Devdutt Pattanaik

Devdutt Pattanaik was born and raised in Mumbai. His mother is Sabitri Pattanaik & father is Prafulla Kumar Pattanaik. He spent his childhood and student life in Chembur, Mumbai.^[4]

He went to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour High School in Chembur, and graduated in medicine (M.B.B.S.) from Grant Medical College, Mumbai, he subsequently obtained a diploma in Comparative Mythology from Mumbai University.^[5][6]

Devdutt worked in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry (Sanofi Aventis and Apollo Group of Hospitals,^[7] respectively) for 14 years and spent his spare time writing articles^[8][9] and books on mythology,^[10][11] which eventually became his full-time profession. His first book Shiva: An Introduction was published in 1997.^[12] Devdutt illustrates his own books.^[13]

He was a speaker at the first TED conference in India held in November 2009.^[14][15]

Devdutt has consulted Star TV network on mythological television series like Mahabharata, Siya Ke Ram and Vighnaharta Sri Ganesha; these serials have challenged conventional views of the narratives and opened up new avenues of interpretation. In the latter serial he added the narrative of Lord Jagannatha & Puri since he is an Oriya.^[16][17][18]

He has also been the story consultant at Indian television network Star TV, where Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev is based on his work.^{[19][20][21][22]}

In 2015, Devdutt presented the Hindi television series Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik on the "EPIC ON" channel. In the show, he attempts to demystify and decode the folklore and traditions that accompanies Indian mythology. In December 2016, he made "his debut on the Forbes India Celeb 100 list, on the 93rd spot."^[23]

Devdutt worked on Audible Originals (India)'s audiobook titled Suno Mahabharat Devdutt Pattanaik ke Saath and Revisiting Mahabharata with Devdutt Pattanaik.^[24][25] In his show he talks about the details of the war in the Mahabharata, how it affected the world, and what happened to India after the death of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. He also communicates the Vedic tenets which describes karma and dharma.^[25]

Columnist Koral Dasgupta mentions, "Pattanaik’s art follows a particular style and is dependent on expertly sketched lines but the focus is never the perfection of hands and limbs and props. The pursuit is clearly that of beauty and depiction; not the grammatical detailing of a photograph!"^[26]

Devdutt opines that "no society can exist without myth as it creates notions of right and wrong, good and bad, heaven and hell, rights and duties".^[27] To him, mythology "tells people how they should see the world... Different people will have their own mythology, reframing old ones or creating new ones."^[28] His desire is "to get Saraswati out of the closet. Saraswati belongs everywhere, she has to flow everywhere" and his body of work is aimed "to make knowledge accessible."^[29]

In Shiva to Shankara: Giving Form to the Formless,^[30] Devdutt explores the layers of meanings embedded in Shiva's linga and the transformation of Shiva, the hermit, into Shankara, the householder by the Goddess. Culture: 50 Insights from Mythology contextualises mythology and proposes that myths are alive, dynamic, shaped by perception and the times one lives in.^[31]

Western mythology, according to him, propagates the idea that the world is in need of changing, either by Greek heroes, or by Abrahamic prophets and kings, or by scientists, activists and capitalists. "Indic mythology presents the idea that the world is constantly changing, human intervention notwithstanding. There are no heroes or villains, no oppressor or oppressed, no saviour or martyr, just different ways of looking at reality...I do not claim objectivity; I am comfortable with subjectivity and well aware of my Indian gaze," he says.^[32]

In his book, Business Sutra: An Indian Approach to Management, "the central theme … is that when individual beliefs come into conflict with corporate beliefs, problems surface in organisations. Conversely, when institutional beliefs and individual beliefs are congruent, harmony is the resultant corporate climate. It is when people are seen as mere resources meant to be managed [read: manipulated] through compensation and so-called motivation; it is when they are treated like switches in a circuit board; it is then that disharmony descends causing disruption".^[33]

Devdutt is wary of the influence of "white saviours" on liberals as well as religious radicals. He has been rather contemptuous of the hyper-nationalism of a section of American Hindus who are clueless about Indian realities.^[34][35] He also frowns on secularists and atheists who deny their own missionary zeal and mythic structure, and see themselves as "rational".^[36] Devdutt says, "Unlike fiction or history, mythology is a pluralistic truth with many interpretations, all of which needs to be respected."^[32] He further states, “For politicians, dates are important. For human beings and devotees, God is everywhere, every time.”^[37]

Devdutt has been frank about the LGBTQ revolution in India.^[38] Pattnaik realised that he was gay in 10th standard and came out to his parents when he was 30.^[39] After the 2018 decriminalization of homosexuality in India, Devdutt came out as gay in a televised interview.^[38][39][40] He has written about the presence, and at several instances, the celebration, of the queer within the Indian mythos. Elucidating that karmic faiths can be used to affirm the dignity of queer people, he speaks of how when one discovers love and appreciation for the world as it is, not the way one wants it to be, one develops wisdom.^[41]

In 2014, Devdutt was listed in the top category of bestselling Indian authors.^[42] His book Devlok, based on the television programme of the same name, was one of the year's bestsellers in 2016.^[43] Forbes India had ranked Devdutt among the 100 celebrities of India in 2016.^[44]

Fiction author Ashwin Sanghi has said that Devdutt attempts to "explain mythology in simple words".^[45] Psychologist Urmi Chanda-Vaz, who calls Devdutt "India's most beloved mythology explicator", praised his book My Gita.^[46][47] Academic Shiv Visvanathan has praised Devdutt by saying that he has made myth-reading "an open, playful, almost domestic game, like Chinese Checkers or Scrabble".^[48]

Neil Gaiman praised Devdutt Pattanaik for his 2016 book Olympus: An Indian Retelling of the Greek Myth. "I read a fantastic Indian writer recently where he told Greek myth but from an Indian perspective... He makes it so easy to understand but what is lovely is that he does from a very proud Indian connect."^[49]