Tripti Joshi (Editor)

Devdutt Pattanaik

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Nationality
  
Indian

Website
  
www.Devdutt.com


Name
  
Devdutt Pattanaik

Role
  
Physician

Devdutt Pattanaik Dr Devdutt Pattanaik Think Link

Born
  
11 December 1970 (age 53) (
1970-12-11
)
Mumbai, India

Occupation
  
mythologist, writer, columnist

Known for
  
Myth = Mithya, Business Sutra, The Pregnant King, Jaya: An illustrated retelling of the Mahabharata

Education
  
Grant Medical College and Sir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Group of Hospitals, University of Mumbai

Books
  
Jaya, Myth = Mithya, Seven secrets of Shiva, The Pregnant King, Seven secrets of Vishnu

Indian approach to management devdutt pattanaik


Devdutt Pattanaik (Odia:ଦେବଦତ୍ତ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ) is an Indian writer known for his work on myth. He has incorporated myth into human resource management. His books include Myth = Mithya: A Handbook of Hindu Mythology; Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata; Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana; Business Sutra: An Indian Approach to Management; Shikhandi: And Other Tales they Don't Tell You; Shiva to Shankara : Giving Form to the Formless, in which he explores the layers of meanings embedded in Shiva’s linga, we discover why and how the Goddess transforms Shiva, the hermit, into Shankara, the householder; Leader : 50 Insights from Mythology uses myths and legends to arrive at wisdom that is both time-worn and refreshingly new, on what makes a good leader; and Culture : 50 Insights from Mythology a groundbreaking work that contextualizes mythology and proposes that myths are alive, dynamic, shaped by perception and the times one lives in.

Contents

Devdutt Pattanaik Man of his Words Devdutt the Mythologist Twenty19 Blog

He is the former Chief Belief Officer of Future Group, one of India's largest retailers. He writes columns for mid-day, Times of India, Swarajya, Daily O and Scroll.in.

Devdutt Pattanaik Bio Devdutt

Patients and doctors in indian mythology what we can learn from them by dr devdutt pattanaik


Early life and education

Devdutt Pattanaik Interview with Dr Devdutt Pattanaik Of Books and Reading

Pattanaik is an Odia, born and brought up in Mumbai, he spent his childhood and student life in Chembur, Mumbai. He graduated in medicine (M.B.B.S.) from Grant Medical College, Mumbai and subsequently did a course in Comparative Mythology from Mumbai University.

Career

Devdutt Pattanaik devdutt380gif

He worked in the pharma and healthcare industry (Sanofi Aventis and Apollo Group of Hospitals, respectively) for 14 years and spent his spare time writing articles and books on mythology, which eventually became his full-time passion. He has also worked as a consultant at Ernst and Young. His first book Shiva: An Introduction was published in 1997. Devdutt illustrates most of his own books.

He was a speaker at the first TED conference in India held in November 2009.

He is also a story consultant to Indian television network Star TV, where HaraHara Mahadeva is based on his work and Epic channel, where he presents Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik. He also serves at the Culture Consultant to Reliance Industries Ltd.

Devdutt has consulted Star TV network on mythological tele-serials like ''Mahabharata and Siya ke Ram; these serials have challenged conventional views of the narratives and opened up new avenues of interpretation.

Myth and Mythology

He believes that “no society can exist without myth as it creates notions of right and wrong, good and bad, heaven and hell, rights and duties”. To him, mythology "tells a people how they should see the world... Different people will have their own mythology, reframing old ones or creating new ones."

Business

Devdutt believes that leadership is about paying attention to the other, and enabling people not to mimic or pretend, but to be genuine/authentic about their fears. If a leader cannot sense fear in people around him, if a leader feels good when people around him are frightened into pretending, there is a problem. Power flows towards the leader or, rather, boss rather than towards the organization.

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.”

Fiction

Devdutt distinguishes between mythological fiction and mythology. He notes that mythological fiction is very popular as it is fantasy rooted in familiar traditional tales. Mythology itself is about figuring out world views of cultures, essentially how people think in a particular cultural ethos. “Most writers I know focus on mythological fiction. Study of mythology still remains rather academic,” Pattanaik told IANS in an interview.

Reception

In 2014, Pattanaik was listed in the top category of bestselling Indian authors. His book Devlok, based on the television programme of the same name, was one of the bestselling books of the year 2016.

Praise

Fiction author Ashwin Sanghi has said that Pattanaik attempts to "explain mythology in simple words". Psychologist Urmi Chanda-Vaz, who calls Pattanaik "India's most beloved mythology explicator", praised his book 'My Gita' as "a book of many firsts" and said that in this book Pattanaik made a transition from mythology to philosophy with deftness and skill. Intellectual Shiv Visvanathan has praised Pattanaik by saying that he has made myth-reading "an open, playful, almost domestic game, like Chinese Checkers or Scrabble". One can assert that in Pattanaik Indian civilisation has found an articulator of the calibre of Will Durant.

Criticism

Investment banker and Sanskrit scholar Nityanand Misra has criticized Pattanaik's 'My Gita' as a "marvel of scholarly ineptitude and a travesty of Hindu philosophy", saying that the book is a sloppy work replete with factual, conceptual, philosophical, and linguistic errors. Saying that Pattanaik lacks even basic knowledge of Sanskrit, Misra has questioned Pattanaik's ability to understand Sanskrit and translate from it.

References

Devdutt Pattanaik Wikipedia