[4] Deba Prasad Das was born in 1932 in a Karana family[5] at a small village near Cuttack called Keul Chabi Sua, in the Indian state of Odisha to Indramani Devi and Durga Charan Das, a police officer.
[6][7] He lost his mother at an early age and was brought up by his grandfather who was a local violin player.
[6] He worked there for a monthly salary of approximately ₹ 3 plus food and assisted the performers in the green room.
[7] The next move was to Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, a school of dance music, where Das joined as a faculty member for Odissi in 1964.
[11][12] He had many disciples such as Indrani Rahman, Bijayalaxmi Mohanty, Oopali Operajita, Pushpa Mahanti, Srinath Raut, Sudhakar Sahoo, Durga Charan Ranbir, Dhuleswar Behera, Anita Singhdeo, Sangeeta Dash, Sujata Mishra, Ramli Ibrahim, Gajendra Panda, Manoj Behera, Gopa Biswhas, Gayatri Chand, Atashi Tripathy are among many others who have emerged as noted exponents of Odissi.