[1][2] 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.

[citation needed] Rani Karnaa was born in 1939, in a sindhi family of amirs[4] in Hyderabad,[5][6] in the present day Pakistan and erstwhile British India.

[2] Rani Karnaa shifted her residence to Bhubaneshwar when she got married into an Odia family in 1963[1][10] and this gave her an opportunity to meet Kumkum Mohanty, the famous Odissi dancer.

[2][4][5] 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.

[12] Apart from contributing to the propagation of Kathak through her performances, Rani Karnaa is credited with integrating the traditions of Jaipur and Lucknow gharanas.

[13] She established a dance academy, Samskritiki Shreyaskar,[4] 1995, and also guides the Sangeet and Nritya Sikshan Bharati, a division of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kolkata.