Biography of "Guru Gopinath"

Born: 24 June 1908, Kuttanad, Kuttanad Taluk
Died: 9 October 1987, Ernakulam


Guru Gopinath is an epic personality of Indian dancing in the twentieth century. He was born on June 24, 1908, at Champakkulam in Kerala.

Guru Gopinath started learning Kathakali at the age of thirteen. After rigorous training for over twelve years, he mastered himself in Kathakali. The most remarkable thing which he did was to make Kathakali more accessible to teachers, students, and audiences. He brought some changes in "Oriental dance', 'Kathakali Natanam' and later in 'Kerala Natanam' to make it more fascinating in today's world.

He is considered as a creative genius who projected the Indian style of dancing to the outer world as early as in the beginning of 1930s. He proved that Indian dancing is quite appropriate to spread the language of humanity to the modern world. For his contribution to the Indian dance, he was conferred D.Litt. degree by Rabindra Bharathi University in Kolkata in 1972.