi as a
‘classical’ dance form from the mid-twentieth
century onwards.
Odissi was performed predominantly by women
& expressed religious stories & spiritual ideas,
particularly of vaishnavism through songs written
and composed according to the ragas & talas of odissi
music by ancient poets of the state.
 Odissi performances have also expressed ideas
of other traditions such as those related to Hindu
Gods Shiva and Surya , as well as Hindu
Goddesses(shaktism).
The origins of this dance can be tracked back to
the 2nd century B.C. carvings of the Rani Gumpa
caves in Udaygiri, Odisha. The Natya Sastra refers to
this dance as Odar Magadha. It is considered to be
one of the oldest dance in the world. Odissi draws
heavily from the Gotipua and the Maharis dance
tradition.
The dancing girls or Maharis dedicated their lives
to the worship of lord Jagannath.
The foundation of Odissi are found in Natya
Sastra , the ancient Hindu Sanskrit text of
performance arts. The basic dance units described in
Natyasastra, all 108 of them are idential to those in
Odissi. Natya Sastra is attributed to the ancient
scholar Bharata Muni , and its first complete
compilation is dated to between 200BCE and
200BE , but estimates vary between 500BCE and
500CE.
 Priyambada Mohanty and Dhirendranath Patnaik’s
dance performance in Delhi for the Inter-University
youth festival in 1954 is generally acknowledged as
the first time that people outside Odisha noticed the
evolving form of Odissi.

These crafts created for various utilitarian

purposes .