A retired professor and exponent of Gaudiya dance, Mahua believes that all classical dance forms are based on folk traditions.

Mahua Mukherjee is a retired professor and ex-Dean of the Fine Arts Faculty at Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.

Mahua completed her PhD in Genetics and became a Professor of Botany at Calcutta University. She is also working as an exponent of the Gaudiya dance form with a group called Gaudiya Nritya Bharati.

Recalling her childhood, Mahua says that she spent five years in Chhattisgarh and MP, and then went to Kolkata. She cherishes the memories that she spent with her maternal grandmother, as she always encouraged her to dance. She also got inspiration from the tribal and folk dances of Chhattisgarh and enjoyed them very much. Initially, in Kolkata, her father admitted her to a music school, but she wanted to learn dance. So she took part in the dance drama that was held annually. She has also been fond of reading books since childhood, including books based on dance forms. In her childhood, she liked to dance, play sports, and study.

Mahua shares that in her childhood she visited the Terracotta Temple in Bengal and saw the beauty of the sculptures there, which inspired her to do some research. Her work led to the resurrection of the Gaudiya dance form. She realized that she had to study sculptures, Bengali paintings, and literature. Slowly and gradually, she started working on it and, day by day, found new things. Then she started reading the Natya Sashtra and found that Gaudiya is a classical dance form of Bengal.

Sharing her achievements, Mahua says that she first performed at the Chidambaram Natyanjali Dance Festival with her sister, son, and husband. She also performed in many festivals and got a full backup fellowship from the USA as she taught Gaudiya dance at Oklahoma University in the US. She got a chance to visit Dhaka University through the ICCR to conduct lectures on Gaudiya dance there. In Bangladesh, Shilpakala Academy started giving certification courses on Gaudiya dance. She also feels blessed to have great students who got junior as well as senior fellowships, and they are at good levels in their careers.

Talking about her struggles, Mahua says that she faced many challenges in her journey as there was no support system behind her. She did everything on her own and achieved this level. Many people criticized the spread of the Gaudaiya dance form, but she didn’t give up and continued her journey. She wrote twenty books and 200 articles during her journey.

Mahua’s role model is Rabindranath Tagore, who had started the institute known as Visva Bharati. She also admires Chaitanya Dev, Swami Vivekananda, and Ramakrishna Paramahansa. She also got inspiration from Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

Mahua says that her mother, maternal uncle, and Sanjukta Panigrahi motivate her a lot in this field.

Advising aspirants in her field, Mahua says that practice is the most important thing to learn any dance form. There are no shortcuts in life, and it is important to search for the truth and have faith in your guru. It is also very important for the younger generation to gain detailed knowledge of the field.

Mahua advises everyone to love the universe, the whole world, and every living creature, and to do their work with honesty and dedication.