Basanta Kumari Samanta: Odisha's Pioneer Woman Artist Who Blended Poetry With Painting

A profile by Akshaya Kumar Sahoo published in Deccan Chronicle on 20 May 2026, tracing Basanta Kumari Samanta's life from her birth in 1943 in the erstwhile princely estate of Khallikote to Pournamasi Devi and Chandra Sekhar Das Badajena. Inspired by the eminent woman artist Sharada Debi, she became the first female student at the art school established in Khallikote Garh in 1957, supported throughout by her husband Durga Prasad Rout. The piece dwells on what set her apart — a rare ability to fuse painting and poetry, having written more than ten thousand poems alongside oil canvases exploring love, betrayal, sorrow and the emotional world of women — and on her continuing practice across oil, watercolour, acrylic wash, textile design, sculpture and ceramics well into her eighties. It closes by describing her as representative of a generation of women who challenged social barriers through creativity and courage.