Rani Karnaa

Rani Karnaa lived in Kolkata, since shifting from Bhubaneshwar when her husband, Nayak, was transferred to Kolkata in 1978, attending to her duties as the director of Samskritiki Shreyaskar and was active until recently, her last public performance was in 2013, at the age of 74. She died on 7 May 2018, aged 79.

Rani Karnaa was an Indian classical dancer, known for her proficiency in the Indian dance form of Kathak, and regarded by many as one of the greatest exponents of the art form. She was honoured by the Government of India, in 2014, by bestowing on her the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for her services to the field of dance.

Rani Karnaa was honoured by the Government of India by awarding her the Padma Shri, in 2014, in recognition of her efforts to the cause of Kathak dance. She has also received many other awards and honours such as:

The academy, apart from the courses it offers, conducts workshops and live demonstrations. It has associations with Rabindra Bharati University and Nehru Children's Museum, New Delhi, for conducting regular workshops. It also has a subsidiary centre in Odisha, started in 2005.

She established a dance academy, Samskritiki Shreyaskar, 1995, and also guides the Sangeet and Nritya Sikshan Bharati, a division of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kolkata. She is also the founder and the first director of Calcutta School of Music and worked there from 1978 till 1993. She established the dance division of Aurobindo Bhavan, Kolkata, by name, Ahana and headed the department from 1980 to 1987.

Samskritiki Shreyaskar is a dance academy founded in 1995, by Rani Karnaa, with the aim to propagate the dance form of Kathak and to develop the performing arts in general. The academy stands along Jodhpur Park, Kolkata and offers various courses in various dance forms. The academy and its students have participated in various cultural festivals across India such as:

Rani Karnaa shifted her residence to Bhubaneshwar when she got married into an Odia family in 1963 and this gave her an opportunity to meet Kumkum Mohanty, the famous Odissi dancer. Through her, Rani Karnaa got in touch with the renowned guru, Kelucharan Mahapatra and learnt Odissi from the master from 1966 to 1985. She has also trained under various other famous gurus such as Amubi Singh, Narendra Kumar and Lalita Shastri, a disciple of the renowned Rukmini Devi Arundale.

Rani Karnaa was born in 1939, in a sindhi family of amirs in Hyderabad, in the present day Pakistan and erstwhile British India. Her father, Assandas Karnaa belonged originally to the Karnamalani family of Larkana region. The family name of Karnamalani, over a period of time, got abbreviated to Karanani and eventually to Karnaa. In 1942, her family moved to Delhi when the young Rani was three years old. She had her early schooling in Delhi and graduated in Botany from the Hindu College, Delhi. She also did Honours degree in Botany later but forsook academics to concentrate on her dance career.