A Kathak legend who liberated the dance form from its traditional darbar roots

In the quiet precision of her footwork, and the thunderous defiance of tradition she carried in every performance, Kumudini Lakhia—often hailed as India's own Martha Graham—rewrote the language of Kathak.

- Yogesh Pawar

MUMBAI: Her passing, early on Saturday morning in Ahmedabad, at the age of 95, marks more than the end of a luminous life steeped in dance. It is a voice that has fallen silent, one that taught an ancient form to speak anew—with spirit, soul, and startling modernity.

With every twirl and glance, she transformed Kathak into a mirror of the contemporary world—bold, expressive and unapologetically individualistic. A trailblazer, mentor and visionary, Lakhia's legacy pirouettes far beyond the proscenium—etched into the spirit of generations of dancers she nurtured at Ahmedabad's Kadamb Centre for Dance.

Born in 1930, Kumudini Lakhia entered the world at a time when women in the performing arts were bound by unspoken rules and visible walls. But she was destined to move differently. Krishna Mohan Maharaj, son of the Kathak legend Pt Shambhu Maharaj of the esteemed Kalka Bindadin gharana, recalls: "Though her early training under my father and Sunder Prasad grounded her in tradition, even then there was a quiet rebellion in her rhythm—a longing to push boundaries not out of defiance, but in pursuit of a deeper meaning."

He fondly remembers touring abroad with her in 1992. "Nothing we did could be without reason. 'What parampara? Tell me why it was created,'—that was always her refrain."