Devdutt Pattanaik is a mythologist and writer from Orissa, India whose parents had migrated to Mumbai before his birth.

He has authored and illustrated over 50 books, including ABC Of Hinduism,[1] Bahubali : 63 insights into Jainism,[2] and Yoga Mythology: 64 Asanas and Their Stories.

[12] Pattanaik worked in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry (Sanofi Aventis and Apollo Group of Hospitals,[13] respectively) for 14 years and spent his spare time writing articles[14][15] and books on mythology,[16][17] which eventually became his full-time profession.

[20][21] Pattanaik has consulted Star TV network on mythological television series like Mahabharata, Siya Ke Ram and Vighnaharta Sri Ganesha; these serials have challenged conventional views of the narratives and opened up new avenues of interpretation.

[22][23][24] He has also been the story consultant at Indian television network Star TV, where Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev is based on his work.

[30][31] In his show he talks about the details of the war in the Mahabharata, how it affected the world, and what happened to India after the death of the Pandavas and the Kauravas.

[31] Columnist Koral Dasgupta mentions, "Pattanaik’s art follows a particular style and is dependent on expertly sketched lines but the focus is never the perfection of hands and limbs and props.

[37] Western mythology, according to him, propagates the idea that the world is in need of changing, either by Greek heroes, or by Abrahamic prophets and kings, or by scientists, activists and capitalists.

There are no heroes or villains, no oppressor or oppressed, no saviour or martyr, just different ways of looking at reality...I do not claim objectivity; I am comfortable with subjectivity and well aware of my Indian gaze," he says.

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".

[51] Psychologist Urmi Chanda-Vaz, who calls Pattanaik "India's most beloved mythology explicator", praised his book My Gita.

[52][53] Academic Shiv Visvanathan has praised Pattanaik by saying that he has made myth-reading "an open, playful, almost domestic game, like Chinese Checkers or Scrabble".

[54] Neil Gaiman praised Devdutt Pattanaik for his 2016 book Olympus: An Indian Retelling of the Greek Myth.